Recently, Beijing Xiaoma Zhixing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiaoma Zhixing") successfully completed the D round of financing, becoming the highest valued independent autonomous driving company in China, with a valuation of 8.5 billion.
For investors, autonomous driving is no longer a new word.
As early as 2018, the head technology companies in the United States began to systematically lay out automatic driving, and automatic driving is no longer just an accessory to the car. With the development and iteration of autonomous driving technology, the efficiency of car use will be greatly improved, and even the future travel mode and traffic mode will be subverted.
In the case of the overall upward financing situation in the field of autonomous driving at home and abroad, what is the actual development of unicorn company Xiaoma Zhixing? Compared with other autonomous driving companies at home and abroad, where is the core competitiveness of Xiaoma Zhixing? After experiencing business contraction, brain drain, and the return of valuation bubbles, where will the future of Xiaoma Zhixing be?
First, Pony Zhixing has once again gained the favor of capital
At the end of 2016, Peng Jun and Lou Tiancheng founded Xiaoma Zhixing and established a Silicon Valley R&D center in Silicon Valley, and established a Guangzhou R&D center in October 2017, which has since begun the simultaneous layout of China and the United States.
Since its inception, Xiaoma Zhixing has become a "fragrant food" in the eyes of capital.
In the past five years, Xiaoma Zhixing has basically maintained 1-2 rounds of financing per year, and has completed 6 rounds of financing so far. With the advancement of a round of financing, Xiaoma Zhixing has reached many milestones in the field of autonomous driving and smart logistics.
At present, the enthusiasm of capital for the autonomous driving industry has faded, and the requirements for autonomous driving companies have gradually become clear.
To successfully complete this round of financing, Xiaoma Zhixing relies not only on the market prospects of the autonomous driving industry, but also because of its better results in technology and commercialization last year.
A few years ago, Xiaoma Zhixing released the sixth-generation autonomous driving system, which is installed in Toyota's S-AM MPV model. The release of this sixth-generation system for mass production of vehicle rules is enough to reflect that Xiaoma Zhixing's autonomous driving technology has reached sufficient maturity and stability.
Lou Tiancheng said that technical strength is the key to obtaining this financing. In fact, Pony Zhixing has also been seeking technological breakthroughs since its inception.
In September 2018, Xiaoma Zhixing released the self-driving software and hardware system PonyAlpha, and in December of the same year, it launched the first Robotaxi autonomous driving travel service PonyPilot in China, and began to lay out the field of autonomous long-distance freight in 2019.
At present, Xiaoma Zhixing has a full-stack self-developed L4 level automatic driving technology, and its layout of Robotaxi (autonomous driving travel) and Robotruck (smart logistics) have also opened test operations around the world, and gradually move towards commercialization.
At present, the entire autonomous driving track has entered the second half, and whether it can seize the opportunity of commercial landing at this time node has become the key to an autonomous driving company to win this event.
After this round of financing, Xiaoma Zhixing has nearly US$1 billion in cash on its books, which is undoubtedly a booster for Xiaoma Zhixing to quickly complete the layout of the two major markets and preemptively achieve commercialization.
Peng Jun said that with the blessing of this round of financing, Xiaoma Zhixing will further expand the size of the team, carry out global test operations, enhance technical strength, and promote commercialization in an all-round way.
Second, the track is crowded, and the unicorns are not optimistic
As a must for technology giants, the competition within the autonomous driving industry has never stopped.
In the field of Robotaxi, at the end of 2021, the US autonomous driving giant Waymo has also reached a cooperation with Geely Holding Group and will be put into commercial operation in the United States.
In June of the same year, Waymo received $2.5 billion in a new round of financing, with an overall valuation of more than $30 billion, opening up a big gap with Xiaoma Zhixing.
On AI Day in 2021, Tesla released the humanoid robot TeslaBot, and in the future, TeslaBot will use the D1 chip with horror computing power, Dojo supercomputer and so on with Tesla Motors.
