Baidu and Geely will invest $7.7 billion in autonomous driving technologies and vehicles through it Jidu Auto join venture.
The new company will hire at least 2,500 software engineers over the next 3 years and is expecting to launch It’s first vehicle within 3 years. Updated models are expected every 18 months. Vehicles will be electric, resembling “robots” to attract a targeted younger audience. No expected pricing is available at this time.
Baidu will be the larger investor/partner with a 55% stake, while Geely while own the remaining 45%. Geely also recently reported a new brand of electric vehicles named Zeekr, no news how this partnership will affect that announcement.