BEIJING – Baidu’s electric vehicle (EV) firm Jidu Auto will be a generation ahead of Tesla in autonomous driving technologies, Baidu chief executive Robin Li said in a statement on Monday.
“Our understanding of smart vehicles is that being electric is the semi-final while being intelligent is the last,” Li added.
Jidu aims to deliver 800,000 of its “robot” cars by 2028, Jidu chief executive Joe Xia Yiping said in the statement.
Jidu also plans to deliver its second mass-production model in 2024, Xia said.
Jidu unveiled its first ‘robot’ concept car in June, which has no door handles and can be controlled entirely via voice recognition, with plans to mass-produce the model by 2023.
In addition to equipping the car with autonomous driving software technology powered by Baidu, Jidu’s “robot” vehicles will have two lidars and 12 cameras. Lidars are detection systems, similar to radars, that use pulsed laser light instead of radio waves.
Tesla does not use lidar censorship.
Baidu’s plan to create electric cars comes as tech companies around the world race to develop smart cars after Tesla’s success commercializing electric vehicles.
Smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp and Didi Global are among other Chinese tech giants pursuing car manufacturing ambitions.