Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Ltd., China’s biggest ride-hailing company, announced today that it has opened an artificial intelligence lab in Beijing that will work on technology for the company’s smart traffic initiative.

Led by Didi Vice President and the University of Michigan professor Ye Jieping, Didi Labs already employs more than 200 AI scientists and engineers, and Didi has plans to expand the lab later this year.

According to Didi, the lab will use AI to meet the challenges currently facing the transportation industry. The company said in a statement that lab’s projects will “focus on topics ranging from natural language processing, computer vision for operations research, deep learning, statistics and other prospective technologies.” Didi noted that it has already been using AI to promote road safety and reduce commute times, but Didi AI Labs will accelerate its research and “propel scientific breakthroughs that unlock the potential of AI for the industry.”

Didi’s AI team will likely also work on expanding and improving the company’s recently announced DiDi Smart Transportation Brain, which combines AI and transportation data that enable cities to implement traffic flow measurements, smart traffic lights and other technologies. Didi said yesterday that more than 20 Chinese cities have already adopted its Smart Transportation Brain, which allowed the city of Jinan to save commuters 30,000 hours of travel time through the installation of more than 300 smart traffic lights.

Didi AI Labs is the third addition to the company’s research network, which includes the Didi Research Institute and Didi Labs, both of which are located in Mountain View, California. Didi’s U.S.-based labs work on research for other AI applications, including self-driving cars and computer vision.

Photo: Didi Chuxing