AI Tour Bus

A fleet of sightseeing buses equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) technology devices started trial operation in Shanghai on December 19.

Co-developed by Chinese search engine giant Baidu and a Shanghai-based tourism company, the double-deck tour bus aims to make travel more convenient for tourists through AI technology.

Tourists can get on the bus directly through facial recognition. The wireless translators on the bus provide translation services and audio guides and answer questions.

The translator supports multiple languages including English, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic.

The two tour routes cover the most famous and classic travel destinations in Shanghai.

The buses will start official operation from January 2019. A fleet of 10 tour buses will be initially put into use with another 10 buses later.

Baidu and Shanghai inked a strategic cooperative agreement in November to promote the construction of Shanghai as a smart city.

The guideline was released on December 17 after a bus with 15 people on board plunged off a bridge into the Yangtze River in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality in October. The mishap resulted from a quarrel between the driver and a passenger.

The commission has asked government departments and local governments to learn from the accident and take more measures to prevent similar incidents.