Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took a ride in WeRide’s Robobus as his first stop in China
On March 27, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his delegation arrived in Guangzhou at the start of their six-day visit to China. At their first stop, the delegation made a special visit to WeRide, a globally leading L4 autonomous driving company, and rode on WeRide’s Robobuses. WeRide’s founder and CEO Tony Han and his team warmly received the delegation. Tony introduced WeRide’s development history, technological advantages, and international commercialization achievements.
After a ride on a WeRide’s Robobus, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shared his impressions on social media: “It may look like I’m taking a ride in a regular vehicle but it’s actually a driverless robobus. Developed by WeRide, this mini bus can go up to 40km/h.”
Subsequently, during a tour of WeRide’s R&D center, Tony Han introduced more WeRide’s products, including robotaxi, robosweeper, and robovan, as well as the WeRide One autonomous driving technology platform. The delegation was given an up-close look at WeRide’s fleet management system, remote control driving cockpit, and core self-developed hardware modules.
Tony mentioned, “WeRide has many talents who have returned from studying in Singapore, and our Singapore office is also attracting local talents. We view the Singapore office as the regional center for our Asia-Pacific market expansion. Working with local government, universities, and upstream and downstream partners, we aim to bring cutting-edge autonomous driving technology and mature autonomous driving vehicle operation experience to the broader Southeast Asian market.”
In September 2022, WeRide established a Singapore office. In November of the same year, WeRide signed a memorandum of cooperation with Strides, a subsidiary of SMRT, Singapore’s largest public transportation operator. The two parties plan to start trial runs and commercial operation of autonomous vehicles in Singapore later this year. In terms of investment, SMRT and another well-known Singaporean investment institution, K3 Ventures, are strategic investors of WeRide, providing strong support for WeRide’s development in Singapore and Southeast Asian markets.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his delegation expressed their gratitude to Tony Han and his team for their hospitality and affirmed WeRide’s leadership in autonomous driving technology development and commercialization. Speaking highly of WeRide’s top-notch technical and business team, the delegation expects to see WeRide’s further development in Singapore and Southeast Asian markets.
Currently, WeRide has achieved commercialization of five major products, conducting autonomous driving tests and operations in 25 cities across five countries globally. With a fleet of more than 500 autonomous vehicles, WeRide has accumulated 16 million kilometers autonomous driving mileage Among them, Robobuses have been tested and operated in 18 domestic and foreign cities.
