China’s Baidu, Chery Automobile Launch AI-Equipped Electric Car

Baidu, China’s largest internet search services provider, has jointly launched its first production-model electric vehicle built with an AI operating system, with Chery Automobile.

The car which is a new version of the Exeed TX electric sports utility vehicle first sold by Chery in China last year will now come with Baidu’s DuerOS AI platform which supports payment via facial recognition, augmented reality navigation and remote home appliance controls.

The company claims that its DuerOS will provide a more customized user experience for the driver such as specific driver greetings, automatic adjustments to the seats and lightings in the car to help the tech giant attract younger consumers. The move also escalates efforts by domestic car manufacturers to embed more advanced technologies into their products to make them attractive and competitive against international players in China.

Read: VW Pairs With Microsoft for Its New Electric Car Series

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The Electric car-smart Exeed TX is expected to hit the domestic market next month.

Baidu, which started investing into AI technology more than 7 years ago now has a host of AI products such as the Apollo open source autonomous driving platform, the DuerOS AI assistant and the ABC-Stack hybrid cloud platform that helps businesses with their AI deployment.

As of end last year, Baidu says that its DuerOS has been installed in more than 200 million devices with voice-command functions.

Baidu’s collaboration with Chery comes as part of its move to diversify its business towards new high-growth segments as the Chinese economy slows down and revenue from its search advertising business declines.

Baidu has now invested into electric vehicle startups such as WM Motor Technology(US$446 million) and NIO, as well as ride-booking platform Shouqi. In January, Baidu also entered into a strategic partnership with California-based autonomous delivery start-up Udelv that will see self-driving vans powered by the Chinese company’s software offer delivery services to American retailers.

Picture credit-Chery Automobile