Baidu sets up $1.5b fund as it races toward autonomous cars

Photo credit: Baidu.

Chinese tech giant Baidu has set up a US$1.5 billion fund to invest in autonomous driving technology created by startups, it said today.

The aim is to invest in over 100 projects as Baidu seeks to bolster the self-driving car tech it started working on in 2014.

Baidu only today revealed the size and scope of its Apollo Fund – named after its automotive project – but the war chest seems to have been active for quite a while, as seen in the US$150 million that Ford and Baidu invested into LIDAR maker Velodyne in mid-2016 to develop more affordable sensors.

Timeline: Baidu hits the road

• July 2014: Baidu confirms it’s working on a driverless car.
• December 2015: Shows off its autonomous driving rig for the first time, strapped onto a BMW.
• December 2015: Aims for its driverless tech on China’s roads by 2020 for commercial vehicles, and 2022 for passenger cars.
• April 2016: Tapping into Silicon Valley’s AI talent, it plans to have more than 100 researchers and engineers working on cars in its US lab by the end of 2016.
• November 2016: Rolls out wide-scale self-driving car tests in one Chinese city in partnership with three local automakers.
• April 2017: Says its autonomous tech will be freely available to company that wants to make use of it.
• September 2017: Apollo gets a major update to version 1.5, including “autonomous driving capabilities in designated lanes, perfectly recognizing obstacles and passengers, and making optimal driving decisions even at night,” said Baidu in a statement.