(Yicai Global) Sept. 20 -- China's search engine behemoth Baidu has joined hands with Belgium's heavy-duty car parts maker Wabco Holdings to jointlystandardize solutions for autonomous point-to-point commercial expressway vehicles.

The parties signed a memorandum of understanding to build a level-4 unmanned driving platformthat will provide commercial vehicle makers with core security and artificial intelligence technologies, Brussels-based Wabco said in a statement today. L4 implies a high level of autonomous driving which generally requires no human input.

Under the deal, Beijing-based Baidu will contribute its Apollo autopilot software and Wabco will provide its Autonomous Driving Open Platform Technology, a braking and steering system, to the new operating system. The pair will develop a product in the next three years, online news outlet Ifeng reported.

Automated driving will first be applied to commercial vehicles, one of the key fields for Baidu's Apollo, said Li Zhenyu, general manager of the internet firm's smart cars unit.

Editor: Emmi Laine