After years of aggressive domestic expansion, China’s autonomous vehicles are now turning their sights on overseas markets. WeRide, in particular, has been on a licensing spree.
On Monday, WeRide was announced has received two licenses from Singapore that will allow its robots to be tested on public roads on a “larger” scale. The two licenses, called M1 and T1 respectively, are granted by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore and will allow WeRide’s self-driving buses to test in areas such as the One North technology cluster and the National University of Singapore.
The news comes just five months after WeRide announced it had secured a self-driving license to test its robotaxi on open roads in the United Arab Emirates, which has a bold agenda to automate its transportation system. The company also has various levels of AV licenses in the US and its home country of China.
In recent years, China’s AV companies have made a shift to intensify their commercial efforts, thus placing relatively less emphasis on the pursuit of cash-hemorrhaging Level 4 robotics. Deeproute, for example, is forging closer ties with car manufacturers, while others, like WeRide, are investing in autonomous buses that travel at lower speeds, on fixed routes and have less unpredictable traffic conditions to navigate.
As one of the densest cities in the world with an aging workforce, Singapore has begun its AV push in 2014 as a means to deal with land and manpower limitations. According to the LTAthe city of over five million people has taken a measured approach to rolling out AVs and has completed the first phase in “test beds,” or controlled environments.
The island nation is now preparing to enter the second phase of development, where AVs for passenger and community purposes are allowed to operate in selected areas. It is attracting other global players in the self-driving arena, including the Aptiv-Hyundai Motional joint venture, which also manufactures city robotics test.
One of the licenses WeRide received is called Milestone 1 or M1, which, as per LTA categorizationsuggests that AVs can test on open roads in some areas with safety operators in full control of the vehicles.
Entering a foreign market requires months, if not years, of building relationships with regulators and business partners, and WeRide prepares diligently. Its list of investors, who together have spent over $1.4 billion in funding, include SMRT, a major public transport operator in Singapore, and K3 Ventures, a local investment firm.
On the business side, WeRide recently signed strategic partnership agreements with Woodlands Transport Services, one of the nation’s largest private carriers, and bus service company EZ Buzz.
WeRide has become a poster child for the wave of Chinese tech companies expanding into Singapore, attracting the attention of high-profile political figures. In March, the city-state’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took a walk in a WeRide robotaxi during his visit to China. Singapore is a “regional hub” for the company’s Asia-Pacific market expansion, WeRide founder and CEO Tony Han said as he welcomed Lee’s entourage.
As one of China’s most funded AV companies, WeRide was valued at $4.4 billion last year and confidentially filed for its U.S. IPO in March.
