BEIJING — Baidu’s electric vehicle unit, Jidu Auto, will be one-generation ahead of Tesla in terms of autonomous driving technologies, Baidu CEO Robin Li said in a statement on Monday.
“Our understanding of smart vehicles is that being electric is the semi-final while being intelligent is the final,” Li added.
Jidu aims to be to be able to deliver 800,000 of its “robot” cars in 2028, Jidu CEO Joe Xia Yiping said in the statement.
Jidu also plans to deliver its second model for mass production in 2024, Xia said.
Jidu revealed its first “robot” concept vehicle, which has no door handles and can be fully controlled via voice recognition, in June, with the plan to mass produce the model in 2023.
Besides equipping the vehicle with autonomous driving software technology powered by Baidu, Jidu’s “robot” vehicles will have two lidars and 12 cameras. Lidars are detection systems, similar to radars, that use pulsed laser light rather than radio waves.
Tesla does not use lidar censors.
Baidu’s EV plan comes as tech companies around the world race to develop smart vehicles after Tesla’s success in commercializing EVs.
Smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. and Didi Global are among other Chinese tech giants pursuing automotive ambitions.