Automaker BMW and Chinese tech company Baidu have decided to end their joint research project on self-driving car technology, according to a report published in Reuters, which claims that Baidu – which was carrying out on-road tests in China on BMW 2 sedans – will now use Ford vehicles for testing. The tech giant is also looking for another partner now, according to the report.
BMW and Baidu had announced their partnership last June, when they revealed that they are ready to work together on self-driving car technology.
Baidu told Reuters that it is now using Ford vehicles for testing. Earlier, both companies had also invested in Velodyne, a company known to manufacture LIDAR sensors.
“We now have found that the development pace and the ideas of the two companies are a little different,” BMW China CEO Olaf Kastner told Reuters. According to Kastner, both companies had a disagreement on research project and therefore decided to end the partnership.
Last December, Baidu had 657 million monthly active users conducting mobile searches. The company currently offers about 60 services, including Baidu Encyclopedia, Baidu Games, Baidu Space (a social network), Baidu Youa, and Baidu Yi. In April this year, the company started investing deeply in a Silicon Valley self-driving car team. It created the team which is now Baidu’s Autonomous Driving Unit and focuses on autonomous car efforts.
Kastner revealed before the split, both companies had developed automatic overtaking technology, which enables driverless vehicles to pass other cars at various speeds.
Despite the split, BMW and Baidu will continue to work together on creating accurate, high-definition maps, which are vital for autonomous vehicle navigation.
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