Xiaomi Ups Autonomous Driving Focus
Beijing based Xiaomi (1810.HK), primarily known for its smartphone business, is adding to its autonomous driving capabilities with the acquisition of ~71% of Deepmotion (pvt) common and ~29% of the company’s preferred stock for a bit over $77m in cash and stock Deepmotion was formed by a number of Microsoft (MSFT) scientists in 2017 to develop object recognition and behavior prediction software for autonomous vehicles. The company had been financed by Redpoint Capital (pvt), Andromeda Ventures (pvt), and Source Code Capital (pvt). The company lost $1.8m last year and $2.7m in 2019.
Xiaomi has indicated that it has been aggressively recruiting engineers and experts after initiating its electric vehicle project in March, and has taken or raised stakes in Geometrical Pal (pvt), company that specializes in radar and light based sensing for positioning and route planning, and Zong Mu (pvt), a company developing localization and mapping software. A number of Chinese CE companies have been branching out into the autonomous vehicle market over the last year or so, including Huawei (pvt) who has agreed to invest $1b in the segment, which has seen estimates grow from $54.2b in 2019 to $556.7b in 2026, and Baidu (BIDU), and with the challenge of trying to top the US and Europe in that segment’s development, China is certainly not going to hold back spending for technology. While spending will certainly be a focus, we are far more interested in the progression of driver assistance software and hardware, which we see as a far more viable way of developing the automated driving market than working toward a standalone autonomous vehicle.
Xiaomi has indicated that it has been aggressively recruiting engineers and experts after initiating its electric vehicle project in March, and has taken or raised stakes in Geometrical Pal (pvt), company that specializes in radar and light based sensing for positioning and route planning, and Zong Mu (pvt), a company developing localization and mapping software. A number of Chinese CE companies have been branching out into the autonomous vehicle market over the last year or so, including Huawei (pvt) who has agreed to invest $1b in the segment, which has seen estimates grow from $54.2b in 2019 to $556.7b in 2026, and Baidu (BIDU), and with the challenge of trying to top the US and Europe in that segment’s development, China is certainly not going to hold back spending for technology. While spending will certainly be a focus, we are far more interested in the progression of driver assistance software and hardware, which we see as a far more viable way of developing the automated driving market than working toward a standalone autonomous vehicle.
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