Headhunters are recruiting for Baidu to build cars, this time for a mid-level cadre, Sina Tech reported Tuesday, adding that the joint venture is likely to be set up in Shanghai.
The external recruitment is the second round of hiring. The first round is the company's internal smart-car-related technical positions, in which these employees first left Baidu, and then joined the joint venture company established by Baidu and Geely, Sina Tech said, citing Baidu employees.
Baidu announced in early January that it was forming a smart car company to enter the auto industry as a vehicle manufacturer. Geely Holding Group will become a strategic partner of the new company.
The newly formed Baidu car company will target the passenger car market and will focus on the entire industry chain of smart car design and development, manufacturing and sales services, the company said.
Baidu officially announces its entry into car-making industry
According to Sina Tech, the company currently has only two shareholders, Baidu and Geely, with Baidu in a dominant position, accounting for about 51 percent of the joint venture, while Geely focuses on providing production capacity and the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) intelligent evolutionary experience architecture, accounting for about 49 percent of the joint venture.
The mid-level cadre of this recruitment has been less relevant to the core technology of car manufacturing, indicating that the recruitment of Baidu car manufacturing has entered an advanced stage and the basic framework has been set up, the report said.
Previously, the WM W6, developed by Baidu and WM Motor in cooperation, was sold as Apollo autonomous parking, but Baidu was only one of the suppliers in the product area in it.
Even though Baidu has invested heavily in Apollo, there are still no car companies willing to hand over the most core intelligent modules to Baidu as a supplier, so Baidu chose to build its own car, Sina Tech quoted an expert as saying.
WM Motor founder says Baidu's entry into car-making industry a good thing
Baidu as the first of the Internet giants to build a car, the model is better than the strategic cooperationbetween Internet companies and traditional car companies, Sina Tech quoted experts as saying, adding that if cooperating with car companies as supplier only to see an unpopular product, making your own car is the best choice, and Baidu has the ability to do this.
"No matter how negative the outside reviews are, with Baidu and Geely, this project is indeed attractive in the primary market." Sina Tech quoted an expert as saying, adding that after missing out on Nio, many people want a piece of the capital market with Baidu's car-making project.
There are many Baidu employees who are not optimistic about the future of Baidu's car-making. "It's either a news release to stimulate the stock price, or Baidu is executing at a later stage, and there may be one problem or another." They claim.
But there are people who are firmly optimistic.After all, Baidu has invested enough money and manpower in the field of autonomous driving, with a sufficient technical reserve.
Baidu's stock price rose 67 percent in a month because of the car-making rumors, and both Baidu and Geely shares rose after the car-making information was announced, bringing Baidu's market value back to $80 billion.
