Tesla Finally Gets Rival In Smart Cars Manufacturing; New YouTube Video Shows Smaller, Simpler Model 3 Testing

by Guenee Salugsugan / Apr 12, 2017 07:25 AM EDT

Tesla has a new rival in the growing electric cars business. Baidu Inc. is believed to tap the expertise of French 3D design software manufacturer Dassault Systemes.

Tesla And Baidu Inc. Are Looking For Partners

Tesla and its competitor Baidu Inc. are said to be looking for partners in developing Internet-connected cars, smart city projects, and electric cars. In fact, reports claim that Baidu and Dassault Systemes have already met prior to announcing a new investment in the Chinese electric car, NextEV. Although the French company did not provide details of the plan, Dassault Systemes hinted that Baidu plans to pattern their virtual city project to Singapore.

Incidentally, Dassault Systemes worked with Singapore to unveil a 3D city model platform for community work and knowledge sharing in December 2014. Named "Virtual Singapore," this city model is reported to have a rich data environment and visualization techniques used by Singaporeans and local businesses to develop services and tools, which Baidu is also working at to give cloud infrastructure using the French company's 3D experience on the cloud.

Tesla's new rival Baidu, meantime, launched on Nov. 30, 2016, an artificial intelligence platform named "Tianzhi" that expands the use of cloud among commercial users at the ABC Summit in Beijing. The platform includes three sub-layers - perception, deep learning and machine learning. Through its virtual reality partnership with Dassault, Baidu's online service is expected to become integral to electric cars from the design stage, The Market Mogul reported.

Tesla Model 3 Testing Spotted On A Freeway

A blue Tesla Model 3 was spotted during testing on Interstate 280 while supported by a Ludicrous Model S P90D that served as a chase car. This was reportedly shown in a video that surfaced on YouTube.

Tesla Model 3 and Model S size differences were clearly indicated in the video, revealing that the Model 3 is smaller and looking much simpler than the other model. However, this does not come as a surprise, since Tesla has announced that Model 3 is not the version 3 or the next generation Tesla, Teslarati reported.