On December 14, WeRide announced that it has received a strategic investment from GAC Group, and the cooperation between the two parties has been upgraded again to jointly promote the development and manufacture of Robotaxi front-loading production models.
In the next few years, the two sides plan to gradually establish a multi-tens of thousands of Robotaxi fleet, with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the core to radiate to the whole country, and launch safe, economical and green autonomous driving services for the public.
Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said: "Under the development strategy of 'new four modernizations' of the national automobile industry, GAC Group adheres to the advanced layout, adheres to independent research and development and joint venture cooperation two-wheel drive, and always walks in the forefront of the industry in intelligent manufacturing and automatic driving. Wenyuan Zhixing's leading strength in the field of autonomous driving, especially in Robotaxi's technology and operation, is obvious to all in the industry, and we are very pleased that the cooperation with Wenyuan Zhixing has taken another big step forward to jointly promote the research and development and landing of high-level autonomous vehicles." ”
Han Xu, founder and CEO of Wenyuan Zhixing, said: "Wenyuan Zhixing continues to promote the technological innovation and operation practice of Robotaxi and Intelligent Mobility, and the strategic cooperation with OEMs is inseparable from the process. GAC Group has mature automobile manufacturing experience and advanced fully redundant vehicle platform. As we enter the fifth year of cooperation with GAC Group, we have ushered in a new starting point, joining hands to build the strongest intelligent car in the industry, achieving the first breakthrough in L4 level autonomous driving front-loading mass production, and opening up a new pattern for the next stage of Robotaxi. ”
At this year's Guangzhou International Auto Show, Wenyuan Zhixing established a strategic cooperation with Ruqi Travel, a subsidiary of GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group, contributing to the first public test ride of autonomous driving in the history of Guangzhou Auto Show.
In this strategic cooperation upgrade, Wenyuan Zhixing and GAC Group have fully accumulated and laid out autonomous driving, and will work together to build a perfect Robotaxi ecological network, covering all aspects of technology, products and commercialization, and greatly enhance the core competitiveness of both sides.
Wenyuan Zhixing's leading autonomous driving technology and more than two years of uninterrupted Robotaxi's actual operation experience have made full preparations for how to define a Robotaxi product with front-loading mass production and meet the needs of large-scale operation. The new Robotaxi product jointly created by Wenyuan Zhixing and GAC Group will further strengthen the safety and stability of the operation of all-driverless vehicles based on the fully redundant vehicle platform that GAC Group can use for fully unmanned driving and the electronic and electrical architecture of GAC Xingling. The newly launched GAC Xingling Electronic and Electrical Architecture adopts innovative modular design, and its functional safety and information security system is built based on leading international standards, which can fully meet the customized needs of Wenyuan Zhixing for Robotaxi products.
To bring Robotaxi to the mass mobility market, mass production capacity and cost control are also core considerations in addition to safe and reliable technology products. GAC Group has a professional and efficient flexible production line of the main engine plant, which makes the large-scale production and iteration of Robotaxi a reality, and its perfect upstream and downstream supply chain will help Wenyuan Zhixing Robotaxi effectively control costs, form a price advantage, and bring more economical autonomous driving travel products and services.