WeRide robotaxi in SingaporeImage: WeRideThe collaboration was announced by the two Chinese companies at Auto China in Beijing. Lenovo, founded in 1984 and now the world’s largest PC manufacturer, is joining forces with WeRide, a nine-year-old pioneer in autonomous driving based in Guangzhou with roots in Silicon Valley.While WeRide has primarily gained attention in Western media for its robotaxi projects with partners such as Uber and Grab, the company has also developed expertise in other applications of autonomous driving. Such as its autonomous shuttle buses in its project with Renault. WeRide also lists autonomous sweepers and delivery vans among its business areas. The company’s technology can also be used for Level 2 and 3 driver-assistance systems.The partnership will include other autonomously driven vehicles beyond the much-hyped robotaxis. The collaboration aims to accelerate the development of a global ecosystem for autonomous driving by integrating critical elements from other fields of technology, computing infrastructure and supply chains to enhance industry-wide cooperation and efficiency, according to Lenovo and WeRide.Lenovo has long since evolved from a computer manufacturer into a diversified technology provider, and is supporting the large-scale commercialisation of WeRide’s autonomous driving systems with its expertise in vehicle computing, hybrid AI, and global supply chain integration. The AD1 domain controller is designed to combine powerful AI computing with automotive engineering, enabling stable operation in complex environments, backed by Lenovo’s global manufacturing and supply network.Peter Xu, Vice President and General Manager for Vehicle Computing at Lenovo, added: “Scalability is the defining challenge for autonomous driving, and computing is the foundation. Lenovo will continue to advance automotive-grade computing platforms while leveraging our global manufacturing and supply chain strengths to deliver replicable, large-scale capabilities for the industry. Deepening our collaboration with WeRide allows us to accelerate commercialisation and bring Robotaxi services to global markets faster.”New computing platform with 2,000 TOPSThe centrepiece of the collaboration is the newly developed HPC 3.0 computing platform, which uses the Nvidia Drive Thor chip and delivers a computing performance of over 2,000 TOPS (trillions of operations per second). This is essential for processing the vast amounts of data from Level 4 sensors in real time. According to company statements, the HPC 3.0 reduces the cost of the autonomous driving package by 50% and the total cost of ownership (TCO) over the lifecycle by 84% compared to the previous generation.WeRide founder and CEO Dr Tony Han said: “Autonomous driving is entering a critical phase of commercial deployment, with industry competition shifting from pure technological capability to cost efficiency and scalable deployment. This expanded collaboration will further integrate WeRide and Lenovo’s core strengths in autonomous driving systems and computing platforms, creating a strong foundation for the planned global deployment of 200,000 AVs over the next five years.”weride.ai