WeRide celebrates fourth anniversary｜Defining autonomous driving
Today, WeRide turns four years old.
Over the past four years, WeRide has delivered many firsts in the field of autonomous driving. Through all the challenges, we have grown stronger and more persistent.
Stepping into a new stage of development, we will keep leading the industry to roll out safe driverless services with innovative products. We believe autonomous driving technology will change the world and bring people smarter mobility and better lives.
Tech 4 Good. WeRide is becoming the company that defines autonomous driving.
Turning uncertainty into certainty, WeRide is defining autonomous driving
Tony Han, Founder and CEO of WeRide, said on the fourth anniversary: “A foray into autonomous driving comes with many uncertainties, but through hard work we can turn what’s uncertain into certain.” And WeRide has been doing so over the past four years.
It is not easy being a startup, and it is even more challenging to be venturing into autonomous driving. It is an all-round test for the capability and resilience of a team with technological innovations, exploration of business models, and pushing forward policy making. Moreover, changes in the capital market and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought even more uncertainties to AD startups.
Entering the fifth year of his entrepreneurship, Tony now has greater confidence in the company’s technical strength and development strategy. For him, the most important goal is to make WeRide “a great company that defines autonomous driving”.
Tech for Good. The aspiration of Tony’s entrepreneurship as well as WeRide’s goal have always been to transform mobility with AD technologies, delivering safer, more affordable, convenient and comfortable mobility services. On our way to become the household name for autonomous driving, WeRide is also an inspiring place where WeRiders achieve their goals in life.
“Life is a journey where the values we have brought to the world will be the most worth remembering,” said Tony. Autonomous driving is a long-term cause with many difficulties and challenges, and one must believe in this great cause and have faith in his or her ability to get through all these to win out in the end.
Safety and stability as top priority
Yan Li, Co-founder and CTO of WeRide, sent his best wishes from the company’s R&D center in Silicon Valley, US. Yan reaffirmed the company’s “safety first” principle. “The stability of our AD systems is the most important thing at all times.” he said.
Technology R&D and commercialization are the two major challenges that all startups face. Yan pointed out that WeRide’s uniqueness is to confront these two challenges from the very beginning and has done really well. “Companies that have gone through these two challenges will grow even better in the future.” As the first to launch fully autonomous driving test and the Triangle business model, WeRide will surely take the lead in seizing the opportunities in the next stage.
“Four years is quite a milestone for any startup. Now we have reached a new height in technology, capital, business model and operations, all thanks to each and every WeRider’s diligence and dedication.” Yan looked back on this past year with the pandemic posing unprecedented challenges, WeRide’s US team faced greater stress as they had to work from home for a long time. The occasional appearance of pets in front of the camera and the background sound of school-age children’s taking part in online classes during the virtual meetings, these are the reminders of everyone’s perseverance and mutual understanding while pulling through this extremely hard time together.
Daily Mini Robobus shuttle service for WeRiders
During this year’s celebrations, WeRide continued its tradition of “tech livestreaming” where Hua Zhong, SVP of Engineering of WeRide, took a ride on a WeRide Mini Robobus to the ceremony and live-streamed the whole driverless trip. Hua announced that the Mini Robobus would be available for daily shuttle service to WeRiders on Guangzhou International Bio Island, where WeRide is headquartered.
“We want our employees to know that our products can indeed be put into operational use. This will also help us keep improving our technologies and services.” said Hua. WeRide’s engineers need to carry forward the company’s results-driven and product-oriented spirit. In addition to Robotaxis and Mini Robobuses, WeRide will continue to develop more and more innovative AD products.
Offices in eight cities to attract AD talents globally
WeRide has a total of eight offices in China and the US. Besides our global HQ in Guangzhou, R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Silicon Valley in the US, and data labelling center in Anqing, we also established offices in Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Nanjing early this year. Besides working with local governments to promote the commercial use of AD vehicles, WeRide’s R&D and operation centers also aim to recruit top talents from all over the world to expand our talent pool. WeRide’s COO Li Zhang offered a standing invitation during the celebrations that all those who come to work for WeRide are free to choose any one of the eight offices.
“In the next few years, talents will still be the crucial resources that AD companies are going to compete for. Our expansion into multiple cities is aimed at attracting more talents to join us.” said Li.
Autonomous driving is a lifetime career
Duane Kuang, an early and continuous investor of WeRide and a Founding Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, attended WeRide’s anniversary celebrations in person for a second time. He extended his best wishes to the WeRide team.
“Autonomous driving is something worth a lifetime of commitment. There will surely be many twists and turns in this long process. Focus on your work wholeheartedly, and when the opportunity comes, you are sure to seize it.”
Duane commended that WeRide is a company with great technical strength and a strong culture of engineering. He emphasized that WeRide’s long-term efforts and leadership in technology and operation is the fundamental reason why the company continues to draw attention from the capital market. “It is a great pleasure to move forward with such a team and witness the arrival of future mobility together.” said Duane.
Tech 4 Good, building a bright future together
As WeRide celebrates its fourth anniversary, our teams across the globe are committed to building a bright future of mobility through autonomous driving with innovative technologies, relentless pursuit and unyielding faith.
