Hyundai Kia Baidu: Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s top carmaker, and its affiliate Kia said on Sunday that they have reached an agreement with Baidu, China’s tech giant to develop technologies for connected cars.
The two South Korean carmakers and Baidu will join hands in a wide array of areas, including connectivity and self-driving technologies under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Beijing last week.
Hyundai and Kia will also utilize Baidu’s smart cloud computing technology to address Beijing’s enhancing data regulations, reports Yonhap news agency.
The South Korean companies will seek to find new business models harnessing artificial intelligence technologies with the Chinese counterpart as well, they added.
“Through the strategic collaboration with Baidu, we will make efforts to establish the ecosystem for connected cars in the Chinese market,” Hyundai and Kia said in a press release.
The agreement came amid the growing market for connected cars in China.
The annual sales of connected cars in China are anticipated to reach 17 million units this year, marking a sharp rise from 7.2 million units tallied in 2019, Hyundai said, citing Chinese data.
Hyundai and Kia have been working closely with Baidu since 2014, including the development of voice recognition technology.
(With IANS inputs)
