Fresh ahead of first deliveries of its ROBO-01 AI powered electric car later this year, Baidu’s autonomous EV marque JIDU has begun touting its second model – the ROBO-02. The Chinese automaker officially unveiled the new robotic EV sedan at the Guangzhou Auto Show alongside some images you can peruse below. Notice anything missing from the exterior?
JIDU is an EV automaker established by China’s Baidu Group in March of 2021. Rather than just build regular old EVs, JIDU was created to popularize autonomous driving and human-machine interaction technologies.
It came out swinging with a AI-centric robotic concept that would eventually evolve into its flagship EV – the ROBO-01. Following hundreds of millions in Series A funding in January of 2022, JIDU vowed to deliver consumers an autonomous, AI car that will combine interactive robot emotion and intelligence within the driving experience.
This past summer, we got our full glimpse of the ROBO-01, which lacks door handles, has a retractable steering wheel, and can talk and share its own emotions with its passengers. JIDU initially promised a limited run of 1,000 units of the ROBO-01 but later added an additional 1,000 due to high demand. While that first robotic EV moves closer to production this coming year, JIDU has made good on its promise to unveil a second model at the Guangzhou Auto Show. Have a look.
JIDU unveils another electric robot car without door handles
Following a debut of the ROBO-01 in front of a crowd in China, JIDU also unveiled the ROBO-02, although many of its performance details remain unknown for now. As you can see, JIDU’s second robot car has a similar front end to its SUV sibling, and also lacks door handles. Instead, the doors can be opened using voice command or bluetooth.
We do not yet know the hardware specifications of such an AI-centric vehicle, but for comparison, the ROBO-01 is equipped with two Nvidia Orin X chips that deliver up to 508 TOPS of computing power. These help control 31 different sensors, including 2 LiDARs, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 12 high-definition cameras.
The ROBO-01 is also equipped with a 100kWh lithium-ion battery pack from CATL that offers a range of over 600 km (373 mi). Given that the ROBO-02 is a sleeker, more aerodynamic sedan compared to its SUV predecessor, we’d expect to see better performance specs on JIDU’s next electric car.
We are sure to learn more in 2023 as the ROBO-01 begins production and reaches first customers in China, paving the way for the new ROBO-02.