Baidu sees AI giving it head start in race to develop self-driving car market in China

Unfazed by the early initiatives of Google and Tesla, Chinese online search giant Baidu is looking to take the lead in the commercial application of artificial intelligence for autonomous driving on the mainland, the world’s largest car market.

“China’s road conditions are, perhaps, much more complex than in other developed countries,” Baidu chief financial officer Jennifer Li Xinzhe said at a Bloomberg event in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

“Autonomous driving can bring tremendous value in the issues it can address [in China] like traffic jams, air pollution and road safety.”

Li reiterated Baidu’s target of initially getting self-driving cars on mainland roads by 2018 and the mass production of these vehicles in 2020.

“We think the automobile is the next major computing platform,” said Li. She added that the company has been investing in artificial intelligence over the past four or five years, with an eye on creating a new growth engine that will help transform traditional industries like transport and financial services.

“We think about it as electricity. If you look at how electricity has transformed human society, that is how AI is going to transform industries,” she said.