Baidu's car construction has encountered twists and turns again, this time in the autonomous driving department.
Recently, there is news that there have been large-scale layoffs in Baidu's autonomous driving department, but the proportion is unknown. For this news, Baidu told the outside world: I have not heard such news, and there are many rumors now.
However, it is reported that the main reason for the layoffs of Baidu's automatic driving department is because no car manufacturer is willing to mass-produce. And this is by no means empty in the eyes of the outside world.
Because just in June this year, Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor, made a statement at the shareholders' meeting that caused widespread concern from the outside world. At that time, some investors asked whether SAIC would consider cooperating with third-party companies such as Huawei in autonomous driving. In this regard, Chen Hong said: "It is like a company providing us with a holistic solution, so that it becomes the soul and SAIC becomes the body." For such a result, SAIC is unacceptable and must take the soul into its own hands. ”
As soon as Chen Hong's "soul theory" came out, the dispute between traditional car companies and technology giants in the field of autonomous driving also surfaced.
In fact, traditional car companies have increased their investment in the field of automatic driving in recent years. For example, this year, it has led the investment in self-driving startup Momenta twice, and wants to become its largest institutional investor. Great Wall Motors has also established Zhixing to develop autonomous driving systems and solutions. In addition to traditional car companies, the new forces represented by "Wei Xiaoli" attach more importance to automatic driving. Li Bin, He Xiaopeng and Li Xiang have stressed on many occasions that they must adhere to the independent research and development of automatic driving, and only in this way can they obtain system advantages.
In addition to the increasing external competition, within Baidu, there are also signs of "brother walls" of autonomous driving.
In December 2015, Baidu Autonomous Driving Division was established. In April 2017, Baidu officially released the Apollo system. To date, however, the Apollo system has not yet been mounted on a production vehicle.
However, Baidu's car-making plan can't wait. In March this year, Baidu and Geely jointly established Jidu Automobile, of which Baidu holds 55% of the shares and occupies the dominant right. Jidu has thus become the new core of Baidu's car-making plan.
It is worth noting that after the establishment of Jidu, it did not completely rely on Baidu's Apollo system in the field of automatic driving, but recruited in automatic driving and smart cockpit. In late September this year, Jidu CEO Xia Yiping said that the Jidu software team has launched the SIMUCar (simulated prototype) test and started software technology development. In fact, Xia Yiping once said of Apollo: "The ability provided by Apollo is like a Lego part, and how each depot assembles these parts into its own pattern is what each depot does according to its own user base and product positioning." ”
Some analysts pointed out that in November this year, Jidu Automobile, which had not seen any success after its establishment, was punished by the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation, which can be said to be a blow to the head. As another pillar of Baidu in the field of travel, Baidu's autonomous driving department has not made great achievements many years after its establishment, and the commercial landing is far away. Now the department has been rumored to have laid off employees in a large area, which is undoubtedly another blow to Baidu's car-making process.