Chinese autonomous driving start-up WeRide has partnered with a top carmaker and delivery company to launch a self-driving cargo van. The strategic partnership between WeRide, automaker Jiangling Motors (JMC), and delivery firm ZTO Express, aims to commercialize and mass-produce the “Robovan” for urban logistics.
Nissan-backed WeRide makes autonomous driving systems for various vehicles. Since 2019, it has been testing robotaxis, or autonomous cabs, on the streets of Guangzhou, China where it is headquartered. The company opened the service to members of the public last year in limited areas of the city. The company has also been testing a self-driving bus which it calls the Robobus. The testing of these vehicles has helped it develop the Robovan.
WeRide will provide the autonomous driving system for the Robovan, JMC will handle manufacturing, while ZTO will deploy the vehicles for their logistics operations.
WeRide is one of China’s autonomous driving start-ups, valued at around $3.3 billion. It competes with companies including Baidu and Pony.ai. It has been expanding quickly and earlier this year acquired an autonomous trucking company called MoonX.AI. MoonX already had a relationship with ZTO Express before the acquisition.
The global semiconductor shortage is affecting industries across the board including automakers. WeRide’s autonomous driving systems rely on various chips given the amount of sensors involved. Tony Han, CEO of WeRide said it may affect the company when it begins to produce vehicles on a larger scale. “Because we are using sensor towers, all these sensors and computational units, I think the shortage of these kind of chips may affect our delivery and … our rollout plan.”
He said, that the chip shortage will not affect the current project with JMC and ZTO. But he said that if the companies need to make 10,000 to 50,000 Robovans then the company could see an effect. “We have to work in advance about our supply chain and how to protect our supply chain,” Han said.
