Chinese companies race toward autonomous driving in Silicon Valley

Chinese tech giant Baidu has inked a deal with Chinese automaker FAW to become involved in its "Apollo" autonomous driving vehicle project, according to thepapaer.cn.

A group of 15 vehicle partners planning to use Baidu's autonomous driving software was revealed at Baidu AI Development Conference on July 5, 2017.

The first batch of vehicle partners was announced at Baidu Create 2017. [Photo: qq.com]

Baidu's "Apollo" project was announced on April 19, 2017.

Baidu announcing its "Apollo" project at CES Asia. [Photo: IC]

As early as in 2011, Baidu became the first Chinese company to set up an R&D base in Silicon Valley and begin to carry out a series of investment, mergers and acquisitions.

Since then, Baidu has acquired xPerception, a US technology company focusing on machine vision hardware and software solutions. It has also begun working with chip maker Nvidia in its push to develop autonomous driving technology.

Apart from Baidu, more than 30 Chinese companies have set up their self-driving R&D bases in Silicon Valley, forming a complex network of relationships.

Photo shows the complex relationships of Chinese firms in Silicon Valley. [Photo: thepaper.cn]

Chinese internet giant Tencent acquired over 8-million shares of Tesla through its subsidiary Yellow River Investment for close to 1.8-billion US dollars on March 17, 2017. Tencent is now Tesla's fifth largest shareholder. Tesla is one of the leaders in self-driving technology.

Baidu and Tencent have both jointly invested in a newly-established Chinese electric car company NIO, which has plans to start selling self-driving cars in the United States in 2020. NIO now has a market cap of some 2.8-billion US dollars.

China's largest car company, SAIC, has also set up a technology center in Menlo Parker, home to numerous US venture capital firms.

Lucid, a newly-established company with Chinese investment, is also working toward creating self-driving electric cars.

Many companies in Silicon Valley are dedicated to the research and development of self-driving electric cars. [Photo: IC]