Over the past seven years, Baidu's self-driving technology unit, Apollo, has not been able to generate any profits from its operations or from the products it has developed. Despite the piling costs to its parent company, Baidu reiterated its commitment in the business, stating that it will continue to invest in the company to keep it going for another seven years or more.

On Wednesday, Apollo officials stated that the company is still committed to being a major player in the future of advanced mobility. Apollo corporate vice president and general manager, Li Zhenyu, mentioned at a press conference that Baidu is still willing to invest in the continued development of autonomous driving technologies for at least another seven years. Li added that whether or not Baidu's gamble will pay off will be made clear in the coming years.

It is not yet clear how much exactly Baidu is willing to invest in the company or how much it had already spent to keep it afloat over the past seven years. Nevertheless, the cost of keeping an unprofitable tech company running is likely quite high.

Baidu's operations are under a lot of pressure, particularly given the global economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, the Beijing-based search engine giant reported a 7 percent decrease in revenues for the first quarter of this year.

Baidu originally established its self-driving unit back in 2013 with the goal of someday generating profits from the company's developments. Since then, the company has been scaling up its autonomous driving ambitions, pouring more money into its relatively new venture. Earlier in the month, Baidu announced that it had completed the construction of a new 13,500 square meter complex, called the Apollo Park, in Bejing's Yizhuang Economic Development Zone.

The industrial complex is currently the world's largest test site for vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and self-driving technologies. Baidu also announced plans to build similar facilities in other major cities such as Chongqing, Yangquan, and Hefei.

Baidu's efforts have at least earned it some recognition in the sector, with Apollo being ranked as one of the top five autonomous driving companies in China. The company is directly competing to develop commercial viable self-driving technologies with Chinese startups such as AutoX, WeRide, and Pony.ai. In the global stage, the Chinese firms are directly competing with US-based firms such as Ford, Cruise, and Waymo.

Apart from developing self-driving vehicles, Apollo is also working on a number of other related technologies. This includes developing smart transport infrastructures for cities such as connected roads and smart traffic systems.