Chinese self-driving technology firm WeRide has revved up its international expansion with a pilot project testing fully autonomous cars in Switzerland through a partnership with the country’s national railway operator.
Guangzhou-based WeRide, which raised US$440.5 million in an initial public offering and private placement on the Nasdaq market in October, is looking to markets including Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Japan and South Korea to bolster its international business and enhance its innovative capabilities, its founder and CEO Tony Han said in an interview.
“The projects are not just about tapping the markets with the partners,” he said. “For us, as a technology company, we have a social responsibility to promote local development with self-driving service, which is of great value to the global economy.”
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
Initially, two autonomous cars fitted with WeRide’s technology will be in service in the Furttal region in Switzerland. Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB), the country’s national railway operator, is providing financial support, while Swiss Transit Lab will manage the driverless cars. The fleet is expected to grow to eight vehicles including minibuses in 2026, followed by further expansion.
The vehicles have level 4 (L4) autonomous-driving capabilities. This means they do not require human intervention in most circumstances, according to SAE International, a standardisation body. L4 is seen as an important milestone on the way to L5 fully autonomous driving, which would, for example, enable manufacturers and freight companies to run driverless fleets.
The SBB project is the third that WeRide has launched in Europe in the last eight months. A week ago, the company said it had put Europe’s first commercial autonomous minibuses into operation at Zurich airport. In June, WeRide partnered with Renault to provide autonomous shuttle service at the French Open tennis event.
“We expect our international businesses to account for more than half of our total business in the future,” Han said. “WeRide is among the few technology companies capable of running autonomous-driving businesses globally.”
A former chief scientist in Baidu’s autonomous-driving unit, Han founded WeRide in 2017. The company provides self-driving technology for taxis, vans and street sweepers.
It has deployed autonomous vehicles in 20 cities across mainland China and plans to have a presence in 50 mainland cities soon, Han said. It also sells its technology to car assemblers and vehicle component makers.
Baidu’s Apollo, Pony AI and WeRide are viewed as China’s top three providers of autonomous-driving technology.
WeRide’s European expansion adds to evidence that Chinese-developed electric-vehicle (EV) technologies and infrastructure have an edge over global rivals.
“Trade barriers set up by US and European Union authorities won’t stop Chinese firms from promoting their products and services in Western markets, because of market demand,” said Chen Jinzhu, CEO of Shanghai Mingliang Auto Service, a consultancy. “For Chinese firms, going global is also desirable since they can chase higher profitability.”
In December, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology, or CATL, the world’s largest maker of batteries for EVs, said it was building a plant in northeastern Spain – its third production base in Europe – through a joint venture with Fiat owner Stellantis.
StarCharge, mainland China’s second-largest provider of charging equipment for EVs, formed a joint venture with French group Schneider Electric in October to deliver charging infrastructure, photovoltaic inverters, chargers and storage systems in Europe.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67865959ccb843c18318686ead87619f&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Ftech%2Fchinas-weride-starts-third-european-093000770.html&c=4063528727085112923&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2025-01-14 01:30:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
