Shanghai (ZXZC)- Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co., Ltd. (Sokon) signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Baidu on April 2, announcing that both parties will deepen cooperation in such areas as autonomous driving, connected vehicle and cloud service.

At the signing ceremony, Sokon announced that it will be the partner of Baidu Apollo open autonomous driving platform to deeply participate the construction and promotion of Apollo ecosystem. As to autonomous driving field, both parties will achieve the mass production of L3-featured autonomous driving models deployed by Apollo Pilot autonomous driving solutions at around 2020, and achieve mass production of L4-featured autonomous driving models at around 2021. When it comes to connected vehicle area, both parties will develop AI-featured intelligent connected vehicles with deep learning capability. Apollo's Xiaodu onboard system will be fully deployed in the mass-produced models in 2018. 

Li Zhenyu, vice president of Baidu and general manager of intelligent driving division stated that the partnership with Sokon marks a great progress of Baidu's deployment in central and western regions in China.

Zhang Xinghai, chairman of Sokon noted that the cooperation with Baidu signifies great in Sokon's strategic transformation. Their cooperation will reshape automobile industry chain through fast upgraded methods based on intellectualization and big data. Moreover, Sokon will transform from a product-oriented company to a customer-oriented company with major products transforming from traditional fuel-powered vehicles to new-gen intelligent EV models. Apart from this transformation, Sokon will take deep transformation from a traditional automaker to a high-tech intelligent automaker with major business transforming from sheer vehicle manufacturing to overall intelligent mobility solutions.