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Morning Report: China-based Baidu has partnered with Intel to enhance its autonomous vehicle platform, Apollo.

Chinese search behemoth has reportedly partnered with Intel鈥檚 Israel-based autonomous vehicle unit . According to , the partnership will allow Baidu to incorporate Mobileye鈥檚 Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) system into Baidu鈥檚 autonomous vehicle software platform Apollo聽. Mobileye was acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion in March 2017, .

This deal comes on the heels of Baidu鈥檚 production announcement for its autonomous minibuses, Apolong, which it plans to launch in tourist-centric and geofenced areas of Beijing, Shenzhen, Pingtan, and Wuhan, .

Like many other companies building out autonomous vehicle projects, Baidu has initiated partnerships with various car companies and ridesharing services including Grab, Ford, Delphi, Honda, and Jaguar.

Baidu equity investment fund in September 2017 to invest in startups and boost its own platform. Alibaba and Tencent have also in the autonomous vehicle and artificial intelligence space including Alibaba鈥檚 creation of Alibaba AI Labs and its .

As Crunchbase News has explored in the past, where Chinese government endorsement exists, money follows. For those operating in favorable verticals, these government-backed initiatives often mean an open regulatory environment and room to experiment. The Chinese government is betting that China will win the autonomous vehicle race, and tech giants are there to push that initiative forward.

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