On 23 June, it was reported that the Chinese transportation platform Hellobike had officially entered the robotaxi market. The bike-sharing and ride-hailing platform teamed up with Alibaba-affiliated finance service company Ant Group and the Chinese battery maker CATL, to found a new company called “Shanghai Zaofu” (上海造父).
Zaofu is named after a mystical coachman in Chinese history. The company will focus on developing level 4 automated driving. With a registered capital of 1.29 billion RMB (179.45 million USD), the three backers will invest over 3 billion RMB (417.33 million USD) in the first round. The report says that Hellobike, Ant Group and CATL signed a strategic agreement as early as April this year, to work on the autonomous driving technology with each party’s strengths and resources.
Hellobike has been investing in its transportation services, such as ride-hailing and carpooling, before venturing into robotaxi. It has recruited a team of AI large language models (LLMs) and autonomous driving experts. Ant Group has also been doubling down on AI, but more on infrastructure and research. CATL, on the other hand, has been advancing not just with battery technology but also in chassis building and integrating smart driving.
Hellobike, founded in 2016, currently has over 800 million registered users. By the end of 2024, its bikes had travelled over 46.4 billion kilometres, while its carpooling services had been used over 2.5 billion times. However, it also faces strong competition from the likes of Baidu’s Apollo Go, which has been testing robotaxis since 2013 before launching in 2021. Apollo Go now has a fleet of over 2,000 robotaxis covering cities like Beijing, Wuhan and Chongqing. Didi, WeRide and Pony.ai are also working on their robotaxi services.