Mao Zedong's Red Flag car goes handsfree, gets driverless makeover

Baidu said it will produce a limited number of fully automated level four Hongqi vehicles in 2019 for a pilot operation, before wider release in 2020

China’s iconic Red Flag, the vehicle of choice of former revolutionary leader, is going hands-free. Chinese tech giant Baidu said on Thursday it would launch a fully autonomous passenger car next year in a partnership with Hongqi, or Red Flag, the car brand long favoured by China’s political elite.
 
Hongqi, owned by carmaker China FAW Group Corp, is widely regarded as a symbol of China’s early communist revolutionary elite, including Mao and Deng Xiaoping, who rode the luxury sedan in the 1960s and 1970s.
 
Baidu said it will produce a limited number of fully automated level four Hongqi