News just got in that two big Chinese companies have come together this January to start building intelligent electric vehicles for the global market.
Baidu Inc, a leading Internet platform and AI company announced its plan to produce intelligent electric vehicles (EV), and that it has entered into a strategic partnership with multinational auto manufacturer Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely).
Geely itself is already building high technology electric vehicles under its sub-brand Lynk & Co and also its Volvo-owned subsidiary Polestar.
In November 2018, Baidu reached an agreement with Volvo Cars to jointly develop and make electric and fully autonomous drive-compatible cars for China which was, at the time, the largest car market in the world.
Earlier in the same year, Baidu was talking to Daimler about developing an autonomic driving platform.
Baidu will provide intelligent driving capabilities to power the passenger vehicles for the new venture, while Geely, which holds the distinction of the best-selling Chinese automobile brand in past years under the Volvo and Geely brands, will contribute its expertise in automobile design and manufacturing.
“At Baidu, we have long believed in the future of intelligent driving and have over the past decade invested heavily in AI to build a portfolio of world-class self-driving services.
“China has become the world’s largest market for EVs, and we are seeing EV consumers demanding next-generation vehicles to be more intelligent,” said Robin Li, the co-founder and CEO of Baidu.
Li also added that, as a top Chinese automaker with global reach, Geely has the unique experience and resources to design, produce and market energy-efficient, reliable and safe automobiles on a large scale.
“We believe that by combining Baidu’s expertise in smart transportation, connected vehicles and autonomous driving with Geely’s expertise as a leading automobile and EV manufacturer, the new partnership will pave the way for future passenger vehicles.”
As Baidu Inc is a leading search engine, information-centered Internet platform and AI company, their collaboration with Geely is similar to what Google did back in 2009 when they announced their intention to build a self-driving car.
By 2016, Google had their self-driving car project ‘Waymo’ on the road and with Americans taking free rides.
Waymo had approximately 600 vehicles as part of its fleet. More than 300 vehicles were operating in an approximately 100 square mile service area that included the small towns of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Tempe.
This is despite the fact that its fully driverless cars are restricted to an area that is only half that size.
The same year Uber, Tesla, Ford, General Motors and even Baidu announced their intention to sell self-driving cars.
Between January and December 2019, Waymo’s vehicles with trained safety drivers drove 6.1 million miles. In addition, from January 2019 through September 2020, its fully driverless vehicles drove 65,000 miles.
Taken together, the company says this represents “over 500 years of driving for the average licensed US driver,” citing a 2017 survey of travel trends by the Federal Highway Administration.
By 2020 Waymo announced that after 1.6 miles of tests around the country, its self-driving car was involved in 18 crashes and 29 near-miss collisions in 2019, although Waymo hasn’t disclosed how many of its vehicles operated without safety drivers.
This article is powered by DS&F. For more automotive updates, follow DS&F on Facebook and Instagram.