JiDU's concept car has a pop-up design on both sides of the front hatch, which looks like two LiDARs.
After unveiling its robot car logo yesterday, Baidu's car-making arm JiDU Auto today released the first teaser video of its concept car, revealing some interesting details.
The concept car appears to have a device set up in the front center of the vehicle, with the brand's signature JiDU AI-Purple as the default display color, the video shows.
No further details about the device can be seen from the video, but it looks likely to function similarly to Nio's NOMI virtual voice assistant.
The concept shows the frameless door design currently used in mainstream electric vehicles, but the way its front doors open seems to suggest it will have gull-wing doors.
It appears to have a camera on each side of the roof and no bump in the center of the roof, unlike the Nio ET7 and ET5 which have a LiDAR module in the center of the roof.
It is worth noting that the concept car has a pop-up design on both sides of the front hatch, which appears to be two LiDARs.
This design approach is unique, considering that several EVs currently place LiDARs in the middle of the roof or near the headlights.
JiDU's design, if eventually mass-produced, will give the vehicle a better visual appearance in parked condition and also place that expensive component in an area less vulnerable to accidents.
The video doesn't provide any information about LiDAR, but at the end of August last year, JiDU signed a contract with local LiDAR provider Hesai Technology in Shanghai to create a solution for advanced assisted driving perception.
The two will work together to improve the performance and competitiveness of vehicle perception and help create a safer and more efficient advanced assisted driving system, according to a statement released by Hesai.
JiDU was officially launched on March 2, 2021, and will build models based on Geely's Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) platform and Baidu's technology in autonomous driving.
At the Baidu Create developer conference on December 27, 2021, the company's founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li said JiDU will unveil its first concept robot car in the first half of 2022, with mass production and delivery in 2023.
The concept car will be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year, and the production version of the car will look 90 percent the same as the concept, according to information previously announced by JiDU.
