It was only in April that Chinese technology company Huawei said it wants to invest in electric vehicles and self-driving technology, and now a company executive has said the goal is to have a driverless car ready by the middle of the decade.
"Our team's goal is to reach true driverless passenger cars in 2025," Wang Jun, senior executive at Huawei's automotive unit, said at an industry conference held last week, according to Reuters.
But unlike some of its peers, Huawei is unlikely to introduce its own vehicles. Eric Xu, co-chairman at the telecommunications giant, previously said the company would work with established automakers to create cars carrying the Huawei name as a sub-brand.
We've already seen this process in action. At April's Auto Shanghai 2021, Chinese automaker BAIC showed off the Arcfox Alpha-S (shown main) which features a self-driving system developed by Huawei. The system is already quite advanced, with a prototype able to cover 620 miles of complex urban environments without the need for any corrections from the safety driver behind the wheel.
Huawei has been forced to expand into new sectors due to recent sanctions made by the United States against the company surrounding alleged cybersecurity concerns and other issues. A number of other markets followed with similar restrictions, leading Huawei to focus more on its home market. The company is also expanding into agriculture and healthcare.
But Huawei isn't the only Chinese technology company in the race to develop self-driving cars. Search engine giant Baidu in May launched a commercial self-driving taxi service in Beijing.
