Baidu’s electric vehicle maker Jidu Auto said it will be one generation ahead of Tesla in terms of autonomous driving technology.

“Our understanding of smart vehicles is that being electric is the semi-final and being smart is the final,” Baidu chief executive Robin Li said yesterday.

Jidu plans to deliver 800,000 of its smart cars (called “robots”) by 2028, as well as launch its second model into mass production in 2024. In June, Jidu unveiled its first Robo-01 concept car, which has no door handles and can be fully controlled by voice control, with the model planned for mass production in 2023.

In addition to equipping the car with Baidu-based autonomous driving software technology, the Jidu “robots” will have two laser rangefinders (lidars) and 12 cameras. At the same time, Tesla does not use lidars.

Tech companies around the world are competing to develop smart cars following Tesla’s success in commercializing electric vehicles. We should see Xiaomi smart car next year.

Nio, which is known in China for its electric vehicles, intends to develop a new market. They plan to develop and produce smartphones there.

On August 4, the manufacturer registered a division of Nio Mobile Technologies Co Ltd with a starting capital of $100 million. The division is headquartered in Shanghai and co-founders include Nio President Qin Lihong. According to media reports, the company is preparing the first smartphone in 2023, while it will be cheaper than the iPhone. Smartphones are expected to be released once a year.

In addition to smartphones, the new company will sell mobile devices, wearable electronics, hardware solutions for artificial intelligence and communication devices. There will also be software development.

By the way, earlier the Chinese car manufacturer Geely acquired Meizu to also enter the mobile electronics market.

The Tesla Model Y electric crossover is the best-selling electric vehicle in the world, but it could soon be the best-selling passenger car in all categories.

As early as 2023, it could overtake the Toyota Corolla and become the first electric vehicle in history to top the list of the world’s best-selling passenger cars.

This is reported by Electrek with reference to the head of Tesla, Elon Musk, who announced at the annual meeting of Tesla shareholders that the Tesla Model Y is on its way to becoming the best-selling car in the world. He noted that the electric crossover will become the best-selling car in the world by revenue this year. The company also expects it to become the best-selling car next year once Tesla ramps up production at Gigafactory Texas and Gigafactory Berlin.

Currently, the best-selling car in the world is the Toyota Corolla, with annual sales of about 1,150,000 vehicles.

It is worth recalling that Chinese BYD competes with Tesla, which completely abandoned the production of cars with internal combustion engines and sold more than 641 thousand electric vehicles in the first half of 2022.