- Stav Shvartz
- June 7, 2021
- 2:10 pm
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China AV Newsletter | May 2021
Few hours ago started the 618 campaign in China, it marks the summer e-commerce period at June 18th, though all the discounts starting at June 1st 00:00. This is the summer counter of the famous “Singles Day” at double 11. This e-commerce mania does not relate directly for AV, though I thought it worth sharing some of the current events that keep your friends in China busy today. Furthermore, car sales via e-commerce platforms are supper popular and even threatening offline dealerships. With the fast movements of autonomous technology in China, my bet is that by next year’s 618, the shopping cart will include L3+ autonomous vehicles sold to public…
This month we saw the fast movement of the local AV chip sector, let by Horizon Robotics, releasing their Journey 5 chip. This is crucial for the industry given the global scarcity which already led production shut-down and in house development for leading NEV firms.
May.6th: AutoX‘s fully unmanned RoboTaxi (no safety driver in front or rear seat) reached 100 days of commercial trial operation, carrying passengers in China. In order to demonstrate its autonomous vehicle capabilities, AutoX released a 2-hour-long uninterrupted, one-shot, fully-empty car video.
May.7th: Full-stack autonomous driving service provider HongJing Drive announced the completion of nearly 100 million RMB Series A financing. This round of financing was led by Tatai Capital, followed by Delian Capital and previous shareholder Hillhouse Capital. This round of financing will be used to expand the current technology and data teams as well as investment in R&D of high level autonomous.
May.9th: Horizon Robotics has announced that its third generation of automotive grade products, the Journey 5 chip series, have been successfully flowed and lit in a single run ahead of schedule. The product is aimed at L4 autonomous driving. As full-scope intelligent central computing chip that integrates autonomous driving and intelligent interaction, the Journey 5 series can achieve up to 128 TOPS of AI computing power per chip. The Horizon 5 series target to deliver the highest FPS performance with the lowest power consumption.
May.12th: TuSimple released its Q1 financial report for 2021 – its first financial report since IPO. According to the report, TuSimple’s Q1 revenue was US$944,000, an increase of 264% year-on-year, while net loss was US$385 million, an expansion of approximately 1,392% year-on-year. TuSimple said that the significant increase in losses was mainly due to higher R&D expenses. In the first quarter of 2021, TuSimple’s R&D expenses were US$41.43 million, a 30% increase sequentially and 127.88% year-on-year. According to TuSimple, the company received a total of 1,200 new orders for autonomous driving trucks as of March 31, 2021, and received another 1,000 orders in April. To date, TuSimple has received a total of 6,775 truck orders.
May.12th: Pony.ai has announced that a new autonomous driving sensing system jointly developed with Luminar LiDAR, will be tested on the road in 2022. The new system uses a 360-degree multi-sensor fusion solution to promise safety and reliability when operating in complex urban road conditions. In addition, the two companies will work together to create a mass-production-ready, vehicle-grade sensor fusion solution. Pony.ai plans to mass-produce a vehicle-grade autonomous driving system in 2023, which will be equipped with Luminar’s IRIS lidar. This is the first time Luminar has chosen to strategically partner with an autonomous driving company in China.
May.13th: Pony.ai Robotaxi service was launched to public in Yizhuang, Beijing. 30 Lexus RXs are equipped with PonyAlpha X, the fifth-generation autonomous driving system, which is the most expensive of all open autonomous vehicles on the market today. The service covers an operating area of 150 square kilometers in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area, including around 150 stations, and will operate from 8:30am to 22:30pm.
May.13th: WeRide announced that it has raised several hundred million dollars in Series C funding, valued at USD 3.3 billion post money. This round of financing was raised by IDG Capital, He Chuang Investment, K3 Ventures and others. Old shareholders CMC Capital and Qiming Venture Partners participated as well. This round comes only 4 months after previous B round in which the company raised USD 310 million.
May.17th: GAC AION announced a strategic cooperation with DiDi to jointly develop a front-loading mass-produced autonomous driving vehicle. The two parties will explore a JV model, combining GAC AION’s autonomous vehicle platform, vehicle design and manufacturing capabilities, with DiDi’s R&D capabilities in autonomous driving software. The target is to jointly design and develop a new autonomous driving NEV that can fit large-scale applications from basic dimensions such as wire-controlled chassis, autonomous driving sensors and system integration.
May.18th: Intelligent Digital Vehicle Company ECAR announced the completion of tens of millions RMB Pre-A round of financing, exclusively invested by Tianqi Venture Capital. The capital will be used for technical team expansion, core parts development and internal research production line construction.
May.19th: Intelligent driving technology service provider MAXIEYE announced the completion of 150 million RMB A+ round of financing, led by Fosun Venture Capital. The capital will be used for R&D investment, market expansion and supply chain cash flow replenishment of L2 systems. In 2019, MAXIEYE’s market share in front mounted ADAS for commercial buses has passed 80%. In 2020, the monthly shipment of front mounted ADAS for commercial trucks reached 10,000 systems with annual shipment of 100,000+. This year shipments expected to reach 300,000 systems.
May.24th: MindCruise.ai announced that it has completed a Pre-A round of financing of nearly 100 million RMB. This round of financing will be used for independent R&D of core sensors, AI algorithms and domain controllers for autonomous driving, as well as construction of an intelligent factory. MindCruise.ai uses millimeter wave radar sensors as an entry point to launch a series of products and autonomous driving solutions.
May.25th: Beijing’s high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone issued the first batch of vehicle codes for unmanned delivery vehicles in China. Meituan, JingDong and Neolix entered the first batch of licensed companies, with vehicle codes MT0001, JD0001 and NX0001 respectively. It is reported that JD and Meituan have already deployed nearly 100 unmanned vehicles in delivery stations, residential areas and industrial parks to carry out end-of-line express delivery services. Neolix’s unmanned delivery vehicles are also providing vending services for restaurant or fast food meals at Nanhaizi Park, Yicheng International, BDA Enterprise Avenue and Yongchang Industrial Park.
May.26th: XPeng released the OTA chronicle, as of May 2021, XPeng has pushed out 23 major version updates for G3 and P7 users via OTA, adding 134 new features, optimizing 2,326 features and accumulating more than 380,000 vehicle OTA upgrades.
Sources: Gasgoo; Stockanalysis.com; WeRide.ai on Medium; Luminar; Xpeng.
