Microsoft has partnered with Baidu to advance the technical development and adoption of autonomous driving. As a member of the Apollo alliance, Microsoft will provide global scale for Apollo outside of China with the Microsoft Azure cloud. Under the terms of the partnership, Baidu and Microsoft plan to explore opportunities to deliver connected vehicle services and customer experiences that aim to "digitally transform the autonomous driving industry".
"Today's vehicles already have an impressive level of sophistication when it comes to their ability to capture data. By applying our global cloud AI, machine learning, and deep neural network capabilities to that data, we can accelerate the work already being done to make autonomous vehicles safer," said Kevin Dallas, corporate VP, Microsoft.
Launched by Baidu in April, Apollo is an open platform designed to provide a service that supports all major features and functions of an autonomous vehicle. The project consists of cloud services, an open software stack, and reference hardware and vehicle platforms. More than 50 partners from various sectors have joined the Apollo alliance, including navigation and mapping service provider TomTom, suppliers Bosch and Continental, and Southeast Asian ride-hailing platform Grab.
