Haomo's system to power 1 million vehicles in three years

Chinese autonomous driving startup Haomo.AI said on Thursday its driving-assist system will be installed in over 1 million passenger vehicles in three years.

Now five passenger models feature Haomo's Level 2 autonomous driving system, with their combined sales reaching tens of thousands of units, said the Beijing-based company.

The number of such passenger models will rise to 34 in 2022, said CEO Gu Weihao. In addition to providing Level 2 self-driving system, Haomo also produces unmanned Level 4 autonomous logistics vehicles.

In this area, the company has partners including Meituan, Dmall, which is supermarket chain Wumart’s on-demand grocery delivery unit, and Alibaba's DAMO Academy.

Haomo also unveiled on Thursday the startup's smart data system, the first of its kind in China.

Gu said the startup is also build to supercomputing center. "Data is the biggest driving force of artificial intelligence," he said.

Haomo is scheduled to launch its navigation on highway system for urban traffic situations around the middle of 2022 and an all-scenario NOH system in the second half of the year.

Its self-driving system called HSD will be unveiled in 2023, said Gu.

The startup has just raised nearly 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in its Series A financing round, valuing the two-year old company at over $1 billion.

Investors are GL Ventures, Meituan, Hong Kong-listed Shoucheng Holdings Limited, Qualcomm Ventures, and JZ Capital.

Haomo said it will spend the funds on research and development as well as building its talent pool.

"It (the Series A round) marks the first victory we have ever gained in our battle for survival in the protracted autonomous driving race," said Haomao Chairman Zhang Kai.

He said the year 2022 will turn out to be crucial to the autonomous driving sector, as competition becomes intense in the field of passenger vehicles and efforts have been in place to commercialize autonomous solutions in other scenarios.

lifusheng@chinadaily.com.cn