Hi everyone, we're very grateful to have three female executives from three of the fastest growing autonomous driving companies in China with us today. So we have one, GM for Europe for momenta in sojo and then Joe from auto x. She is CEO. And then we also have Jennifer from Wainwright. She's the VP for corporate finance. We rising Guan Joe Joe's not far from her. She's usually in Shenzhen. So all of you have been working on level four Robo taxis, but with slightly different strategies to which I'm sure we'll get to today. I know that moment. You've been working with a lot of tier one, big automakers, and then auto x, you guys have trucks and then we arrived, you guys have syllabuses. And another thing that really strikes me as the difference is your choice of location. So as we know, most of the autonomous driving startups in the US, they're concentrated in California, though they might have operations and tests in different states. But you guys kind of scatter across China, and a lot of people think of China as a top down policy system, but it's actually in reality. I know it's a patchwork of different regulations. So I want to start by asking why you're in the city that you are about one. I know the moment I has a giant office in sewage. Oh, and you've also been working with the local governments. I'm curious to know how you came to pick soochow. And how has the local policy advanced your business?
Yeah, yeah, actually, the US? Yeah. sudo is one of our office we actually started out in Beijing in 2016. And then we build our office in pseudo in 2018. And this year, we are opening our Shanghai office as well. So when We are working with local governments, we have this feeling that in China, actually, each local government is incentivized to really act like intrapreneurs, like us who they are very, they are they're very progressive in developing local economy, like his or her own company. So the success of local economy, or the success of the local government is actually measured by their structure of their local economy, how the local economy is built. So what we feel is that autonomous driving technology can actually greatly improve and upgrade their local economies structure, the new technologies, and they will transform their local economy. So we are very excited to be in pseudo Shanghai and Beijing and we have very good experience in working with local government in China, where we find we actually have the same dream to bring autonomous driving to the local economy, huh? Yeah. How about you? Why are you in Schengen? Yeah, our Robo taxis are deployed
also in multiple cities, not just in Shenzhen. It's in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, we're coming to Gwangju as well. However, we choose Shenzhen as our headquarter from the very beginning. And one of the reason was that Shenzhen is a like a Silicon Valley in China. It's a beautiful coastal city right across Hong Kong with a lot of tech giants headquartered there. But the more important reason is that shinjin is what is called a special district. It has its own independent legislation power. That means a law making power outside the central government. legal framework. For example, the the first city to allow civilian drones to fly in the city was Shenzhen, perhaps because of DJI is headquartered in Shenzhen. And we are very proud and happy to be the major force pushing forward to make shinjin also the first city to change legislation and allow Robo taxis to be commercialized.
Yeah, I know, Jennifer, you're just right next door in Gwangju and Guangdong and Shenzhen are in the same province. But I also know that even within that same province regulations quite be can be quite different. Is that the case?
Well, actually, it's a reason we chose Dong Joe is like on Joe has the most like favorable policies in autonomous driving in China, we are actually working very hard with the government to to pushing some of the legislation to pass the road, like say back in 2019 khandro government are already allow us to have Robo taxis on the road. And we're open to full public and we can charge fees on Robo taxi. That's back in 2019. And last year, in July, Guangdong government actually gave us the first driverless testing protest permit in China. That's the first governess testing permit in China and the second lions award right after we know. So ghungroo government has been very helpful. But actually we have we are already in seven cities in China. We are in long Joe Shenzhen, Shanghai, john Jo, Nanjing. So all those other cities, we think they're very supportive whenever when we go to the cities. In fact, we think policies in China are predetermined in China. They're very open in terms of embracing autonomous driving.
Right, right. And so aside from China, you all have some level of overseas footprint, which gives you a perspective of both worlds. So Joe and Jennifer, both of your companies have r&d teams in Silicon Valley. I'm curious to know that comparing US and China so in the US, we've seen quite a lot of concerns around safety. And then a lot of companies who started as like going for Alfa Robert, Texas at the beginning, they're shifting to more logistics and tracking goods instead of passengers. Are you seeing the same in China? To go half? Sure.
That's that's a very good question, although it's a very big question. We also on the first point on the legal point, we also see a lot of focus and concern on the safety and jumping back to, you know, different local governments and their efforts in in pushing forward this technology. I think, one thing to point out is that China is Now, at this moment taking a very bottom up approach that each local municipal governments are supporting different local companies and they are allowing like an administrative order to allow Robo taxis on the road, Schengen also allow us to be charging, it can be fully driverless was nobody in the car at all. However, these are still administrative orders, it's most likely a temporary license, temporary notification letter telling the companies that they can do some testing, they can do all kinds of stuff, almost on the experimental cases. So what is special that is making in Schengen is that they are making it a real law because the current autonomous driving licenses they do not fit in the framework of the existing law. So that is the the significance of what Shenzhen is doing. We've been contributing the feedbacks on the technical suggestions, especially to make it no longer a temporary notification or temporary permit for different companies, but a real law that can allow
commercialization tenants, we're going to more places not just in the US and in China, I think we want to be having a global global landscape. You mentioned that you see, like a pivot or a shift from Robo taxis to logistics, I kind of disagree to some level, because I think it's an expansion. It's not a pivot, Wei mo still have the majority of 1000 r&d, all focused on Robo taxi for the trucking efforts, they have like about 3050. So it's an expansion. It's not a pivot. And similarly, we hold a similar opinion, we are probably globally one of the most focused company on Robo taxi, we put all of our effort on the one product that we're building. And we think that there are some companies that has maybe several 100 people, but they're making 10 products that may work in other areas, but it will not work for autonomous driving. It takes significant effort, focus and resources.
