BYD teams up with Baidu, Dadao in new energy, autonomous driving areas

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BYD, Baidu and Dadao, a sharing vehicle platform, announced on June 6 that they had signed an array of cooperation agreements in new energy vehicle, autonomous driving technology and car-sharing operation of vehicles.

It is reported that the three parties will capitalize on their advantages in new energy vehicle market, intelligent driving or autonomous driving technologies and car-sharing operation areas. Besides, they will mainly explore the development and application of autonomous driving technologies in new energy vehicle area. In particular, they will conduct deep exploration and cooperation on the issue that how intelligent vehicles can be quickly put into operation through a car-sharing platform.

Strikingly, Dadao will adopt BYD's new energy vehicles as their daily operating vehicles. The BYD Yuan EV360 launched at Auto China 2018 will be the first cooperation model for trail operation.

In accordance with the agreement, BYD and Dadao will promote the all-round cooperation for the full lineup of BYD models across China. Moreover, by making full use of BYD’s resources advantages as an automaker and Dadao's advantages as an all-scenario car-sharing platform, both parties will seek deep cooperation in such areas as marketing, vehicle customization, mobility scenarios and precatory operation.

Deepening strategic cooperation with automakers will not only make it easier to acquire vehicles and reduce the vehicle-acquiring costs, but also will help Dadao to gain larger profits through accurate scenario operation, according to the director from Dadao.

Reportedly, BYD will also provide exclusive financial supporting services and solutions to promote more vehicles into operation. Dadao stated that it plans to cooperate with BYD to adopt nearly 10,000-unit Yuan EV360 in new cities, in order to deploy in new energy vehicle leasing market.

What worth mentioning, Baidu Apollo's joining highlighted the three-party strategic cooperation. Dadao is an important ecological partner of BYD and Baidu Apollo. This cooperation will help Apollo to be a closed ecological system.

Since Dadao was founded, it partnered with Baidu Apollo closely to deploy vehicle sharing business in municipal cities. In the future, Dadao will also open up a variety of real road testing data to Apollo platform. Baidu Apollo will feed back the results of analyzed data to Dadao to help promote its capabilities.

In addition, Dadao will prefer BYD models that have been pre-installed Baidu Apollo's Xiaodu onboard system. The three parties will jointly explore in intelligent driving field,as well as test and operate BYD models that feature ApolloPilot function in part of cities. It is believed by industry insiders that partnering with BYD and Baidu Apollo is beneficial for Dadao to deeply deploy its vehicle-sharing business.