China’s WeRide Can Now Test Robotaxis in California

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Waymo, Cruise, Tesla, Zoox … however who’s excited about WeRide? The China-based firm has simply gotten approval to check robotaxis in California. Okay, it will not be the primary firm that involves thoughts if you consider robotaxis, but it surely 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 may get afterward from the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC), which is the company that grants all of those robotaxi permits.

In the intervening time, 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 take a look at autos in 4 completely different international locations on the identical time. These are the US, China, the UAE, and Singapore.

General, 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 more than 1700 days,” the corporate says on its website.

The corporate has a number of completely different automobile our bodies to go along 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 adore it.

“WeRide plans to raise $440 million in its initial public offering (IPO) as well as in a concurrent private placement, with certain investors having agreed to purchase $320.5 million in class A ordinary share, according to its prospectus,” CnEVPost writes. “The company has completed 10 rounds of funding from investors including Nvidia, Bosch, and GAC Group. WeRide closed its last Series D + round in 2022, when it was valued at $5.1 billion. The company plans to issue 6,452,000 American depositary shares (ADSs) in its US IPO, with each ADS representing three ordinary shares. Its IPO pricing range is between $15.50 and $18.50 per ADS.”

WeRide claims it has the best income of any firm within the business, and it made $21 million in income within the first half of the 12 months. But it surely had a web lack of $124 million. So, there’s an extended option to go towards making this a financially worthwhile enterprise.

You’ll be able to study extra about WeRide on its website. 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 providers like Waymo is.

All photos courtesy of WeRide.

Associated story: Waymo Doubles Robotaxi Trips in 3 Months — Is Waymo Finally Scaling Exponentially?