Jidu is a Baidu-backed autonomous electric vehicle start-up. Jidu is a joint venture of Baidu and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The start-up is an electric car manufacturing company that designs and develops Robocar combining intelligence and emotions. During human-vehicle interaction, these cars are to be able to naturally communicate with people by precisely recognizing voice semantics.
The funding round is possible to mark the introduction of other than Baidu and Geely investors. The two companies have already invested $400 million in the Series A round in January. “Robot car is our judgment of the future of automotive development. I am confident in JiDU’s future and very excited about JiDU’s robot car,” Robin Li, Baidu’s founder.
Jidu, China, was founded by Baidu and Chinese automaker Geely in 2021. Jidu is 52.3%-owned by Baidu. In June, the company revealed its self-driving car EV, the mass production is aimed at the end of 2023. In the second half of the year, the company will take pre-orders for its first model. At the same time, Jidu plans to use its cars for robotaxi service, as Baidu is one of the first companies that received permission to operate self-driving robotaxi in China. At the end of the year, the second model of the car is going to be unveiled and free to order with expected delivery in 2024.
