DiDi upgrades autonomous driving arm into independent company

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (DiDi) on August 5 claimed that its autonomous driving arm has been upgraded into an independent company to focus on R&D, production application and other business development pertain to autonomous driving.

(Photo source: Didi Chuxing)

DiDi's CTO Zhang Bo and Meng Xing, former Executive Director at Shunwei China Internet Fund, will serve as the new company’s CEO and COO respectively, according to the announcement. Besides, the self-driving R&D teams in the U.S. and China will be led by Jia Zhaoyin and Zheng Jianqiang respectively. Mr. Meng, Jia and Zheng will report to Zhang Bo.

The newly-built autonomous driving company will integrate DiDi platform's resources and technical advantages, keep strengthening investment in R&D of core technologies and deepen the collaboration with upstream and downstream automobile industrial partners, DiDi said.

Besides, the newborn company will be dedicated to promoting a safer and more efficient future mobility ecosystem by means of innovative technologies and proactively exploring the practical applications of self-driving technologies with the government and the people from all walks of society.

“The new company intends to further open up the strategic collaboration with OEMs and industrial partners to commercialize the self-driving technologies for people's daily lives,” said Zhang Bo.

Safety is still the crucial point highlighted by the new company. DiDi said it will gradually apply its experience and understanding on safe operations in ride-hailing business to the operation of self-driving business. In the meantime, the new company will partner with the transportation authorities and relevant parties to jointly explore the safety standards for autonomous driving operations.

Since DiDi's autonomous driving technology R&D team was found in 2016, it has blossomed to a group with over 200 staff worldwide, specializing in various sectors such as high-definition mapping, perception, behavior prediction, planning & control, infrastructure & simulation, data labelling, problem diagnosis, vehicle modifications, cloud control & IoT and cybersecurity.