Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc is increasing its investment in artificial intelligence this year, strengthening its smart driving research team with the recruitment of senior AI talent as it seeks to sharpen its autonomous driving capabilities.
Yang Sheng, a former algorithm expert at Alibaba Group’s DAMO Academy, has joined Nio’s smart driving team, Chinese media outlet Yiou reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Yang will work closely with Ren Shaoqing, Nio’s vice president and chief expert for smart driving research and development, focusing on autonomous driving architectures and advanced algorithms.
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According to the report, Yang will lead early-stage research into large AI foundation models for smart driving as a senior expert, reporting directly to Ren. Yang previously served as director of Alibaba’s autonomous driving laboratory, where he helped deploy Level 4 autonomous driving architectures and led the Robovan autonomous logistics vehicle project for Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics arm.
The creation of a dedicated smart driving foundation model research team and Yang’s appointment underscore Nio’s commitment to advancing AI-driven mobility, Yiou said.
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Nio founder, chairman and chief executive William Li has said AI will play a central role across the company’s operations, extending beyond smart driving to areas such as research and development, manufacturing, supply chain management, finance and human resources.
“AI will not only empower smart driving, but also comprehensively improve efficiency across the entire company,” Li told employees at an internal meeting on January 14, according to Yiou.
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Li added that Nio has formed an internal artificial general intelligence (AGI) committee to accelerate AI adoption across its business units. He also said the company plans to significantly increase investment in smart driving computing power this year, with the goal of regaining an industry-leading position through multiple major software updates.
Nio is already accelerating the rollout of new smart driving features. The company said it will begin deploying its Banyan 3.3.0 operating system to models in China from January 28, introducing enhanced driver assistance functions based on its proprietary world model and reinforcement learning technologies.
