By Kevin Krolicki and Qiaoyi Li
SHENZHEN, March 20 (Reuters) – The chief executive of Chinese autonomous drive startup ZYT says the AI system his company is about to debut is already a better driver than he is on the crowded streets of Shenzhen.
ZYT, a spin-off from Chinese drone maker DJI, will demonstrate what it calls a “mobility foundation model” at the Beijing auto show in April. It’s a system CEO Shen Shaojie, 39, describes as a cost-saving departure from the way autonomous drive systems have been built and trained.
Rather than relying on dedicated “modules” to detect cars, pedestrians or traffic lights and training a system based on the geography and traffic patterns of a particular market, the ZYT model can work out how to drive on its own, Shen said in an interview with Reuters.
In addition to video from road driving, Shen said the “foundation” AI system was fed video from drones, robots, household vacuum cleaners, motorcycles and even people carrying a moving camera.
That gives it the ability to operate across vehicle types and geographies in ways that conventional systems tuned for specific road types and conditions cannot, he said. It could also make it useful for controlling the movement of future autonomous robots or other devices.
The rollout comes as China embarks on an effort to embed AI in every corner of its economy under a push by Xi Jinping to develop “new productive forces” that provide a counter to U.S. efforts to limit technologies that also have potential military applications. It also underscores the fast-moving competition to develop AI-powered driving systems by Tesla and a range of Chinese automakers and suppliers, including Xpeng.
DJI, which retains a stake in ZYT through an affiliate, has been operating under U.S. sanctions because of what U.S. agencies have described as national security concerns.
ZYT’s rivals include Huawei’s smart driving unit and Momenta. The start-up is vying for the fast-developing market for AI-powered driving, where it also faces competition from Xpeng and Tesla among others.
While the technology landscape is changing quickly, “if you can get six months of advantage, that’s already a huge thing,” Shen said.
ZYT is targeting a Hong Kong listing as early as 2027, Shen said, as it seeks to capitalise on a string of commercial partnerships, including in China’s trucking market, and a recent major investment from state-owned automaker FAW Group. “The potential quickest is somewhere sometime 2027,” Shen told Reuters.