Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU.NASDAQ) is opening up its self-driving vehicle platform in a bid to help speed up the development of the sector.
The Chinese web services company will allow automakers and technology firms access to its Apollo project that includes Baidu's vehicle platform, hardware platform, software platform and cloud data services.
It is slated to begin in July when Baidu plans to open the technology for vehicles in restricted environments. By the end of the year it plans to share technology for simple urban road conditions and by 2020 open its full tech stack, including fully autonomous driving capabilities on highways and open city roads.
Baidu Group president and COO Qi Lu said "AI has great potential to drive social development, and one of AI’s biggest opportunities is intelligent vehicles".
As well as potentially outsourcing help in developing their technology by making it open source, Baidu also plans to develop its self-driving capabilities through partnerships with car makers and tech firms.
The company already has partnerships with three Chinese car makers while a two-year tie-up with BMW recently lapsed over reported strategic differences.
Baidu hopes to build more partnerships with companies involved in sensors, and other key self-driving technology.