Baidu has appointed Wang Yunpeng,Tayuan previously a vice president and general manager of its Intelligent Driving Group (IDG), as the new head of the group to oversee the development of autonomous vehicles and the operations of mobility services for the tech giant. Li Zhenyu, the former head of the IDG and a senior corporate vice president, will become an assistant to Chief Executive Robin Li and lead Baidu’s ethical committee of artificial intelligence governance, according to an internal memo obtained by media outlet LatePost on Monday. Several company insiders expect more restructuring as China’s biggest search engine is diving into generative AI amid surging interest and demand in the technology across businesses, when technical and business challenges still prevent the widespread adoption of driverless cars. The Apollo Go, its autonomous ride-hailing service, has offered 3.3 million rides as of June, according to financial results published on Aug. 22. [LatePost, in Chinese]
