VW to set up a €2 billion joint venture with Horizon Robotics

Volkswagen is planning to team up with a Chinese developer of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving software Horizon Robotics. The German automaker hopes the €2 billion joint venture will close the gap between VW and other automakers in the field of software development. The company wants to become technologically independent - apparently - from the rest of the world.

The deal hasn’t been signed yet, but according to Bloomberg, this will happen within the next few days. The planned joint venture will require both sides to invest €1 billion and will initially focus specifically on two fields: wireless connectivity software and self-driving technology.

This isn’t VW’s first joint venture with a Chinese company, it already formed one with JAC where it holds 75 percent stake and another one with SAIC group with a 50 percent stake. In the partnership with FAW Group, VW holds 40 percent stake and all those joint ventures were formed to facilitate manufacturing of cars for the Chinese market under the Volkswagen brand.

Horizon Robotics is a leader in autonomous driving technology in China, its in-house developed Journey processors are already used in Li Auto Li L8 and Hozon Neta U-II among many other cars. The company has supply contracts with over 20 car manufacturers and its processors are fitted to over 70 car models. The Journey ADAS processor has been fitted to over 1.5 million vehicles.

That is a huge achievement for the company that was only founded in 2015, but it isn’t a surprise at all. It was formed by Intel, BYD and Hillhouse Capital with one goal - development of autonomous driving hardware.

Volkswagen will hope that this joint venture becomes a shortcut for the company to fix its miserable software performance. But talking about becoming technologically independent by tying up its business with another company does seem rather odd. Never mind the official language of press releases - let’s hope this move brings the VW software back to the 21st century.

Via