Baidu and Xiongan New Area Sign Strategic Agreement to Develop Smart City

Leveraging Baidu’s capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI), the collaboration will develop an “AI City” as a model smart city for the future


XIONGAN, China, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) and the Administrative Committee of Xiongan New Area in China’s Hebei province have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to develop the new economic zone into a smart city powered by intelligent transport, the application of conversational AI, and cloud computing infrastructure. Xiongan New Area will be developed into an “AI City”, which will become a new model for smart cities in the future.

Wang Dongfeng, Secretary of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee, Xu Qin, Deputy Secretary of Hebei Provincial Committee and Governor of Hebei Province, Robin Li, Baidu Chairman and CEO, and Qi Lu, Baidu Group President and COO, attended the signing ceremony. In addition, Baidu and the government of Hebei announced a plan to jointly establish a national AI lab to boost the development of AI research.

In April 2017, China announced plans to establish Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing aimed at driving growth of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Xiongan will become an innovative development model and will feature innovations, reforms and pilot programs.

“It is a great honor for Baidu to participate in Hebei province’s AI City plan and the development of Xiongan New Area. The establishment of Xiongan will be critical for the millennium to come. Xiongan represents the city of the future, with AI as an indispensable element,” said Robin Li, Chairman and CEO of Baidu. “With Xiongan, we hope to explore the construction of AI infrastructure to develop the area into an efficient, environmentally-friendly and convenient AI City. We hope to make Xiongan a new model for the world’s future cities.”

Baidu will leverage its capabilities in AI, big data, autonomous driving and cloud computing to develop Xiongan into a model smart city with intelligent services in various areas including transportation, education, security, healthcare, environmental protection, robo-advisory services and the smart home. Baidu will also work with Xiongan to establish AI pilot projects for smart public transportation and autonomous driving.

On Wednesday, the first Apollo Committee meeting was held in Xiongan, with members exploring the development and management of autonomous cars in the city. First announced in April 2017, Apollo is an open platform that provides a comprehensive, secure, and reliable all-in-one solution that supports all major features and functions of an autonomous vehicle. It has attracted over 70 global and Chinese partners, including OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, developer platforms and technology start-ups. The Apollo Committee is composed of members from 10 companies including Baidu and Apollo partners Bosch, Continental AG, Daimler, Ford, NVIDIA, Chery, BAIC, FAW and King Long. Baidu Group President and COO Qi Lu has been appointed as the first Apollo Committee Chairman.

The member companies will discuss the development of urban autonomous driving and management, and will promote the drafting of related laws and regulations, developing a model city for autonomous driving that can be reproduced and promoted externally. In addition, the Committee will work with partners to create a more efficient and safer AI City for smart transportation.

A fleet of Apollo cars made their debut in Xiongan on Wednesday. Apollo showcased its extensive capabilities by demonstrating multiple types of cars, scenarios and dimensions, supported by its partners.

About Baidu

Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. Baidu aims to make a complex world simpler through technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.

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Xiongan car fleet Apollo smart sweeper-Xiongan