Billions of dollars are brought in each year through search advertising, cloud computing, and other online services, thanks to the dominance of the Chinese company, Baidu. It wants to shake up the car industry.
Jidu, an automotive company recently created by Baidu and the Chinese automakers, unveiled a prototype of its first vehicle, a futuristic-looking, largely self-sufficient car calledRobo-1. It will cost at least $30,000 and is expected to go on sale next year.
The Robo-1 has doors that swing upwards at the front and backwards at the back. There is a spare interior that has racing-style seats, a steering wheel yoke, and a display that covers the dash. A lidar that pops up from the hood of the vehicle is used to map the road in 3D. Jidu says the final model of theRobo-1 will be 90 percent the same as the one shown off in Beijing, but it doesn't specify what changes could be made.
It was courtesy of the internet.
The growing importance of software in vehicles gives Baidu an opportunity to stake a claim in a fiercely competitive, fast-changing industry.
It is hoped that an industry-wide shift to electric batteries and electric powertrains will take place. Jidu announced in January that it had received $400 million in series A funding from two Chinese companies. Polestar is a subsidiary of Volvo and has a successful track record of manufacturing electric cars.
The CEO of Jidu, who goes by Joe Xia, explained the rationale behind the leap in an interview with WIRED. The computing power of the car is way smaller than that of the phone, but things are changing.
A veteran of the car industry, Xia co-founding Mobike, a Chinese bike-sharing company acquired by the food- delivery firm. He remembers teaching himself to drive when he was a graduate student in the UK, by watching videos on the internet.
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