WeRide to raise investment in next-generation autonomous driving tech as Beijing seeks to cut manufacturers’ logistics costs

Name: Baidu wins permits to offer fully driverless robotaxi service in Beijing
Uploaded: 2023-05-08T01:00:19.000Z
Duration: 3 min 49 s
Description: Baidu wins permits to offer fully driverless robotaxi service in Beijing

The Chinese start-up plans to plough more resources into level 4 (L4) driverless tech, one step away from full autonomy

Autonomous driving will save US$260.5 billion in labour costs in China by 2030 when thousands of trucks become driverless, UBS forecasts

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The Guangzhou-based company has deployed its autonomous buses known as robobus in 18 cities across the globe. Photo: WEIBO

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 9:00am, 8 May 2023

WeRide, a Chinese start-up focusing on driverless vehicle development, plans to plough more resources into level 4 (L4) autonomous driving this year, in a move likely to boost Beijing’s efforts to improve companies’ profitability by cutting logistics costs.

L4 autonomous driving does not require human intervention in most circumstances, but the driver still has the option to manually take control of the car, according to SAE International, a standardisation body.

It is seen as an important milestone on the way to level 5 fully autonomous driving which would, for example, enable manufacturers and freight companies to run driverless fleets of lorries.

Guangzhou-based WeRide, which has deployed its autonomous bus known as robobus in 18 cities across the globe, said it would become faster and easier to commercialise its technologies as the costs of key components like the sensors used to detect range and motion come down.

In a written reply to questions from the Post, WeRide said it would “continue to invest in research and development as well as commercialise its technologies to maintain a leading position in the industry.”

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Baidu wins permits to offer fully driverless robotaxi service in Beijing

The company said it would expand the scale of its robobus trials – which mainly use L4 technology – in Wuxi in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, and Guangzhou, this year.

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