Baidu, Ford China team up to develop vehicle intelligent connectivity

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Ford Motor (China) Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Ford China) and China's Internet giant Baidu inked a strategic letter of intent on June 27 to extend in-depth cooperation in such areas as internet of vehicles (IoV), digital solutions, AI technologies and digital marketing, etc., according to Ford China.

Based on the DuerOS, Baidu's conversational AI platform, two companies will jointly develop a range of IoV technologies, including voice recognition, natural language understanding and image recognition, to provide Ford's car owners with innovative in-vehicle infotainment system and digital services.

Relying on Baidu's AI technologies and information service ecosystem, the cooperation aims to make users control and interact with their vehicles using natural language and give them easy access to get information and services they need in daily life.

In addition, Ford China and Baidu planned to co-build an intelligent connectivity laboratory to explore potential cooperation in China's automotive and mobility domains. With the aim of comprehensively improving consumers’ experience, they will be committed to researching and developing cloud-based AI technologies, covering mobile phone, smart home, marketing platform, and so on.

What's more, two companies will carry out in-depth collaboration in cloud computing field. For instance, Baidu will partner with Transportation Mobility Cloud (TMC), the open cloud-based platform developed by Autonomic, a subsidiary of Ford Smart Mobility, that provides transportation services such as vehicle connectivity for multiple players in the transportation ecosystem.

By fully playing both companies' technical advantages in big data, they will explore the business cooperation in targeted digital marketing solution, which will help the automaker accurately analyze Chinese consuming behaviors and preference so as to develop products accordingly.