The German company Bosch (www.bosch.de) and Chinese Web services company Baidu are further strengthening their co-operation, following the signing on 1 June of a strategic framework agreement on ‘smart mobility’ in China.

It was signed by Dirk Hoheisel (member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH) and Lu Qi (Baidu’s group president).

Mr Hoheisel said: “China is the biggest automotive market in the world; it is also among the leading countries world-wide in the development of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

“Combining the know-how of a high-tech Internet corporation with our expertise as the world’s biggest automotive supplier, the alliance will promote the development of smart mobility in China.”

As a co-operation partner, Bosch will be involved in Baidu’s Apollo project, which aims to provide open, comprehensive and reliable software for the development of automated vehicles.

Among other things, Bosch will contribute its sensors and the Bosch Road Signature for ‘vehicle localisation’.

Moreover, Bosch and Baidu will provide their technical expertise to support the drafting of legislation relating to automated driving in China.

Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine and Internet service provider, has built up expertise in many core technologies relating to automated driving, including environmental perception, behaviour prediction, trajectory planning, smart connectivity, HMI, accurate localisation, and HD maps.

Baidu has been involved in R&D related to automated driving technology since 2013, while Bosch has been working on the development of automated driving since 2011. Today, some 3,000 Bosch engineers world-wide are working on automated driving.