SenseTime sees its smart-driving technology in 20 million vehicles via tie-ups with Honda, Great Wall, Chery and others

SenseTime has formed partnerships with 30 carmakers, including Japan’s Honda Motors, and China’s Great Wall Motors and Chery Automobile

The company’s AI platform is used to power smart driving, intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving features

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Xpeng’s all-electric P7 salon on the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway under the control of its navigation guided pilot (NGP) smart-driving system on 26 March 2021. Photo: Daniel Ren.

Published: 10:00am, 29 Aug 2021Updated: 7:49pm, 29 Aug 2021

SenseTime, which has applied to arrange an estimated US$2 billion stock sale in Hong Kong, said its artificial intelligence (AI) platform may be used to power the smart-driving, intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving features in as many as 20 million cars in the next several years.

The Hong Kong-based AI company, founded by a group of professors at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has formed partnerships with 30 carmakers, including Japan’s Honda Motors, and China’s Great Wall Motors and Chery Automobile, said SenseTime’s co-founder and managing director of its research laboratory Wang Xiaogang.

“There is a huge business potential for us to tap in this area,” Wang said in an interview with South China Morning Post before filing their application to list in Hong Kong, citing the combined production of the customers who have signed up for SenseTime’s technology. “The vehicle will become the third major space where people spend the most amount of time, after their homes and their offices.”

The comment by Wang underscores how China, the world’s largest market for conventional petrol-guzzling cars and electric vehicles, is rapidly closing the technology gap with rival global carmakers, as every new vehicle that comes on China’s roads is smarter, cleaner and packs more intelligent features than ever before. In JD Power’s second survey of customers’ satisfaction with electric cars released earlier this month, Guangzhou-based Xpeng Motor outsmarted Tesla to top the rankings in the mass-market segment.

Mileage of major electric vehicle models as of July 2020. SCMP Graphics

Smart vehicles will become a mutli-trillion yuan market in China, as consumers ditch their petrol-guzzling cars for electric vehicles that now answer to voice commands, park themselves or find their way to preset destinations.

As many as 6.6 million new vehicles, or one of every four new cars, entering China’s roads will be powered by battery by 2025, according to the forecast by UBS.

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