On July 5th, Baidu held an AI Developer Conference, the biggest in its history. At the conference, Lu Qi, vice chairman of Baidu’s board of directors, president and COO of Baidu Group, revealed for the first time to the public Baidu’s grand vision in its Apollo ecosystem and announced the establishment of Apollo ecosystem project’s partnership alliance (if that name seems familiar, it’s because it’s actually named after the U.S. mission to the moon).

“Apollo will become a milestone for China’s auto industry. What it means for the Chinese auto industry is what Android means to the smartphone industry. However, its is even more open and potent,” Lu explained.

He was quite excited in his introduction to the project, which is known to be the most high-anticipated part of Baidu’s entire AI strategy.

As a matter of fact, Lu Qi announced the project as early as this April during the Shanghai Auto Expo, saying that Baidu would build an open, comprehensive and safe software platform for the auto industry and provide its partners an integrated hardware, software and service system in the self-driving sector.

At that time, Lu already pointed out that Baidu would do whatever it could to help players in self-driving sector avoid distracting efforts and put more efforts in developing an entire self-driving system of their own in a more effective and efficient manner.

Within only three months, Baidu has advanced its plan to an extraordinary degree thanks to Lu’s strong execution power and Baidu’s technological accumulation in the self-driving sector.

Over 50 partners of the Apollo project

Take a close look, and you will find that Apollo’s ecosystem is quite wide: in fact, over fifty partners are included in the first batch, covering almost all relevant parties along the unmanned driving industry chain, including manufacturers, universities and government departments. It is safe to say this is the most “luxurious” self-driving flagship all over the world.

Baidu’s partners include: over 15 OEMs (Chery, FAW and Chang’an, etc.), over 10 first-tier auto parts manufacturers (BOSCH Automobile, Continental Automobile, ZF Friedrichshafen, DESAY SV Automobile, etc.), over 12 key parts manufacturers (NDIDIA,Microsoft, ZTE, Velodyne, TomTom, Unigroup Spreadtrum & RDA, Forte, etc), three auto startups (Autonomous Stuff, DPXCN, etc.), three ride-sharing service providers (UCAR, Grab Taxi, etc.), five key universities (Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, etc.) and six government departments and bureaus (Wuhu, Baoding, Beijing Yizhuang District, etc.).

It is reported that six out of ten top-tier OEMs have joined the alliance. BOSCH Automobile and Continental Automobile, two of the most well-known first-tier auto parts manufacturers,, have entered into strategic agreement with Baidu, as first-batch members of the Apollo ecosystem.

To everyone’s amazement, Baidu even issued Apollo’s strategic structure and specific business modules at the conference. This is also the first time Baidu revealed to the public its business project in a comprehensive and detailer manner. Therefore, how will Baidu’s alliance affect the industry?

Four layers of the Apollo project

Wang Jing’ao, senior director of Baidu and R&D manager of Apollo, introduced the four layers of the Apollo ecosystem: cloud service platform, open software platform, reference hardware platform and reference vehicle platform and claimed that Baidu would open up these four layers step by step:

The first layer is about cloud-based services, including high-precision mapping and navigation, autopilot simulation engines, data platforms, security services, OTA online upgrades, and DuerOS, which was described in detail at the conference.

The second layer is about software, including map engine, vehicle positioning, environmental awareness, path planning, end-to-end signal transmission, human-machine interaction, operating framework and real-time operating system that provide operating environment for all of these software.

The third layer is about hardware, including the computing unit (CPU/GPU/FPGA), positioning unit (GPS/IMU) and sensors for environmental perception (camera, radar, laser radar and other hardware).

The fourth floor is about vehicles.Up to this point, Baidu has established cooperative relationship with several well-known car makers, including Daimler, Ford, Chery, BAIC, Lincoln, GMW, etc.

Open pathway of the Apollo Project

As to the various capabilities and resources to be opened by the Apollo Project, Baidu has given a specific timetable.