Author: Andrew Xu

RoboSense reported its first-ever quarterly profit, reflecting strong demand for LiDAR sensors across robotics and electric vehicle applications. The Shenzhen-based company recorded a net profit of 103.7 million yuan ($15 million) in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared with a net loss of 131.1 million yuan in the same period a year earlier, according to its earnings report. Fourth-quarter revenue rose 46.1% year-on-year to 750.7 million yuan, while gross margin improved to 28.5%, up 6.4 percentage points, supported by a more optimized product mix. The result follows a similar milestone by domestic rival Hesai, which recently reported its first full-year…

QCraft has completed a $100 million Series D funding round, as the company intensifies its focus on advanced autonomous driving and physical artificial intelligence technologies. The funding, backed by a leading domestic automaker and several industrial funds, will be used to expand research and development in areas such as world models and reinforcement learning, while also strengthening organizational capabilities and talent development, QCraft said in a statement. Yu Qian, co-founder and chief executive of QCraft, said the company will shift its strategic focus toward Level 4 autonomous driving and general-purpose physical AI, alongside accelerating its expansion into international markets. Yu…

Xpeng has established a new robotaxi business unit, marking a strategic step to accelerate its development and commercialization of autonomous driving technology. The newly created division will operate as a tier-one organization within the company, overseeing product definition, project integration, research and development testing, and daily operations, according to a person familiar with the matter. The unit is expected to collaborate across Xpeng’s existing business lines, leveraging shared resources to advance its robotaxi program. He Xiaopeng said during the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call that Xpeng plans to begin passenger-carrying demonstration operations for its robotaxi service in the second half…

Chinese autonomous driving technology company WeRide has entered the Slovakian market through a strategic partnership aimed at launching the country’s first national-level commercial autonomous driving initiative. The company said on Thursday it had partnered with Elevate Slovakia, a multi-stakeholder initiative, to deploy a range of autonomous mobility solutions, marking its expansion into its 12th global market. The project represents Europe’s first large-scale, state-supported commercialization effort for autonomous driving, according to the company, and makes Slovakia the fourth European country in WeRide’s portfolio. Under the agreement, WeRide will introduce its full lineup of autonomous products, including robotaxis, Robobus shuttles, Robovan delivery…

Chinese smart driving solutions provider Horizon Robotics is preparing a new generation of autonomous driving chips, with its upcoming Journey 7 (J7) series expected to significantly boost computing performance, local media reported on Thursday. According to a report by LatePost, the highest-performance version of the J7 chip is set to surpass Nvidia’s Thor-X in computing power, with mass production planned for 2027. The new series will retain a family-based lineup designed to meet increasing demand for artificial intelligence processing in vehicles. The development marks a shift in Horizon Robotics’ strategy, with product planning now led primarily by its algorithm team…

Chinese autonomous driving technology company WeRide said it is expanding its strategic partnership with Farizon, the commercial vehicle division of Geely, with plans to deploy 2,000 factory-installed robotaxis in domestic and international markets by 2026. The companies said the initiative will mark a new stage of large-scale commercialization for WeRide’s autonomous driving platform. The upgraded GXR robotaxi is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2026. According to WeRide, the collaboration will leverage Farizon’s vehicle manufacturing system to accelerate production. “Leveraging Geely Farizon’s manufacturing system, the production time for a single vehicle to roll off the line will…

IKEA has moved autonomous delivery vehicles developed by Neolix into permanent operation at its store in Hefei, Anhui Province, following a pilot program that significantly reduced order pickup times and logistics costs. The project was conducted by Ingka Group, the largest franchisee of the IKEA retail brand, and represents one of the more advanced deployments of Level 4 autonomous logistics vehicles in a retail environment. See also: IKEA and LC3 Trasporti Deploy Electric Trucks for Zero-Emission Freight in Italy During the trial, the autonomous vans transported customer orders from an external warehouse to the store’s pickup area and supported internal…

Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong and could seek to raise at least $1 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The company is working with China International Capital Corp and Deutsche Bank as advisers on the planned listing and has begun meeting investors to gauge early interest in the offering, according to the report. Momenta was valued at more than $5 billion during its latest funding round last year, the report said. The move represents a shift in the company’s listing strategy. Momenta had previously filed confidentially…

A subsidiary of Chinese automaker Changan Automobile is developing a detachable range extender designed to provide additional power for battery-electric vehicles when needed. Hunan Tianyan said it is working on a retrofittable Power Turbine Generator (PTG), a compact auxiliary power system that combines a small gas turbine, generator and power electronics to supply electricity to electric vehicles. The company said the system is intended to address situations where EV drivers may experience reduced range, such as in low temperatures, during high-speed motorway driving or when charging infrastructure is limited. Unlike integrated range extender systems commonly used in extended-range electric vehicles…

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a draft of new national safety requirements for highly automated and autonomous driving systems, targeting vehicles operating at SAE Level 3 and Level 4 automation. The rules are scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2027, pending final approval. The proposed regulation would replace earlier 2024 guidelines, which were voluntary for car manufacturers and robotaxi operators. Under the new framework, compliance would become mandatory, with companies able to submit feedback on the draft until April. At the core of the new standard is the principle that a Level 3 or Level…

Pony.ai said its seventh-generation robotaxi has achieved per-vehicle profitability in Shenzhen, marking a commercial milestone for the Chinese autonomous driving company. The company announced that as of Feb. 28, its Shenzhen fleet generated average daily net revenue of 338 yuan ($49) per vehicle. The milestone follows a similar achievement in Guangzhou in November 2025, making Shenzhen the second tier-one city where Pony.ai reports per-vehicle profitability. According to the company, vehicles in Shenzhen averaged 23 daily orders per car, matching the order volume level recorded when the fleet reached break-even in Guangzhou. During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday, average daily paid…

Baidu said its autonomous ride-hailing service Apollo Go reached a weekly peak of more than 300,000 orders in the fourth quarter of 2025, as the company announced its entry into the South Korean market. According to Baidu’s latest earnings disclosure, Apollo Go completed 3.4 million fully driverless trips in the fourth quarter, representing year-on-year growth of more than 200%. By February 2026, cumulative global rides had surpassed 20 million. See also: Baidu, Uber and Dubai RTA Launch Apollo Go Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service The company said its autonomous fleet has logged more than 300 million kilometres of driving, including 190 million…