Today, Tesla is the first technology company to master both self-driving technology and car production, which means that Tesla has taken the lead in the track of commercialization of autonomous driving.
In addition to car companies, Internet giants are also eyeing automatic driving.
In 2021, Baidu launched the world's first L5 level autonomous vehicle, and its self-driving travel service platform "Radish Run" was also announced in Shenzhen on February 17, 2022, which indicates that Baidu's commercial operation in the field of unmanned autonomous driving is just around the corner.
In the field of Robotruck, a dark horse is quietly rising, after the establishment of the star startup company Qianhang Technology, it quickly obtained nearly 200 million yuan from investors including IDG, SF, Xiaopeng Automobile, etc. The CEO of the company is Tao Ji, the former head of Baidu's autonomous driving products, and its core business direction is L4 level autonomous driving trucks that focus on logistics and freight.
On the eve of New Year's Day in 2022, logistics giant Zhongtong Express also began the internal test of driverless logistics vehicles in the simulated park scene of its headquarters.
Once put into use, Zhongtong's unmanned express delivery vehicle named "Pioneer" will become the first unmanned express delivery vehicle in China, completely subverting the domestic smart logistics industry.
At present, the development of the entire autonomous driving industry has gradually matured, and the attitude of the capital has returned to rationality. For Xiaoma Zhixing, despite the successful completion of the D round of financing, the road ahead is still not optimistic.
In an unmanned autonomous driving test conducted in California in October 2021, a minor accident led to the recall of some of Pony's L4 autonomous driving systems. This is also the world's first L4 autonomous driving system recall, the industry, regulators and consumers have to re-examine the safety of autonomous driving.
In addition to safety, a common problem in the autonomous driving industry, Xiaoma Zhixing has previously experienced the double blow of business unit contraction and brain drain. Under the situation of internal and external troubles, how to highlight the siege and preemptively achieve commercialization is an urgent issue for Xiaoma Zhixing to consider.
Third, where is the way out for independent automatic driving of Pony Zhixing?
Faced with the problems of difficulty in ensuring safety in the autonomous driving industry, difficulty in landing technology, and difficulty in commercialization, where is the way out for Xiaoma Zhixing?
For self-driving companies, technology is undoubtedly the first, and Xiaoma Zhixing has never stopped working on technology.
As early as 2018, when it landed in Guangzhou, in order to solve the problem of vision when it rained for automatic driving, Xiaoma Zhixing added the automatic driving sensor cleaning system, and at the same time upgraded the multi-sensor deep integration technology in order to avoid the shortcomings of a single sensor. Previously, this has been a common problem within the autonomous driving industry.
At the same time, Xiaoma Zhixing is also accumulating test miles, and by 2021, the total mileage of autonomous driving tests worldwide has exceeded 10 million kilometers.
In addition, Xiaoma Zhixing continues to seek testing opportunities for complex road conditions in more cities, followed by test licenses in California, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen.
This means that Pony Chi Heng can test under more complex road conditions and rules, and the test results are more accurate and the safety factor is higher.
In addition to constantly seeking breakthroughs in technology, seeking commercialization and scale has become the most important proposition in the second half of the autonomous driving industry.
Although the executives of Xiaoma Zhixing have long realized this and made a lot of efforts in exploring the road to commercialization, such as actively seeking cooperation with car companies, laying out autonomous taxis, minibuses, trucks and other fields, and getting involved in vehicle manufacturing, it seems that this commercial road is not as smooth as imagined.
The smooth delivery of the D round of financing shows that the dream of autonomous driving of Xiaoma Zhixing is still continuing, but it is still necessary to move forward to achieve commercialization.
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Source: Sky Eye Check
Image source: Network
Reference Articles:
Titanium Media: Xiaoma Zhixing is seriously injured, where is the road for independent autonomous driving companies?
Car things: the highest valuation of domestic autonomous driving startups was born, what does Xiaoma Zhixing rely on?