Boston, MA 09/17/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) signed a deal with BMW to develop semi-autonomous cars. That cooperation will lay the groundwork for fully autonomous cars. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has mostly been seen as a frontrunner in driverless cars project. The collaboration between Baidu and BMW means that Google has a new rival that might narrow the market for its smart-cars.
Baidu appears to be taking on Google in almost every aspect. The company has not only poached engineers from Google in the recent past, but it also recently announced Baidu-Eye to rival Google Glass. With the joint research contract with BMW to develop smart-cars, Baidu appears to be taking its rivalry with Google too far.
Laying the groundwork
The $78 billion Chinese giant search engine said they would jointly develop technologies for semi-autonomous cars within three years. The move is expected to help the Chinese market deal with traffic problems. Towards the creation of a smart-car, Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) and BMW will first develop high-resolution maps to give their smart-cars greater ability such as driving itself when situation calls for that. Although the collaboration initially involves developing a semi-autonomous car, the companies said their research work would provide groundwork for fully driverless cars, just like the kinds that Google is developing. Baidu had already started a driverless car project prior to signing the latest deal with the German automaker, BMW.
Friendly policies
Various experts have already pointed out driverless cars as the next big thing in the technology industry. That explains why Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has dedicated considerable effort and resources to its driverless car project and why Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) is impatient to get its own on the roads.
Smart-cars are likely to benefit from the desire to address traffic challenges in the major cities. Governments around the world are also enacting policies to improve air quality, and such moves are expected to boost the sales of cars that run on clean energy instead of fossil fuels.
It remains to be seen how Google will react to Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU)’s smart-car collaboration with BMW, because that obviously hurts its fortunes if China was a market that it was eying for its driverless cars.
