Hyundai, Kia to join hands with China's Baidu for connected cars

Korea's carmaker Hyundai Motor and Kia sign an agreement with China's tech giant Baidu in Beijing. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia said Sunday they have inked an agreement with China's tech giant Baidu to develop technologies for connected cars. Under the memorandum of understanding signed in Beijing last week, the two Korean carmakers and Baidu will join hands in a wide array of areas, including connectivity and self-driving technologies.

Hyundai and Kia will also utilize Baidu's smart cloud computing technology to address Beijing's enhancing data regulations. The Korean companies will seek to find new business models harnessing artificial intelligence technologies with the Chinese counterpart as well, they added. "Through the strategical collaboration with Baidu, we will make efforts to establish the ecosystem for connected cars in the Chinese market," Hyundai and Kia said in a press release.



The agreement came amid the growing market for connected cars in China. The annual sales of connected cars in China are anticipated to reach 17 million units this year, marking a sharp rise from 7.2 million units tallied in 2019, Hyundai said, citing Chinese data.

Hyundai and Kia have been working closely with Baidu since 2014, including the development of voice recognition technology. (Yonhap).