Baidu Launches $ 1.5 Billion Fund for Self-Directed Projects

Cars equipped with Baidu stand-alone technology in China (Photo: Baidu / Via REUTERS)

The Chinese search tool Baidu announced on Thursday a fund of 10 billion yuan ($ 1.52 billion) for autonomous management as part of a more comprehensive plan to accelerate technical development and compete with rivals north American women.

The "Apollo Fund" will invest in 100 autonomous management projects over the next three years, Baidu said in a statement.

The launch of the fund coincides with that of Apollo 1.5, the second generation of the company's open source standalone vehicle.

After years of internal development, Baidu decided in April to open up third-party standalone driving technology, a move it hopes will accelerate development and help it compete with US-based Tesla and Google's Waymo project.

In the latest upgrade of its platform, Baidu said partners can access new obstacle awareness technology and high-definition maps, among other functions.

The move comes amid a sweeping reorganization of Baidu's corporate strategy, which seeks new sources of revenue outside its core business, which lost much of its ad revenue in 2016 after new more stringent government rules on advertising in Cheers.

The Baidu Apollo project - named after NASA's moon mission - aims to create a technology for fully autonomous cars, which the company says will be ready to spin in Chinese cities by 2020.

Baidu now has 70 partners in various segments of the automotive industry, up from 50 in July, the group said. Current contributors include the Nvidia microprocessor company and the TomTom mapping service.

Despite the rapid growth of its partner ecosystem, Baidu faced challenges in negotiating local Chinese rules, which previously prevented it from conducting road tests.

n July, local Beijing police said it was investigating whether the company had broken municipal traffic rules by testing stand-alone cars on public roads as part of a press conference demonstration.