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On June 8, Baidu made the latest progress with the unveiling of ROBO-01, the first mass-produced concept car of Jidu Automobile, the first car under Baidu's car brand. Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu, said in an interview with the media: "the first mass-produced model of Jidu locates a medium-sized SUV, directly aligns Tesla and Model Y, and surpasses Tesla's generation in intelligence." In addition, it also said that Jidu Automobile will release the design of its second production model at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, which will begin to accept orders in 2023 and deliver in 2024.

From the appearance of the concept car ROBO-01, it adopts a simple design style, the main driver and co-driver use butterfly wing doors and the back row uses opposite doors. The whole car cancels the physical control keys such as door handle, shift lever, left and right lever, etc. The tail is equipped with active lifting tail wing. Zero gravity seat is provided in the car, and the design of the seat is sufficient. The design of the dashboard is more radical, combining the dashboard and the central control screen into one, equipped with an oversized 3D integrated screen to display vehicle instrument information in all directions and meet the needs of entertainment and navigation. In terms of intelligent hardware, the new car is equipped with Qualcomm's fourth-generation intelligent cockpit chip 8295 chip and two Nvidia self-driving chips Orin X, the computing power reaches 512TOPS. In terms of autopilot, the "vision + lidar" autopilot scheme is adopted, equipped with 31 out-of-vehicle sensors, including 2 lidars, 5 millimeter wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars and 12 cameras.

The biggest highlight of the vehicle is that its steering wheel is U-shaped. According to reports, when the vehicle is on autopilot, the steering wheel will automatically stretch and fold downwards. With regard to the design of the vehicle's U-shaped steering wheel, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu, said that he replaced his private car with a U-shaped steering wheel a long time ago and let friends around him experience it. "from the design point of view, the car is a very long screen, the round steering wheel does not match, and will block the large screen, affecting vision. It is necessary to better combine the U-shaped steering wheel with on-line steering technology to provide a better user experience for the next generation of cars. " However, it also said that the steering wheel folding is not yet allowed by laws and regulations, but it provides directional research for higher-level autopilot. When laws and regulations permit, self-driving and unmanned cars can be quickly introduced into mass production.

The price has not yet been officially announced, but Baidu Li said at a communication meeting of Baidu's earnings report that Jidu is positioned as a family car and is expected to sell for no less than 200000. Jidu CEO Xia Yiping also said: in the price range where Tesla Model Y is located, there is no particularly good smart car that can compete with Tesla. The first production car of Jidu will take Tesla Model Y as its direct competitor and will surpass Tesla's generation in intelligence. In addition, it also said that the mass production model has 90% similarity to the ROBO-01 concept car, and its appearance and interior style, including the active lift tail, will be very similar to the real car. According to the set plan, its first model will be ordered in the second half of this year and is expected to be mass-produced in 2023.

According to relevant data: Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially established in March last year, with a registered capital of 2 billion yuan. It is an intelligent car company jointly established by Baidu and Geely Holdings. The business scope includes technical services, technology development, technology consultation, technology exchange, technology transfer, technology promotion, auto parts and accessories manufacturing of new energy vehicles and related parts. The equity penetration map shows that Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd. is jointly owned by Shanghai Huapu Automobile Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Geely holding Group) and Dazi County Bairuixiang Venture Capital Management Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Baidu Netcom Technology). The former holds 45% of the shares, while the latter holds 55% of the shares.

For Jidu Automobile, Baidu helmsman Robin Li also gives high hopes. After all, car-building is also a large part of Baidu's search for performance growth. As early as last year, Li Yanhong released the three major business models of the internal trustworthy Apollo self-driving business, one of which is car building. In May this year, Baidu adjusted its business structure and moved the map business group from the AI system to the intelligent driving business group. In addition, a financing and innovation department has been set up to support Jidu's work, including cooperation with chip suppliers such as Nvidia. It is not difficult to see that Baidu is constantly adding weight to smart cars.

At Baidu's first-quarter results meeting, Li Yanhong said: "the key selling point of Jidu Automobile is not 'trams', but 'intelligence'. Jidu products will also be equipped with Baidu's latest technology, which is also one of the most critical selling points." "considering Baidu's industry-leading intelligent driving technology, we are confident of winning a place in the electric car market."

In recent years, with the rise of the new energy vehicle market and favorable policies to promote the development of the new energy vehicle market, the capital market is becoming more and more hot for new energy enterprises. under this tuyere, more and more industry giants begin to enter the automotive industry. I hope to get a piece of the cake of new energy vehicles. However, the ideal is rich, and the reality is indeed cruel.

For Jidu Automobile, the debut of the concept car is only the first step. At present, under the environment of various unfavorable factors, such as lack of core, rising price of raw materials, epidemic situation and so on, there are still some challenges for Jidu Automobile to achieve mass production delivery smoothly. In addition, some people in the industry pointed out that the electrification process is accelerating, and now it is about resources, supply chain and product advantages. Who has more resources, whose supply chain is more perfect, and whose products have greater advantages, will win a bigger market.

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