Alongside Giri, Baidu’s electric vehicle venture, Jidu, unveiled its first concept car on June 8, 2022.
Baidu
Beijing — Chinese companies are competing for some of the world’s largest car markets, so they are betting heavily on assistive driving technology.
China sold nearly 21.5 million passenger cars last year. According to industry data accessed from the Wind database, this is roughly equivalent to combined sales in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Electric vehicles are gaining an increasing share in their Chinese market. TeslaLike start-ups Nio And a traditional car maker has entered. After initially competing for battery driving ranges and in-car online entertainment, companies are increasingly emphasizing assisted driving capabilities.
Chinese tech giant Baidu And car makers Giri We are among those who are rushing to bet to achieve assisted driving.
Only 15 months from the company Jidu Electric Vehicle Project Launched as part of the partnership, the brand unveiled a concept car on Wednesday that customers say 90% of what they’ll get for about $ 30,000 next year. The Tesla Model Y runs nearly $ 50,000 in China.
Evolution of “smart car”
“It’s a car, or even a robot,” said Joe Xia, CEO of Jidu, translated by CNBC at a livestreaming event in Mandarin. “We use concept cars to quickly prove early design and ideas.”
According to Xia, a four-seater vehicle called Robo-01 replaced the dashboard with a long screen that spreads out in front of the car and removed the cockpit button. This is because the driver can use voice control instead.
Theoretically, when fully autonomous driving is allowed on Chinese roads, the half-moon of the steering wheel will fold, paving the way for the window’s unobstructed cockpit seats. Two large external sensors for auxiliary driving can be stowed for aesthetics and emergency protection.
Xia argued that Jidu “can become the standard for self-driving cars.” However, the company refused to share what level of auxiliary driving software came with the car.
Consumers are considering two key elements of intelligent vehicles. First and foremost, autonomous driving is the most important.
Xuan Liu
DeepRoute.ai Vice President
Tesla, Nio, Xpeng, Provides some form of technically responsive driving assistance. In late May, WeRide, a Chinese automation starter, announced that it had received a strategic investment from German engineering firm Bosch. Produce supported driving software systems for mass production and delivery next year.
“I think the definition of smart car has evolved a lot,” Xuan Liu, vice president of autonomous driving software startup DeepRoute.ai, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
“Consumers are considering two key elements of intelligent vehicles,” he said. “First and foremost is autonomous driving. They are also interested in this so-called intelligent cabinet, so I think they want to interact with the vehicle system.”
Jidu plans to release a limited version of its first production model in the fall. Baidu CEO Robin Li said in a statement in late May that the target market price for family passenger cars has exceeded 200,000 yuan ($ 29,985) and will begin shipping next year.
Baidu owns a majority of Jidu, and search giants are using the Apollo self-driving system to deploy commercial robotaxis in parts of China. This is the same system used in the Jidu concept car (above), along with other Baidu technologies.
Baidu
Baidu owns a majority of Jidu, and search giants are using the Apollo self-driving system to deploy commercial robotaxis in parts of China. This is the same system used in the Jidu concept car, along with other Baidu technologies.
Co-investor Giri then had no official release on Jidu’s concept car We will increase capital support earlier this year.
Geely entered the electric vehicle industry with private cars and announced in November a multi-year plan to build software components for the car. Automakers said they are aiming to commercialize fully autonomous driving under certain conditions called “level 4” autonomous driving in classification systems by 2025.
Earlier this month, Geely announced that its subsidiary had launched the first nine of its 72 satellites to support mapping and autonomous driving.
Compete for customers
Sales of electric vehicles surged, but interest in Jidu’s first concept car seemed modest.
About 50,000 people watched one of the mainstream WeChat messaging apps on Wednesday night.
In contrast, At Nio’s annual car release event in December, there were about 200,000 views. Although the performance was also included. The event featured new sedans and custom augmented reality glasses that can push digital images into the physical world of reality.
For companies focusing on autonomous driving technology, they are looking at the market at least a year or two ahead.
For Chinese consumers, the main attraction of self-driving cars is getting help during their commute after a long day at work, Liu said. On the business side, lower software costs could accelerate adoption, he said.
DeepRoute.ai announced in April that it would reduce the price of autonomous driving software from $ 10,000 to $ 3,000 per vehicle. Liu said the company could lower prices by using cheaper sensors and better software, and prices would allow startups to work with automakers for mass production and deployment after 2024. Said he expected it to go down further.
Regulators have yet to allow fully self-driving cars on most roads in bulk, but companies such as DeepRoute.ai and Baidu are building data records through the operation of Robotaxi.
Liu said such data would help improve the algorithms of autonomous driving technology and build a track record to support potential changes in regulations.
