Didi builds new wholly-owned subsidiary for autonomous driving R&D

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On March 1, Beijing Xiaoju Technology Co., Ltd, the developer of China's ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing, has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary named Shanghai Didi Woya Technology Co.,Ltd, according to qichacha.com, a Chinese company data search website.

With a registered capital of RMB10 million, the new subsidiary's business scope extends to cover such areas as information technology, transportation facility technology, intelligent driving technology, autonomous vehicle technology. Other businesses include the auto parts technology development, transfer, consultation as well as software development and automobile leasing, etc.

The “autonomous vehicle technology” is quite a bright spot for the new company. Yet it is not a fresh move for Didi to make layouts in this burgeoning industry. It presented the interest in autonomous driving as early as March 2017 when Didi built its first overseas AI lab in Mountain View, California. Then in last March, the U.S.-based lab was approved by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to test its self-driving vehicles on roads.

At the end of last November, Didi announced that it was about to establish labs in Toronto, Canada focusing on R&D of AI and other intelligent technologies. On the same day, the company formed a strategic partnership with University of Toronto to co-conduct some programs of automobile connectivity, AI and smart transportation.

As an operator with huge transport capacity, Didi does have some natural advantages in developing autonomous driving technology. The great amount of data collected by millions of vehicles on Didi's platform can be researched for autonomous driving development. On the other hand, its massive ride-hailing platform is a proper ground to have autonomous driving technology quickly put into commercialized usage before vehicles are delivered to consumers.