REDMOND, Washington,
July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Microsoft Corp. and Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) today announced plans
to partner in order to take the technical development and adoption
of autonomous driving worldwide. As a member of the Apollo
alliance, Microsoft will provide global scale for Apollo outside of
China with the Microsoft Azure
cloud.
"We're excited to partner with Baidu to take a giant step in
helping automotive manufacturers and suppliers fully realize the
promise of autonomous driving," said Kevin
Dallas, corporate vice president, Microsoft. "Today's
vehicles already have an impressive level of sophistication when it
comes to their ability to capture data. By applying our global
cloud AI, machine learning, and deep neural network capabilities to
that data, we can accelerate the work already being done to make
autonomous vehicles safer."
According to McKinsey, up to 15 percent of new cars sold in 2030
will be fully autonomous,1 which fuels the need for an
ecosystem of partners to collaborate in support of a common goal.
Announced by Baidu in April this year, Apollo is an open platform
that provides a comprehensive, secure and reliable solution that
supports all major features and functions of an autonomous vehicle.
The project, named after the historic lunar landing program to
illustrate its scale and complexity, consists of cloud services, an
open software stack, and reference hardware and vehicle platforms.
More than 50 partners from a wide range of sectors have joined the
Apollo alliance, including global navigation and mapping service
provider TomTom, tier-one suppliers Bosch and Continental, and
Southeast Asia's leading
ride-hailing platform Grab.
"We are excited to have Microsoft as part of the Apollo
alliance. Our goal with Apollo is to provide an open and powerful
platform to the automotive industry to further the goal of
autonomous vehicles," said Ya-Qin Zhang, president of Baidu. "By
using Azure, our partners outside of China will have access to a trustworthy and
secure public cloud, enabling them to focus on innovating instead
of building their own cloud-based infrastructure."
Microsoft has already been working with leaders in the
automotive industry to help manufacturers ingest huge volumes of
sensor and usage data from connected vehicles and apply that data
to deliver actionable intelligence. Companies like BMW, Ford,
Renault-Nissan, Toyota and Volvo are all using or have announced
plans to adopt Microsoft's intelligent cloud technology to help
with services like driver assist, predictive maintenance and
voice-controlled media.
As part of the partnership, Baidu and Microsoft plan to explore
opportunities to deliver connected vehicle solutions and unique
customer experiences that aim to digitally transform the autonomous
driving industry.
About Baidu
Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search
provider. Baidu aims to make a complicated world simpler
for users and enterprises through
technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global
Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs
represent one Class A ordinary share.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) is the leading platform and
productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and
its mission is to empower every person and every organization on
the planet to achieve more.
1http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/high%20tech/our%20insights/disruptive%20trends%20that%20will%20transform%20the%20auto%20industry/auto%202030%20report%20jan%202016.ashx
Logo -
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/24227/microsoft_corp_logo226_9217jpg.jpg