China's biggest search engine—Baidu—and Microsoft are expanding their self-driving-vehicle partnership to cover data storage, security, and artificial intelligence services for the companies' open-source autonomous vehicle platform, Apollo. Microsoft's Azure cloud-storage service will allow self-driving cars that run on the Apollo platform to store information, such as map and roadway updates, marking the latest evolution of a system that's had inputs from 50 automakers, suppliers, and other tech companies. The expanded Baidu/Microsoft partnership is the latest effort from a technology company (or in this case, companies) to push into the budding self-driving car industry, where software, data, and technology are nearly as important as the car itself. Apollo's open-source
