BAIC Group and Baidu signed a strategic cooperation agreement on automobile intellectualization in Beijing Automobile Industry Research & Development Base on October 13, 2017. Leaders of both sides attended the signing ceremony, including Xu Heyi, BAIC Group Chairman, Zhang Xiyong, BAIC Group General Manager, Li Yanhong, Baidu Chairman and CEO, Liang Zhixiang, Baidu Vice President, and Li Zhengyu, Director of Baidu Autonomous Driving Business Unit.

Both sides announced that in the aspect of autonomous driving, based on Baidu’s Apollo open platform and BAIC’s vehicle platform, in virtue of Baidu’s artificial intelligence core technology, they will achieve the volume production of L3 autonomous vehicle in 2019 and L4 autonomous vehicle in 2021. Meanwhile, in terms of car networking, Baidu Apollo will deeply integrate its technologies like DuerOS, vehicle information security and image recognition with BAIC’s vehicle-mounted system to jointly create one-stop car networking products. It is estimated that by the end of 2018, BAIC’s self-owned brands will be fully equipped with Baidu Apollo car networking products. By 2019, BAIC vehicles with Baidu car networking products will outnumber one million. In addition, both sides discussed the cooperation of cloud services, building a brand-new cloud ecosystem to explore big data value-added services such as smart traffic and mobile travel.

Powerful Combination to Upgrade Cooperation

The strategic cooperation is a further upgrading of their partnership. In January 2017, BAIC Motor and Baidu Intelligent Vehicle jointly announced at CES 2017 in Las Vegas that both sides have reached an all-round strategic cooperation to focus on automobile intelligent upgrading. The cooperation will upgrade the level to a new strategic height, marking the two sides have entered into a substantial stage of cooperation.

As one of China's top five automobile enterprise groups, BAIC has established a comprehensive industrial system with ten business sectors such as self-owned brands, joint venture and cooperation, electric vehicle, automotive parts, as well as trade. Focusing on scientific and technological development, BAIC has constantly propelled automobile upgrading of electrification, intellectualization, light weight and networking connection.

As the world's leading artificial intelligence technology company, Baidu owns leading autonomous driving technology, big data collection and analysis applications, and powerful deep learning and artificial intelligence development technology. This July, Baidu officially launched its Apollo open platform, the first system-level opening of autonomous driving technology worldwide. Within three months, the fast and efficient platform has gained extensive responses from developers and partners around the world. So far, more than 50 volume production solutions, product researches and cooperation intentions have been signed, with more than 70 partners.

By complementing each other's advantages, the two sides will jointly establish a virtuous circle of continuous innovation, jointly promote the technological innovation of autonomous driving and promote the intelligent upgrade of automobiles.

Deepen Expansion to Create an Intelligent Pattern

To achieve automobile intelligence and network connection is BAIC’s direction of constant innovation and exploration. BAIC has established the NOVA-PLS intelligent vehicle development strategy, with the goal of reaching the leading position of comprehensive intelligent strategic system integrating NOVA-Pilot, NOVA-Link and NOVA-Space. At present, BAIC’s products have widely equipped with intelligent and car networking technologies.

Under the support of Baidu’s Apollo, BAIC will fully deepen its development level of automobile intelligence and network connection. The open, integral and safe Apollo platform will support partners in automobile industry and autonomous driving to combine vehicle and hardware to rapidly build their own autonomous driving system. As one of the first batch of major partners of Apollo, BAIC is also the first automobile enterprise to reach comprehensive and deep cooperation with Apollo in terms of automatic driving, intelligent connection, cloud services, cloud automobile information security, automatic driving test and operation. BAIC will help the application of Apollo platform in automobile industry.

According to the plan, the involved technologies and solutions, namely automatic driving, intelligent connection, cloud services, cloud automobile information security, automatic driving test and operation, will be gradually applied to all types of BAIC’s passenger cars, commercial vehicles and new energy vehicles, forming a new pattern of intelligent development.