Baidu to Support BYD’s Smart Driving Business

STAR Market Daily learned on Friday that Shenzhen-based electric vehicle firm BYD has chosen Baidu as its official smart driving business supplier. Under this arrangement, Baidu will provide BYD with its Apollo Navigation Pilot (ANP), an autonomous driving assistance solution, and a human-machine co-driving map product. Baidu‘s Intelligent Driving Group has begun cooperation with BYD for technological development, and the mass production of joint models will reportedly be achieved soon.

Cooperation between BYD and Baidu can be traced back several years. In January, 2018, BYD announced that it would open its supply chain to car companies all over the world, and soon reached a supply cooperation relationship with Faurecia, Dongfeng Motor Group and Changan Automobile. The carmaker then opened its seats, power batteries, motors and electric controllers to all automakers. In March 2018, BYD opened its intelligent e-platform to global automobile developers.

At the BYD Global Developers Conference on September 5, 2018, BYD and Baidu disclosed the latest progress of their cooperation. In terms of navigation technology, the Baidu Maps Auto Edition was planned to cover all BYD models. In terms of autonomous driving, Baidu would provide a complete solution for BYD’s Level 3 intelligent driving, and both parties planned to realize mass production of autonomous driving vehicles within three years. The first batch of open versions of BYD Qin Pro had been booked by Baidu as Apollo test vehicles for demonstration road tests.

SEE ALSO: Baidu Brings Apollo Go Robotaxi Service to Downtown Shenzhen

Baidu has heavily invested in fields of smart driving and autonomous driving. Robin Li, founder, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, previously pointed out that autonomous driving supported by car-road coordination is a technical route that Baidu insists on and is optimistic about. According to the company, the accident rate of autonomous driving can be reduced by as much as 99% through intelligent vehicle-road coordination.

BYD is one of the largest new energy vehicle manufacturers in China. Data show that its cumulative sales volume of new energy vehicles in 2021 was 604,783, a year-on-year increase of 218.3%. Also in 2021, its cumulative production volume of new energy vehicles was 607,119, up 219.76% year-on-year.