(Yicai Global) Dec. 28 – China's technology giant Baidu Inc. [NASDAQ:BIDU] will unveil new version of its unmanned driving development platform Apollo 2.0 at the CES trade show, formerly known as International Consumer Electronics Show, early next year, when a fleet of autonomous vehicles it develops will hit Californian roads, the company said.

Baidu will hold a global promotion event for its artificial intelligence technologies and release Apollo 2.0, which includes new sensor solutions and is compatible with more models, at CES 2018 to be held in Las Vegas between Jan. 9 and Jan. 12. Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] and Qualcomm Inc. [NASDAQ:QCOM] will also attend the event as its international partners.

As an open development platform Baidu debuted in July, Apollo allows its partners in the automotive and software industries to share codes on it to help them quickly build an exclusive, comprehensive automated driving system. Baidu released Apollo 1.5 in September.

Baidu has publicly showcased its self-driving technology many times this year. Robin Li, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, released a video of himself taking a ride in a driverless car on a Beijing highway in July. Baidu organized 10 self-driving vehicles equipped with the Apollo platform to hit the streets of Xiong'an New Area in the northern Hebei province on Dec. 20.

The company will also release the latest version of its AI-based operating system DuerOS at next year's CES. DuerOS already made its first debut at this year's event. Baidu's new releases coincide with China's central government's push to take global lead in the next generation of automotive technology.