JIDU AUTO

Company develops first vehicle that opens doors by voice command

Electric vehicle specialist Jidu Auto, a division of Chinese tech giant Baidu, has unveiled its first vehicle, a handleless concept car that can be controlled by voice commands.

Jidu, which is controlled by Baidu with a financial stake in Chinese automaker Geely, plans to mass-produce a new model in 2023 – it will repeat the concept's features by 90%. The most important advantage of the robotic vehicle is support for level 4 unmanned control, which does not require human intervention. There is also a Qualcomm 8295 chip on board, which will provide autonomous operation of the voice interface with a weak network connection.

The electric car's autonomous navigation is performed through an algorithm developed by experts at Baidu, and a set of 12 cameras and 2 lidars is responsible for the hardware. Production of the model will be established in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo, where Geely has several car factories. Jidu's employees include former Cadillac designer Frank Wu, who leads the design department, and a former Apple Project Titan, who is now head of smart driving.

According to Baidu boss Robin Li (Robin Li), the first Jidu-branded model will cost more than 200,000 yuan, or about $30,000.

Image source: Reuters.com