Chinese search giant, Baidu, has announced its entrance into the electric car production race with the establishment of a smart car company, named Baidu Automobile Company. It has enlisted the services of Geely Auto Group, a leading automobile manufacturer based in Hangzhou, China as a strategic partner in the new company.
According to Baidu in its statement, the new company will concentrate on the passenger market, thus allowing users to purchase more extreme smart electric vehicles.
“Baidu Motors will focus on the entire industry chain of smart car design, R&D, manufacturing, sales and service, inherit Baidu’s powerful artificial intelligence and Internet technology genes, and use Apollo’s leading autonomous driving capabilities to play in the field of automotive intelligence for up to 8 years.”
“Baidu Automobile Company is independent of the parent company system and maintains independent operation; at the same time, Baidu fully empowers the automobile company with core technologies such as artificial intelligence, Apollo autonomous driving, Xiaodu car, Baidu map, and supports its rapid growth.”
There have been previous initiatives by the search giant in the automobile business. In 2017, it entered into a partnership with Shouqi to produce self-driving cars and in 2018, another partnership with Volvo to also produce self driving cars.
