Chinese search engine giant Baidu has called off its joint research partnership with German auto manufacturer BMW. The partnership involved testing of autonomous cars in China and the US. Baidu is now said to be looking for new research partners.

BMW's China CEO Olaf Kastner stated that both parties were not able to reach a consensus about the course of action for research activities. He does not pinpoint the cause of disagreement between Baidu and BMW. However, Kastner said, "We now have found that the development pace and the ideas of the two companies are a little different."

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The partnership was announced last summer. The project did not lead to any formal product as the companies could not move beyond a joint research initiative. However, Baidu used BMW's 3 Series sedans for its public road testing in China. Kastner said that the collaboration was able to jointly develop the automatic overtaking feature, constituting a major milestone.

Baidu was contemplating using BMW cars for road tests in the US. The company now plans to use Ford's Lincoln brand for its US testing. Wang Jing, the head of autonomous car development at Baidu said, "I'm open for any partners, actually I'm talking to many."

Both companies will continue to collaborate on developing high-definition maps, which are important for the navigation system of autonomous vehicles.

Baidu plans to commercialize autonomous cars by 2018. It also aims to augment their deployment by 2021, coinciding with BMW's plans to develop highly or completely autonomous cars by the same time.

TagsBMW, Baidu, Olaf Kastner, Autonomous Cars