Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc announces that it will join hands with Shanghai's Jiading district to accelerate the development of Shanghai's intelligent connected vehicles. [Photo/jiading.gov.cn]

Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc announced that it will join hands with Shanghai's Jiading district to accelerate the development of Shanghai's intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs), according to news released at a signing ceremony held in Jiading on Dec 4.

Baidu will build a demonstration area for artificial intelligence (AI) and automatic driving in Jiading. A number of the projects in the demonstration area will be developed in Apollo Park, a research and development (R&D) center for AI and automatic driving as well as an operation and big data center. Baidu will also operate an automatic driving fleet in the district, aiming to develop Jiading into a center for the intelligent connection network industry in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Gao Xiang, head of Jiading district, addressed the signing ceremony, saying that Jiading enjoys superiority in developing new energy vehicles and ICVs. Jiading will continue to promote the integration of the automobile industry with new technologies during the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), in order to promote the upgrading and transformation of the automobile industry in Jiading and construct a robust industry ecosystem with global competitiveness.

Li Zhenyu, corporate vice-president of Baidu and general manager of the company's intelligent driving group, said that autonomous driving will be a major part of the automobile industry in the future, and Baidu will be committed to facilitating the commercial application of autonomous driving.

Li also expressed his hope that the two sides will work together to advance the smart management of traditional transport systems and set up a safer and more efficient development pattern for the automobile industry.

Apollo, an open platform launched by Chinese tech giant Baidu in 2017, aims to coordinate cross-sector efforts in autonomous driving. Currently, Baidu Apollo has obtained six licenses for automatic driving from the Shanghai Government. Furthermore, autonomous driving taxis jointly developed by Baidu and domestic carmaker FAW Hongqi will conduct road tests in Jiading.