Tencent, Changan Auto forming smart car joint venture

A unit of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd has teamed up with State-owned Chongqing Changan Automobile Co to develop business related to smart and connected vehicles.

The two firms on Thursday signed a cooperation agreement on a joint venture at the 2018 China Internet Plus & Digital Economy Summit held in Chongqing. Under the deal, Changan will take 49 percent of the joint venture with an investment of 98 million yuan ($15.6 million). Tencent Dadi Tongtu Technology Co Ltd, a unit of Tencent, will spend 102 million yuan to own the remaining 51 percent.

The joint venture will build an open platform to develop the internet of vehicles, big data and cloud technologies, aiming to offer comprehensive solutions for smart and connected cars and operating services.

Last year, Baidu Inc announced its Apollo project, which opened up its autonomous driving platform to its partners. The company claimed it had gained more than 90 partners for the platform so far.