source from：Financial Times
Baidu forges alliances with German auto suppliers

Partnerships aimed at furthering tech company’s self-driving car ambitions

Fitch puts Baidu on negative watch over shadow banking

Baidu is stepping up efforts in driverless car technology

Email0 Save
YESTERDAY by: Emily Feng in Beijing, Patrick McGee in Frankfurt
Chinese internet giant Baidu has finalised its first partnerships with overseas companies on self-driving car systems, as it intensifies its efforts in one of the hottest areas of technology development.

On Thursday Baidu announced a collaboration on driverless vehicle technology with Bosch, a leading automobile component maker, having on Wednesday outlined a similar alliance with Continental, another major car parts manufacturer.

The focus on self-driving vehicles is pitting Baidu against other leading internet companies, including Alphabet, as well as established carmakers such as Ford and General Motors.

Baidu’s announcements with Bosch and Continental came as Chinese premier Li Keqiang visited Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and other EU leaders.

China is the world’s largest car market, and Baidu said that under its agreements with the two German companies it “will explore and practice business models, accelerate the commercialisation of certain technologies, and provide comprehensive and reliable system solutions to smart transportation with automated driving at the core”.

Baidu already has partnerships with Chinese carmakers BYD, Chery and BAIC, which provide the vehicles Baidu uses to test its technology at a site in the ancient Chinese river town of Wuzhen.

The new partnerships with Bosch and Continental suggest Baidu’s work is advancing, by identifying hardware suppliers to complement its strengths in software.

At April’s Shanghai car show, Baidu unveiled its Apollo platform for self-driving cars, which it described as an “open, complete and reliable software platform for its partners in the automotive and autonomous driving industry”.

If successful, Apollo would allow Baidu to become the auto equivalent of Google’s Android software for smartphones.

Dirk Hoheisel, a member of Bosch’s management board with responsibility for automotive systems integration, said the company was pleased to co-operate with Baidu.

“Combining the know-how of a high-tech internet corporation with our expertise as the world’s biggest automotive supplier, the alliance will promote the development of smart mobility in China,” he added.

Elmar Degenhart, Continental’s chief executive, said the company’s collaboration with Baidu would “take intelligent mobility an important step further”.

Baidu and Continental will explore collaboration on sensor systems and software for partially and fully self-driving cars, including applications for the Apollo platform.

But Baidu is somewhat late in securing partnerships with car component suppliers.

For example, Google has alliances with Bosch and Continental, as well as Delphi, the US car component maker.

Baidu has invested heavily in early-stage artificial intelligence projects, but it has experienced some setbacks in its pursuit of self-driving car technology.

In March, Andrew Ng, Baidu’s chief scientist and a leading AI expert, left the company.

Last November, Baidu and BMW abruptly ended a driverless car partnership for reasons neither company has explained.

“In terms of self-driving cars, Baidu has hit a number of challenges and is realising that it needs to partner or connect with many more established global players in the auto industry and self-driving technology industry to really get past those challenges,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting.

However, Thomas Glendinning, analyst at BMI Research, said Baidu appeared to be in the process of pulling together a comprehensive self-driving car system.

“With autonomy, the real end game is to provide a sort of end-to-end product that a carmaker can really just take and drop it straight into a car without much tweaking,” he added.