Baidu and Nvidia team up for autopilot technology

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Many years into optimizing AI solutions with Nvidia, China's Internet giant Baidu announced on Wednesday that they will keep on working with the US technology company on autopilot technology and other areas.

During Baidu Create 2017 on Wednesday, Baidu's annual convention for software and hardware developers, the company said they will collaborate with Nvidia on three major projects in the fields of autopilot technology, deep learning and voice control.

The California-based company designs graphic processing units (GPUs) and system on a chip units (SOCs) for markets including gaming, professional visualization, data centers and auto.

Under the deal, Baidu will utilize Nvidia's Drive PX platform for its self-driving car initiative, Apollo, announced in April this year.

Nvidia's Drive PX can understand real-time situation around the vehicle, place itself on an HD live map, and plan a safe trip accordingly. With the help of the platform, Baidu hopes to open up self-driving on highways and in urban traffic by 2020.

Nvidia attends 2012 CES show in Las Vegas. /VCG Photo‍

Rules and policy regarding autopilot, however, are yet to be set in China. Beijing Traffic Police has warned Baidu not to violate existing regulations the very next day after the convention, which raised questions about how the law enforcement will influence the future development of this self-driving project.

"We support the innovation on AI technology," said the police department in an announcement on Weibo. "But we encourage Baidu to follow the rules and drive safely."

Baidu's CEO Robin Li talks about AI projects at the company's annual convention on Wednesday. /VCG Photo

In addition to the collaboration on autopilot, the two companies will work on Baidu's open-sourced deep learning framework PaddlePaddle for Volta, Nvidia's new GPU architecture, to leverage Volta for deep learning cloud services. Baidu also planned to add its new DuerOS, a voice control AI assistant, to Nvidia's Shield TV, a stream TV box with video and platform being introduced in China later this year.

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