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Waymo, Cruise, Tesla, Zoox … however who’s serious about WeRide? The China-based firm has simply gotten approval to check robotaxis in California. Okay, it is probably not the primary firm that involves thoughts while you consider robotaxis, however it does have some notable factors to spotlight, which I’ll get to within the third paragraph.
That is for testing with passengers in automobiles with or with out human drivers, and it’s a three-year license. It’s not a license permitting WeRide to cost the passengers for these rides, as Waymo has, for instance. That’s a separate approval that WeRide might get in a while from the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC), which is the company that grants all of those robotaxi permits.
For the time being, WeRide has simply 12 autos in California — within the San Jose space — for testing. However don’t take that to imply it’s a small or nascent robotaxi firm. WeRide is the primary firm to have self-driving check autos in 4 totally different international locations on the identical time. These are the US, China, the UAE, and Singapore.
Total, the corporate has operations in 30 cities in 7 international locations. (I assume it’s doing personal testing or different operations in three of these international locations.) “WeRide has operated a self-driving fleet for greater than 1700 days,” the corporate says on its web site.
The corporate has a number of totally different automobile our bodies to go together with its self-driving software program: Robotaxi, Robobus, Robovan, Robosweeper, and Superior Driving Answer.
I’m not going to lie — the Robosweeper has me smiling for a number of causes. 😀 I like it.
“WeRide plans to boost $440 million in its preliminary public providing (IPO) in addition to in a concurrent personal placement, with sure buyers having agreed to buy $320.5 million at school A odd share, in accordance with its prospectus,” CnEVPost writes. “The corporate has accomplished 10 rounds of funding from buyers together with Nvidia, Bosch, and GAC Group. WeRide closed its final Sequence D + spherical in 2022, when it was valued at $5.1 billion. The corporate plans to subject 6,452,000 American depositary shares (ADSs) in its US IPO, with every ADS representing three odd shares. Its IPO pricing vary is between $15.50 and $18.50 per ADS.”
WeRide claims it has the very best income of any firm within the trade, and it made $21 million in income within the first half of the yr. But it surely had a internet lack of $124 million. So, there’s a protracted method to go towards making this a financially worthwhile enterprise.
You may be taught extra about WeRide on its web site. Because the highest-revenue robotaxi firm on the planet, I’m desirous to see how WeRide does in California and the way lengthy it takes till it’s offering robotaxi companies like Waymo is.
All photographs courtesy of WeRide.
Associated story: Waymo Doubles Robotaxi Journeys in 3 Months — Is Waymo Lastly Scaling Exponentially?
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