Continental Invests in Chinese Self-Driving Company Motovis
Announcement comes weeks after Bosch announced it was partnering with WeRide to develop autonomous driving software
June 15, 2022
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Continental has become the latest Western firm to invest in a Chinese autonomous driving tech company.
Shanghai-based start-up Motovis announced earlier this week that it had secured a C-round strategic investment from the German automotive parts giant.
The total amount of financing in the round runs to hundreds of millions of yuan, and the pair say they will work together on accelerating the mass production of driver assistance tech.
Although light on specific detail, a statement from Motovis confirmed its efforts will be focused on the Chinese market, where it will pursue cost-effective autonomous solutions.
The intention is to develop driver-assistance tech that can be applied to all types of Chinese OEM passenger cars, ranging from low-cost to high-end models. The jointly developed solutions will support mainstream computing chip platforms and be easily scalable, and the time frame is ambitious, with mass production of vehicles fitted with the tech targeted for next year.
Motovis was founded in 2015, and first made headlines in 2016 when it developed China’s first automotive-grade advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) based on deep learning. Over the past five years, it has deployed full-stack autonomous systems for passenger vehicles and business fleets and developed driver assistance features that include a forward-collision warning system, lane departure warning system and parking assistance.
Dongfeng and Shaanxi Automobile are among the domestic manufacturers it has worked with in China.
Continental’s Head of ADAS Frank Petznick claimed the investment and partnership had the potential to bring major benefits to the company globally.