On Wednesday, LatePost reported that autonomous driving technology company WeRide has recently obtained more than $400 million in a new round of financing, and its valuation after the investment totals $4.4 billion. The investors were existing shareholder GAC Group, as well as new shareholders Bosch, China Arab Investment Funds and Carlyle Group. China Arab Investment Funds also invested in the recent D-round financing of Pony.ai. Other investors of Pony.ai were Mubadala Investment Company and China Development Bank. In terms of valuations, Pony.ai and WeRide are the top two robotaxi automated driving companies in China.

Autonomous driving startups in China are in an arms race to put passengers in their machine-driven vehicles. Every few weeks, news arrives that another major player has got the greenlight to launch a new pilot program or a small-scale service. These press releases, often dotted with regulatory jargon and flowery language to aggrandize the companies' progress, can be confusing. That's why we put together this post summarizing the progress of China's major robotaxi operators -- AutoX, Baidu, Deeproute.ai, Didi, Momenta, Pony.ai and WeRide -- in 2021 while trying to parse what their announcements actually mean.

A city can offer you, your dream job but you have to wait around in traffic to reach it. To solve one of the biggest problems running freely on city roads, engineers and scientists are leveraging AI and our good old cars. And, they are taking us to the future! On a sunny morning, a white car is parked on a side street in Chandler, Arizona. Well, it has no driver sitting behind the wheels.

AutoX, Momenta and WeRide took the stage at TC Classes: Mobility 2021 to debate the state of robotaxi startups in China and their relationships with native governments within the nation. Additionally they talked about abroad growth -- a standard trajectory for China's prime autonomous car startups -- and make clear the challenges and alternatives for international AV corporations eyeing the huge Chinese language market. Worldwide, laws play a fantastic position within the growth of autonomous automobiles. In China, policymaking for autonomous driving is pushed from the underside up somewhat than a top-down effort by the central authorities, noticed executives from the three Chinese language robotaxi startups. Huan Solar, Europe basic supervisor at Momenta, which is backed by the federal government of Suzhou, a metropolis close to Shanghai, mentioned her firm had a "excellent expertise" working with the municipal governments throughout a number of cities.

AutoX, Momenta and WeRide took the stage at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021 to discuss the state of robotaxi startups in China and their relationships with local governments in the country. They also talked about overseas expansion -- a common trajectory for China's top autonomous vehicle startups -- and shed light on the challenges and opportunities for foreign AV companies eyeing the massive Chinese market. Worldwide, regulations play a great role in the development of autonomous vehicles. In China, policymaking for autonomous driving is driven from the bottom up rather than a top-down effort by the central government, observed executives from the three Chinese robotaxi startups. Huan Sun, Europe general manager at Momenta, which is backed by the government of Suzhou, a city near Shanghai, said her company had a "very good experience" working with the municipal governments across multiple cities.

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, Microsoft and Honda, has secured a permit that will allow the company to shuttle passengers in its test vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel. The permit, issued by the California Public Utilities Commission as part of its driverless pilot program, is one of several regulatory requirements autonomous vehicle companies must meet before they can deploy commercially. This permit is important -- and Cruise is the first to land this particular one -- but it does not allow the company to charge passengers for any rides in test AVs. "In order to launch a commercial service for passengers here in the state of California, you need both the California DMV and the California PUC to issue deployment permits. Today we are honored to have been the first to receive a driverless autonomous service permit to test transporting passengers from the California PUC," Prashanthi Raman, Cruise's director of Government Affairs said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.

So much happened in the auto industry this month it can't fit in one column; I whittled it down to the things that interested me. There is a lot of variety by topic -- from Auto Shanghai to a new operating system to an interesting DARPA story to the European Union proposal for AI use regulation. These ten stories are summarized in the following table. Auto Shanghai Auto Shanghai is among the world's largest auto shows and is the first auto show to be held after the pandemic. The attendance is expected to reach about 1 million people and around 1,000 exhibitors.

AutoX has become the first in the country to offer public rides in autonomous vehicles without safety drivers. You'll need to sign up for a pilot program in Shenzhen and use membership credits, but after that you can hop in a modified Chrysler Pacifica to travel across town without seeing another human being. As with Waymo One, there is help if you need it. You can talk to customer support reps if you have questions or need help. AutoX is eager to tout its robotaxis' ability to handle real-world conditions after several months of stress testing.

A few months after Baidu's robotaxi service arrived in Beijing, the company has received the first permits to run driverless vehicle tests in the city. China's capital granted Baidu Apollo permission to deploy five such vehicles on public roads. The company plans to remove safety drivers from test vehicles after gradually reducing human intervention. However, a remote safety operator will still be able to take control in an emergency via Baidu's 5G Remote Driving Service. Beijing has strict requirements for driverless road tests.

Hong Kong (CNN Business)The world has been inching toward fully autonomous cars for years. In China, one company just got even closer to making it a reality. On Thursday, AutoX, an Alibaba (BABA)-backed startup, announced it had rolled out fully driverless robotaxis on public roads in Shenzhen. The company said it had become the first player in China to do so, notching an important industry milestone. Previously, companies operating autonomous shuttles on public roads in the country were constrained by strict caveats, which required them to have a safety driver inside.