Baidu announced that its long awaited self-driving car would be out within the year, as the Chinese search giant looks to stake its claim on the upcoming smart car sector.
The firm said it has been working on this project for a while with no clear end in sight.
The company has collaborated with the Institute of Deep Learning in order to move forward with their project. In October, Baidu began working with BMW to start automated driving tests throughout China.
The search engine company is providing the city maps and cloud storage systems which the cars will use in order to navigate the country. BMW is working on the car technology.
Speaking about Baidu’s self-driving car project, Yu Kai, head of the IDL, said in July that he wasn’t going to call it a driverless car because he believed the car should be helping people, not replacing them.
Instead, Yu Kai’s team has been working on a prototype that will be more like a smart assistant operating on real-time traffic data while the driver is in control.