AUTONOMOUS & AI

Baidu launches $145 mn fund to back Chinese AI startups

Baidu Inc., China has announced that it will set up a venture capital fund of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) to back Chinese startups that are focused on generative AI, startups like the ChatGPT.

Baidu will use the fund to incubate projects and will launch a competition to develop applications built atop its ERNIE large language model (LLM) or integrate the model into their existing products, it said. www.reuters.com

Run:ai and AI Singapore partnership

Run:ai, has been chosen as a strategic partner by AI Singapore, a national R&D programme launched by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, which is focused on anchoring deep national capabilities in AI. This collaboration aims to deliver scalable infrastructure solutions for a wide range of AI projects and help AI Singapore in its mission to accelerate the adoption of AI by the industry

As the national AI programme, AI Singapore plays a central role in helping organizations adopt AI solutions. Through their flagship 100 Experiments Programme (100E) coupled with the award-winning AI Apprenticeship Programme (AIAP), they have worked with more than 60 companies and trained more than 200 Singaporean AI engineers to develop, test and deploy hundreds of AI models that address real world problems. Given the ever-changing nature of AI workloads and the scale at which AISG’s programmes operate, distributing compute resources, including GPUs across onpremise and cloud infrastructures effectively between the various projects is a significant challenge. www.run.ai

DMV issues an autonomous vehicle deployment permit to Mercedes-Benz

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has issued an autonomous vehicle deployment permit to Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC, allowing the company to offer its DRIVE PILOT automated driving system on designated California highways under certain conditions without the active control of a human driver. MercedesBenz is the fourth company to receive an autonomous vehicle deployment permit in California and the first authorized to sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system to the public. www.dmv.ca.gov

Marelli and IAC announce technological partnership

Marelli has announced that it will be the exclusive race control technology sponsor of the Indy Autonomous Challenge(IAC). A technical partnership for connectivity solutions has been signed, based on which Marelli will supply, to all IAC fully autonomous racecars, technologies to ensure vehicle connection, race control, and data analysis and will also provide technical support.

The IAC is a series of competitions among full-scale autonomous racecars, driven by software programmed by top engineering and technology university teams from around the world, that compete on iconic tracks. A primary goal of the IAC is to advance technology for fully autonomous vehicles and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). www.marelli.com

TuSimple among first to receive fully driverless test license in China

TuSimple Holdings, Inc. has announced it has been awarded a fully driverless test license by the Pudong New Area of Shanghai in China. It is among the first batch of companies to be awarded, thus enabling the Company to conduct SAE Level 4 fully autonomous Driver Out testing in the designated test areas of Yangshan Deep-water Port and Donghai Bridge. Shanghai is also set to become the first city in China to pass legislation to allow Level 4 fully driverless testing of autonomous trucks. www.tusimple.com.