AsiaIndustrial NetNews: Baidu lost another general. On March 27, Wang Jin, senior vice president of Baidu and former general manager of the driverless business unit, publicly stated that he will officially leave Baidu in April and start a business around autonomous driving, which has been invested by Hongtai Fund.
Baidu executives continue to leave
On March 27, at the Hongtai Fund CEO Spring Equinox Conference, Wang Jin revealed his new whereabouts in his speech. Wang Jin said that he would leave Baidu to start his own business in five days, and had received Hongtai investment.
Wang Jin, who was once one of the “Four Kings” of Baidu’s unmanned vehicles, has played an important role in Baidu’s artificial intelligence, especially the field of unmanned vehicles.
Wang Jin joined Baidu in April 2010, and based on Baidu Deep Learning Lab (IDL), he co-founded Baidu Research Institute, focusing on artificial intelligence development.
Wang Jin is the leader of Baidu’s self-driving car. He founded Baidu’s self-driving business unit and led the team to build Baidu’s car brain, so that Baidu’s self-driving car was successfully tested on the road in early December 2015, realizing the first city in China. Fully automatic driving in mixed road conditions of , ring road and highway. Wang Jin was also selected as one of the “60 Key Persons Driving Autonomous Driving” by Automotive News, a well-known American automotive media, at the end of last year.
Just last week, Baidu Chief Scientist Andrew Ng announced his departure from Baidu. So far, Yu Kai, Ni Kai, Wang Jin, and Wu Enda, the four executives of Baidu’s unmanned vehicles, who also called Baidu’s unmanned vehicles “Four Kings”, have all left.
In fact, the field of artificial intelligence happens to be the field that Baidu President Li Yanhong has the most high hopes for. Just after Li Yanhong and the Israeli Prime Minister talked about artificial intelligence, saying “the Internet is an appetizer, the main dish is artificial intelligence”, the most fancy artificial intelligence. The field has experienced a huge earthquake. Where will the big ship of Baidu AI led by Lu Qi go?
How does Lu Qi lead Baidu AI to break through?
In January this year, former Microsoft executive vice president Lu Qi joined Baidu as president and COO. The so-called “Silicon Valley’s most powerful Chinese” was given unprecedented responsibility, including the artificial intelligence technology team led by Chief Scientist Wu Enda, Senior Vice President Wang Jin brought Xiang Hailong, President of the Unmanned Vehicle Division and Search Company, Zhang Yaqin (Weibo), President of the Technology System and Emerging Business Group, and Senior Vice President Zhu Guang, together with the Financial Business Group, and reported to Lu Qi in a unified manner.
How will Baidu President Lu Qi, who now holds Baidu’s artificial intelligence baton, lead Baidu to break through in the field of artificial intelligence?
Different from other academic executives, Lu Qi is not only an expert in the field of artificial intelligence, Li Yanhong even said in an interview with the Beijing News and other media, “In the field of artificial intelligence, I understand even 1/10 of Lu Qi’s. No”, more importantly, Lu Qi is a senior business manager.
For the recent departure of executives in the field of artificial intelligence, the outside world believes that the reason may be that Wang Jin’s concept of autonomous driving development does not match Baidu’s internal development, or it may be that the personnel are renewing the old and accepting new ones, adding vitality to the development of Baidu’s autonomous driving.
Now Baidu and other companies are intensively deploying driverless tracks. According to Wang Jin’s prediction at the Hongtai Fund CEO Equinox Conference, in 2020, basically mainstream companies can achieve the goal of mass production. Some companies may be more conservative and will not be able to achieve mass production until after 2025.
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