Guangzhou will launch self-driving taxis next year

Text, photo/ Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Qi Yaoqi

On December 21, GAC Group, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Travel held a strategic cooperation and investment signing ceremony at the World Economic Forum China Future Automobile and Transportation Travel Conference, announcing the strategic cooperation, and at the same time, GAC Group strategically invested in Wenyuan Zhixing and Wenyuan Zhixing strategic investment in Ruqi Travel.

According to reports, GAC Group, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Chuxing will carry out in-depth cooperation based on their respective advantages to jointly promote the design, research and development, mass production and commercial operation of Robotaxi (self-driving taxi) front-loading models. Wang Huanqing, Vice Mayor of Guangzhou, Zhan Decun, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Municipal Government, Jiang Zhitao, Director of the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Zeng Qinghong, Chairman of GUANGZHOU Automobile Group, Han Xu, Founder and CEO of Wenyuan Zhixing, and Jiang Hua, CEO of Ruqi Travel, witnessed the signing of the agreement.

According to the strategic cooperation agreement, based on GAC Group's top vehicle research and development and fully redundant vehicle platform that can be used for fully unmanned driving, Wenyuan Zhixing's leading L4-level automatic driving technology, such as Qi Travel's mature and efficient smart travel platform and massive data, will jointly promote the iteration of autonomous driving technology and vehicle research and development and manufacturing, create Robotaxi products with first-class fully unmanned driving capabilities, and realize the large-scale operation of Robotaxi.

The three parties plan to gradually establish a Robotaxi fleet and realize commercial operation in the next few years, with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the core radiating to the whole country, and launch safe, economical and green autonomous driving travel services for the public. Among them, it is planned to launch Robotaxi operation on the Ruqi Travel Platform in 2022 to provide users with autonomous travel services.

Under the above-mentioned strategic cooperation framework, GAC Group signed strategic investment agreements with Wenyuan Zhixing, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Chuxing, with GAC strategically investing in Wenyuan Zhixing, while Ruqi Travel received strategic investment from Wenyuan Zhixing.

GAC Group has more than 20 years of advanced manufacturing experience, with mature, efficient and intelligent flexible production lines and perfect upstream and downstream supply chains, advanced fully redundant vehicle platform and GAC Xingling electronic and electrical architecture can provide guarantee for the safety and stability of fully unmanned vehicle operation. As the world's leading L4 level autonomous driving technology company, Wenyuan Zhixing is an innovative pioneer in China's Robotaxi travel market, with leading technologies and products, autonomous driving road test mileage of more than 8 million kilometers, and more than two years of Robotaxi operation experience. Ruqi Travel has been deeply involved in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for more than two years, relying on the empowerment of science and technology to create an efficient operation platform, and established a perfect service control system, with a solid foundation for the commercialization pilot of Robotaxi through the hybrid dispatch model.

As early as 2018, GAC Group and Wenyuan Zhixing cooperated to launch China's first Robotaxi and carry out trial operation in Guangzhou. At the 2021 Guangzhou International Auto Show, Ruqi Chuxing and Wenyuan Zhixing jointly exhibited Robotaxi equipped with Wenyuan Zhixing's latest sensor suite, WeRide Sensor Suite 4.0, and created the first public test ride project on autonomous driving in the history of the Guangzhou Auto Show. This time, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Travel also created the world's first strategic investment cooperation between autonomous driving start-ups and mobility platforms.

It is understood that since its launch in 2019, Ruqi Travel has deeply cultivated the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with the "ripple model", and the penetration rate of travel users in the core cities of the Greater Bay Area has exceeded 30%, and the innovation, health and growth of platform development have become increasingly prominent. While providing users with safe, compliant and high-quality travel services, Ruqi Travel is also committed to promoting the commercialization of Robotaxi. On the one hand, Ruqi Travel provides travel services for the C-end, has massive travel data, and the closed loop of data generation, recycling, calculation and storage can feed back GAC and Wenyuan Zhixing, and accelerate the iteration of autonomous driving technology; on the other hand, Ruqi Travel has mature experience in platform operation, safety and compliance, and can provide system operation solutions for the commercialization of Robotaxi.

Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie

Editor-in-charge | Wang Haiyan