China’s GAC Motors is apparently planning on launching its first car model that supports self driving technology after 2024. The company is partnering with Huawei Technologies for its autonomous driving technology.
According to a Reuters report, GAC’s General Manager, Feng Xingya, made the announcement at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show earlier today (19th April 2021). The official also added that GAC is seeking to have half of its sales to be electric in 2035, with hybrid cars accounting for the other half. In other words, the company is aiming on a major shift of its vehicle production within the next decade.
For those unaware, Huawei is known to be working on self driving technology. The company even explained why it didn’t work on building its own cars and how it aims to build supplementing technology like the autonomous systems. Furthermore, the Chinese tech giant is also investing heavily in self driving technology and other electric vehicle technologies that surpasses Tesla, as per an SCMP report. The company is set to invest 1 billion US Dollars on researching self driving and electric car technologies.
The move from the company arrives as an attempt to raise its efforts to compete with Tesla and Xiaomi in the world’s largest electric vehicle market. As per the report, Huawei’s autonomous driving systems has already overtaken Tesla in certain areas. An example being the former’s cruise allows for more than 1,000 kilometers of travel without human input. Additionally, the Chinese company is also set to partner with automakers that will use its self driving technology, including BAIC Group, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, along with GAC.
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