WeRide Initiates Strategic Partnership to Build Robotaxi Service as Part of Its Mobility Blueprint

In August 2019, WeRide, China’s leading L4 autonomous driving mobility company, launched a new joint venture company — WeRide RoboTaxi, together with its strategic partners including Baiyun Taxi Group, the largest taxi company in South China under Guangzhou Public Transport Group, and SCI (Guangzhou) Group.

Following leading venture capitals, top car makers and high-tech enterprises, mobility industry is also part of WeRide’s joint forces with the goal to provide Mobility as a Service (MaaS) for the China market with WeRide’s leading L4 autonomous driving technology.

Building the Best Model of Commercializing AD in China

WeRide RoboTaxi is founded in Guangzhou, the center of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This is the first of its kind in Tier one cities in China after Baidu’s robotaxi was launched in Changsha. WeRide also becomes the first company to achieve partnership with a traditional taxi company on robotaxi services.

WeRide has been focusing on the strategic alliance among AI technology companies, car makers and mobility service platforms. The founding of WeRide RoboTaxi marked the successful cooperation of the three key players in autonomous driving and a promising ecosystem to commercialize AD consisting of many leading companies including Alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, NVIDIA, Baiyun Taxi, Johnson Electric, China Unicom and more. WeRide and its strategic partners have been collaborating on vehicle retrofit, algorithm optimization, fleet operation, 5G network applications and more. WeRide RoboTaxi continues benefiting from such strong network support for its operations.

With the continued efforts in road testing and market promotion, WeRide constantly explores ways to commercialize AD. It targets to reduce the cost of labor and hardware per vehicle by applying leading L4 AD technology till full self-driving is achieved. WeRide also works to increase the fleet operation efficiency to become profitable.

Mr. Zhicheng Deng, Chairman of Guangzhou Baiyun Taxi Group, said, “Baiyun Taxi is committed to promoting the development of public transport in smart cities. The cooperation with WeRide has implanted genes of technological innovation into the traditional taxi industry. We will employ autonomous driving technologies to stay lead and continue to play an important role in the public transport sector in the future of smart cities.”

SCI (Guangzhou) Group comments, “SCI Group will fully leverage our 30 years of experience in the IT industry and contribute to the implementation and development of intelligent network in Guangzhou. Through a set of key policy initiative for high-tech enterprises like WeRide, we intend to make Guangzhou and more cities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area a pioneer in the new era of autonomous driving.”

Tony Han, CEO and co-founder of WeRide, said, “Our joint venture is a robotaxi company targeting new mobility business. We will join hands with more partners throughout the mobility industry to explore more possibilities of autonomous driving in a much wider range. We are always committed to creating safer, more economical, convenient and comfortable mobility with our autonomous driving technology.”

Cope with the Challenges of China’s Mobility with the Win-Win Cooperation

WeRide RoboTaxi is one of the many achievements that WeRide and its partners have accomplished in commercializing AD. WeRide focuses on technology innovation and make every effort to ensure every self-driving trip to be trustworthy. WeRide has always been dedicated to a win-win partnership. Upstream and downstream industrial players come together to make robo-taxi a reality. The process has been inseparable from the government’s supervision and support. The Huangpu and Guangzhou Development District has been constantly providing strong support to innovation and creating open business environment in compliance with the regulation to make robotaxi service available at a fast pace.

About WeRide RoboTaxi

WeRide RoboTaxi is a smart mobility company, aiming at providing robotaxi services in China (new mobility services enabled by autonomous driving technology). It is a joint venture co-founded by WeRide, a leading L4 autonomous driving mobility company, Baiyun Taxi Group, the largest taxi company in South China under Guangzhou Public Transport Group, and SCI (Guangzhou) Group. It is dedicated to the application of China’s leading L4 autonomous driving technology to provide passengers with safe, economical, convenient and reliable smart mobility services.

SCI (Guangzhou) Group

SCI (Guangzhou) Group, founded in 1984, was registered with an initial capital of 2.6 billion yuan. It is one of the first state-owned enterprises in Guangzhou Development District. As of June 2019, SCI Group’s overall asset valuation exceeded 20 billion yuan. In the past three decades, SCI Group has gradually evolved and successfully formed its major businesses featuring the new generation of the IT industry, asset and parks investment and operation services, construction and urban revamping real estate development, environmental sustainability and related investment and operation services. With its professional and full management system, SCI Group has won the trust and recognition from partners in China and abroad.

Guangzhou Baiyun Taxi Group

Guangzhou Baiyun Taxi Group, established in 1956, is the largest taxi company in South China. It’s part of Guangzhou Public Transport Group. Baiyun Taxi currently has more than 10,000 cruising taxis and car-hailing taxis, with about 14,000 employees, 19 subordinate enterprises, 10 holding subsidiaries and one equity company. Its business covers all districts of Guangzhou with reach to Foshan, Hong Kong and more cities in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Baiyun Taxi pursues the aim of “serving the public and contributing to the society”, serving 520,000 passengers a day on average. It plays a significant role in supporting all sizes of transportation hubs such as Guangzhou South Railway Station and Baiyun Airport. All along, Baiyun Taxi has been committed to reform and innovation, taking the lead in initiating services like stop-and-go, taxi charging, telephone appointment, 24-hour service and more nationwide. In November 2018, the company joined hands with WeRide to launch the first L4 autonomous driving taxi in China, pioneering the application of AD technology in the country.

WeRide

WeRide is a smart mobility company in China that creates leading L4 autonomous driving technologies. We have committed ourselves to new mobility services that will be accessible and beneficial to everyone. WeRide is China’s first L4 autonomous driving technology start-up company to obtain strategic investment from a top-tier global automaker Alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. We employ a highly skilled technology team of more than 300 employees globally, 70% of whom are R&D engineers. Established in 2017, WeRide is headquartered in Guangzhou, China, and maintains R&D and operation centers in Beijing,Shanghai and Anqing, as well as Silicon Valley in the USA. For more information, please visit www.weride.ai.