China's leading search engine company Baidu has announced plans to present its own version of the self-driving car in a bid to catch up with Google’s own driverless car.
Sina.com.cn reported that Robin Li, Baidu's chief executive officer, said on March 22, Sunday, that his company is ready to launch its first self-driving car within the year.
The company had said in July last year that it had been working on the development of self-driving technologies, spearheaded by one of its agencies, the Institute of Deep Learning (IDL).
The IDL has gathered many prominent scientists to work on artificial intelligence and machine learning, which produced innovative products such as the company's self-driving bicycle, Du Bike, and the Baidu Eye, the smart eyewear.
Yu Kai, head of the IDL, said in July that they will not call Baidu's self-driving car project as a driverless car since he believed a car should help people, not replace them. Instead, they have been developing a prototype that will serve like a smart assistant that can operate real-time traffic data while a driver takes control of the wheels.
Li said that the company is ready to partner with auto manufacturers for the said project, but he did not divulge the name of their prospect.
Tech Times reported in October last year that BMW is working on automated driving tests for Baidu. Baidu, however, said that BMW was involved mainly in providing services related to cloud storage systems and city maps.