Alibaba Group Holding is stepping up the commercialisation of its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the automotive industry, with new deals and reported cooperation with several major players in the industry.
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio will use the Hangzhou-based company’s Qwen large language models (LLMs) to enable AI functions in Nio’s smart cockpit, including facilitating AI-powered conversations, according to a statement from Alibaba last week. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
On the production side, Nio’s cockpit department is also exploring how to use Tongyi Lingma, Alibaba’s AI programming tool, to help improve its efficiency in research and development.
The Nio collaboration, which comes after Alibaba expanded its strategic partnership with the BMW Group on LLM adoption, and is reportedly in talks with Tesla for potential cooperation, reflects the progress the tech giant has made in commercialising AI technologies in the car industry.
Last month, Alibaba announced that it was working with BMW to accelerate the integration of the Qwen models into the German automaker’s Neue Klasse intelligent vehicles, in a deal which Alibaba said “marks a significant step forward in AI-driven mobility”.
