The tripartite cooperation of GAC Group will launch autonomous taxis

Gac Motor Group, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Chuxing signed a strategic cooperation agreement on December 21, announcing that they will launch autonomous taxis in 2022.　Photo by Shu Jun

Guangzhou, December 21 (China News Network) -- Guangzhou Automobile Group, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Chuxing signed a strategic cooperation agreement on December 21, announcing that they will launch self-driving taxis in 2022.

According to the strategic cooperation agreement, the three parties will jointly promote the iteration of autonomous driving technology and vehicle research and development and vehicle research and development and manufacturing based on GAC Group's vehicle research and development and fully redundant vehicle platform that can be used for fully unmanned driving, Wenyuan Zhixing's L4-level automatic driving technology, such as Qi Travel's smart travel platform and massive data, to create a Robotaxi (autonomous taxi) product with first-class fully unmanned driving capabilities, and achieve large-scale landing.

The three parties plan to gradually establish a fleet of self-driving taxis and achieve commercial operation in the next few years, with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the core radiating to the whole country. Among them, it is planned to launch Robotaxi operation on the Ruqi Travel Platform in 2022 to provide users with autonomous travel services.

Under the above-mentioned cooperation framework, the three parties also reached an investment agreement, and GAC Group made strategic investments in Wenyuan Zhixing and Wenyuan Zhixing strategic investment in Ruqi Travel. This time, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Travel also created the world's first strategic investment cooperation between autonomous driving start-ups and mobility platforms.

According to reports, GAC Group has more than 20 years of advanced manufacturing experience and mature, efficient flexible production lines, perfect upstream and downstream supply chain, GAC Xingling electronic and electrical architecture can provide guarantee for the safe operation of fully unmanned vehicles. As the world's leading L4 level autonomous driving technology company, Wenyuan Zhixing has more than 8 million kilometers of autonomous driving road test mileage and more than two years of Robotaxi operation experience. Ruqi Travel has been deeply involved in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for more than two years, and the penetration rate of travel users in the core cities of the Greater Bay Area has exceeded 30%, a sound service control system has been established, and it has the pilot basis for the commercialization of Robotaxi through the hybrid dispatch model.

The signing of the strategic cooperation agreement and capital strategic cooperation between the three parties marks the formation of an "iron triangle" relationship between GAC Group, Wenyuan Zhixing, Ruqi Travel as an OEMs, an autonomous driving technology company, and a travel platform, and jointly opens a new pattern of commercialization of autonomous taxis. (End)