Baidu’s electric vehicle startup Jidu unveils the first ‘robot’ car fully controlled via voice recognition

In December of 2020, we wrote about Baidu after the China search giant announced it was looking into developing its own electric vehicles (EVs). At the time, Baidu was reportedly in talks with Chinese carmakers about making its own EVs.

Then in January 2021, Baidu entered into an EV joint venture with Geely to launch a separate EV firm called Jidu Automotive to target opportunities in the fast-growing smart EV market. A year later, Jidu Auto raised $400 million to speed up research and development and speed market entry.

Today, Jidu Auto announced the launch of a “robot” concept car that can be fully controlled via voice recognition. It’s the first vehicle to be revealed by the company. The new concept car, which is free of door handles, was launched through an online press conference held on Baidu’s metaverse-themed app Xirang, Reuters reported.

Unlike the current EV cars that use one autonomous driving solution, Jidu uses a dual LiDAR autonomous driving solution for its first model, with two separate systems serving as a backup to each other.

Jidu said it plans to mass-produce the model, which would be 90% similar to the concept car, in 2023.

Below is a video of Judi’s “robot” concept car.

Founded in 2000 by Eric Xu and Robin Li, Baidu is the largest Chinese language Internet search provider and search engine that enables individuals to obtain information and find what they need. Baidu offers functional online search, Tieba community search, industry-based vertical search, mp3 search, portal channels, and instant messaging services. Its products include Baidu Webpage, Baidu Video, Baidu Map, hao123.com, BaiduPedia, Baidu Input, Baidu Toolbar, TTPlayer, Iqiyi, and Sky Software.