Chinese internet giant Baidu has won a bid to construct a 5G intelligent driving project in Chengdu in a tender worth RMB105m.

The first project of its kind on Sichuan Province, the win adds to Baidu Apollo’s portfolio of smart transportation projects across China, which are leveraging the company’s strengths in AI-powered infrastructure to bring about an intelligent transformation of transportation and urban management.

As part of the project, Baidu Apollo will develop 30km of intelligent connected demonstration roads in the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park. Baidu also aims to construct a 5G-based intelligent connected vehicle demonstration zone that will support research and development testing as well as future commercial applications.

Once the project is completed, Baidu aims to launch autonomous driving services to Chengdu residents, including robobuses and robotaxis, and create a variety of smart transportation applications as part of an intelligent driving industrial ecosystem.

Since Baidu and the Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone reached a strategic cooperation in June, the two parties have been actively promoting the construction of Sichuan Province’s first benchmark project for intelligent driving. This project to develop a 5G intelligent driving zone represents a leap for the development of smart transportation and the intelligent connected industrial ecosystem in Sichuan.

An economic engine in western China – and the home of the pandas – Chengdu has supported the AI industry, opening a national pilot zone for AI innovation in February this year. The Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone has also been committed to fostering the growth of the 5G and AI industries within the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park, focusing on areas such as smart transportation, the industrial internet and intelligent healthcare.

Through investing in the construction of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) intelligent infrastructure, a cellular V2X (C-V2X) network, the development of V2X software and hardware applications, and the implementation of intelligent vehicle applications, the Chengdu zone aims to be a global highland and benchmark for the smart transportation industry.

Baidu Apollo’s Ace transportation engine – full-stack technology that stands for Autonomous driving, Connected road, Efficient mobility – has been put in use in nearly twenty cities. In the future, Baidu Apollo will give full play to its core areas such as autonomous driving and V2X technology to accelerate the construction of an intelligent driving demonstration zone in the Chengdu zone, which aims to be a benchmark project for smart transportation and intelligent connected industrial ecosystems.