Chinese Internet giant Baidu and U.S. graphics chip maker Nvidia have teamed up to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) platform for self-driving vehicles.
The China-based search engine company that is often compared to Google, made the announcement last week at its world conference event in Beijing. The firm hopes to use the technology to create its own taxi fleet. The two companies also plan to offer their AI system to automakers, who could employ it to add autonomous capabilities to their own automobiles.
Baidu and Nvidia’s future autonomous AI system will be open to other automakers Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of the Santa Clara, California-based tech company said that the two firms will collaborate to combine their individual technical capabilities to build a new autonomous architecture from scratch. While the primary purpose of the project is to introduce self-driving taxis in the mainland, the software applications would be numerous as the pair plans to make their technology open for other car companies to customize it for their own self-driving efforts.
According to Tech Crunch, Baidu and the U.S. chip maker will be creating an end-to-end solution, which is going to be available for branded vehicles OEM consumer automobile offerings, as well as other fleets of autonomous commercial cars. The platform will be fully open, which means the two firms are hopeful that automakers will come on board.
The announcement comes after Baidu received approval last week from regulators to begin testing its self-driving vehicles on California’s public roads, where Ford, Tesla, and Google, among others, are testing their self-driving automobiles. The Wall Street Journal notes that the Beijing-based Internet company is already testing autonomous vehicles in the mainland and has said it has plans to mass produce them within five years.
Baidu is set to collaborate with Nvidia Corporation on a comprehensive AI-driven self-driving car platform. Huang said that the collaboration will bring together artificial intelligence expertise, technical capabilities, and the skills of two world-class firms. The platform’s algorithm-based OS will include cloud-based, high-def maps and the capability to perceive and react to various road environments.
PC Magazine notes that Nvidia and Baidu have concrete plans to sell their self-driving AI system to China-based car makers. While the Alphabet subsidiary has been testing its own autonomous system on California roads and elsewhere for a couple of years, it has been a little slow in announcing its overall plans to market the tech.
The project will be based on the chip maker’s existing autonomous computing system, and will add automated parking, level 3 self-driving control, and mapping tech. Level 3 refers to vehicles that can drive themselves, but need a human driver to take over in certain situations.
Nvidia and Baidu’s collaboration will see both firms working together to develop an AI platform for self-driving vehicles. The partnership hopes to deliver a cloud-to-car architecture system that promises to get self-driving vehicles on the road in the next several years. The announcement also comes two weeks after China’s leading search engine revealed a joint $150 million investment with Ford in automotive supplier Velodyne.
By Anila Maring
https://cdanews.com
