Baidu And Microsoft Join Forces To Advance Autonomous Driving

Microsoft Corp. and Baidu Inc. 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. 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.