Employees and Assets of Baidu’s Intelligent Driving Group Transferred to New Companies
Tencent News’s Deep Web reported on Monday that various employees and assets of Baidu‘s Intelligent Driving Group (IDG) have been transferred from related companies of Baidu Group to several wholly-owned subsidiaries this year.
Although transferred to the new companies, the position, service year and treatment of employees have not changed. Baidu insiders said that IDG is still a business group under Baidu.
Li Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu Group and general manager of IDG, explained the reasons for the change at the internal meeting. For better operations, IDG was transferred to new subjects for independent operation.
IDG mainly has three businesses: autonomous driving, intelligent transportation and intelligent cars. The commercialization of the first two is still in its infancy, and the smart car business with a mature business model is the main commercialization force of IDG at present.
IDG attaches great importance to its smart car business. In September this year, Chu Ruisong, the former vice president of Baidu‘s business-to-business SaaS services, was transferred to IDG as the general manager of its Smart Car Division, reporting to Li Zhenyu.
A Baidu source said that Chu’s transfer was aimed at stimulating organizational vitality and promoting business innovation, which is the embodiment of Baidu emphasizing IDG’s service-oriented enterprises.
After Chu’s addition to the team, the business strategy of IDG’s Smart Car Division changed. An IDG employee said that Baidu‘s smart car products will be changed from customized production according to the needs of car companies to standardized products with an open software development kit.
SEE ALSO: Baidu Releases “Chaodao Plan” and Advocates Rebuilding Open Internet
With the trend of gradual similarity among automobile products, user demand for automobiles’ cockpit functions is constantly expanding, which is one of the directions that Baidu‘s smart car team will strive for in the future. It is estimated that by 2023, there will be more than 100 million cars equipped with Baidu‘s intelligent auto network.
