Self-driving in China gets investment boosts

Didi, Pony.ai and UISEE secure capital

The autonomous driving subsidiary of Didi Chuxing is reportedly getting a $300-million investment from Japanese tech giant Soft-Bank, adding more fuel to the autonomous driving sector in China.

The Information, an online media outlet, reported the news on March 23, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

The move comes after Soft-Bank's announcement last Monday that it is selling $41 billion in assets to help reduce its debt and fund a share buyback.

The tech giant was also reportedly raising $5 billion to invest in its portfolio of tech startups.

The relationship between the two sides has been ongoing since last August, when Didi split off its autonomous driving unit as an independent company focusing on autonomous driving research and development, product application and related business development.

Analysts say that in SoftBank's vision, future mobility should consist of electric vehicles, autonomous driving and vehicle scheduling. Didi accounts for two of the three visions.

Two startups in China's autonomous driving sector scored significant investments in February.

Pony.ai finished a new round of funding last month, raising $462 million in investments, of which $400 million came from Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. After its latest round of fundraising, Pony.ai had a valuation of over $3 billion.

UISEE, another Chinese startup focused on high-level autonomous driving, finished its round-B financing last month, securing tens of millions of dollars in investment from German industrial giant Bosch.

With industrial tycoons dashing forward in China's autonomous driving industry, the country has become increasingly dynamic and competitive, insiders said.

For instance, Didi, as a car-hailing service provider, enjoys advantages in its vast inventory of data on vehicles, passengers and road networks, as well as experience in vehicle-scheduling.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicized Chinese standards on autonomous driving classification, believed by insiders to press the fast-forward button for the country's autonomous driving industry.

Proposed to take effect on Jan 1, 2021, the standards classify driving automation into six grades ranging from zero to five, with each grade having specific criterions.

For the development of autonomous driving technology and its large-scale application, the introduction of national standards is a key prerequisite.

Clear grading standards will help promote the mass production of all kinds of autonomous driving vehicles, industry insiders said.

China outlined a blueprint to rev up its autonomous driving development at the end of February, as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other ministries, promulgated a document titled Strategy on Developing Smart Vehicles.

According to the blueprint document, the country will realize "scale production of vehicles capable of conditional autonomous driving and commercialization of high-level autonomous vehicles in certain scenarios by 2025".

It said developing smart vehicles has become a global strategy and that China has a strategic edge in developing smart cars with complete automobile industry and evolving information technology.

According to insiders, the hardware conditions of many autonomous driving companies are not that different.

The main differences lie in algorithms, data and chip technologies.