Right. So we want to be sorry, you cut up there a little bit. So how about Jennifer, are you also seeing safety concerns and hesitation in the local government to push autonomous driving forward?
Well, obviously the government they are very cautious about safety. And whenever we go and communicating with them on some of the new policies where we would like to work with them to to try and then the safety is safety and stability are always the thing that the questions they raised to us. And but in the past four years, like say, in the past four years, we've been working this down Glovo government to, to put autonomous driving Robo taxis on the road. And they have seen all the progress we've made and the way community we're constantly communicating with them our progress, so that they know that this is really safe. And actually, we have a product, which is a true driverless mini Robo bass, there is no steering wheel or brake, no safety driver required in the vehicle. And it's first of its kind is an open road. And with the support, we actually because this product has been already been on the road for for the past half a year. And they have been, it's open to public for trial as well, because we have all these products, and it's on the road for quite some time. So the government knows that this is a safe product. And then so So first, they will give us the testing lessons and the trial operation license, and we hope in the future, they will give us like operational license. Yeah.
Got it. Got it. And one, you have a very interesting background. Given that you're educated in the US, and now you're moving to Germany very soon, like immediately, and you're also experiencing China. So I'm just curious, having seen companies from all three places. There are a lot of Chinese companies or companies with Chinese roots who are expanding into the US or Europe, but we don't seem to see a lot of that happening the other way around. Why? So this is question For all of you, why do you think that there are more American or European atomic German companies coming to China? And if they do, will they succeed here? Hmm.
Yeah. So, yeah, I think I'll talk about our case, how momentous is a global footprint? And how moment the idea behind by momentum goes from a china based company to a global company to have this global footprint in Europe. So with respect to technology from the day well, actually, from the beginning, we designed our core competence as a one flywheel. So this, this is a technology framework that can actually quickly adapt to multiple regions, we can use this framework to completely use a data driven approach that can adapt our algorithm to multiple places very fast. And the second one is based on our business strategy. We work with the automotive industry very deeply. They're our the OEMs, and tier ones. They are our partners. As you can see from our investors, investors names like Toyota, Daimler, Bosch, and sec, Shanghai motor, they are, we work with them for the most serious production projects, like I'm Peloton and also for autonomy, level four. So when we work, we work with partners, we want to provide the best support with them. We work closely outside with me, and also we work them outside to adapt our algorithm to their global global platforms. So that's a reason. Like, uh, you know, like in a in a very few weeks, I will be relocating to Germany, to God, we are in the process of building a rd center there to support their local development. And also, yeah,
sorry, yeah. Just curious, because you're, you're going overseas? Do you think that the same can happen to European and American autonomous driving companies? Can they come to China? Why are we not seeing more of that those companies?
Yeah, I think like a, as, as you will see, from this technology advice, if you see only the technology aspect, for the data driven approach, that's definitely doable for you know, companies who are in this technical approach, because this approach that requires some a large amount of local data, and also if your technical stack is a complete data driven, that has a data driven algorithms, and if they also have a tool chain, we see that's definitely possible for the companies to do not to have a global footprint. That's a foundation for how the company can scale globally.
What do you think jus and, Jennifer? When are we going to see American Silicon Valley autonomous driving companies come to China? Or will they ever?
I think it's not as simple as opening up a office, right? It's it's much more than that, to be able to succeed in the market. You need to build the landscape, you need to build the ecosystem, your own partners, and this ecosystem, the whole ecosystem chain is quite long. It's quite complicated, also involves government relations. It also involves the data that you have already accumulated, the driving experience have to fit in the local world, many, many things comes into play. So I think it's, we also see foreign companies like active actives right there next to our office in Shanghai. I heard about other relatively small players, smaller players in China as well. I'm not sure in the future, how it's going to be. But I think the more advantage or business barrier and data barrier that we have built, it's actually harder and harder for new commerce to come into China market. What's rad tech? Jennifer? Well,
the US started much earlier in autonomous driving r&d. And but China is catching up very quickly in recent years, and China's type of environment is much more complex. And so for all those like us, us, autonomous driving company to come to China they have to adapt to our local environment, not only from like the traffic traffic condition, but also like Like cultural adjusted legislation and working with the governments government relationship is also large is the key. So for now, but they are still in the process of we are all in the process of still developing Robo taxi autonomous driving technology. But in the near future, I'm sure we will see more and more, more and more often our US peers trying to come to China. Yeah. Great. Who do you think would be the next? We have artists in the lecture mentioned, we have already seen some of them, like trying to have an office opening our office in, in China. But if even for us, we are still getting the test permit? Not the operation permit yet.
Okay, great. Yeah, we will look forward to that. So you are positioned yourself as a global company and have operations in multiple countries? In Which country do you think you will turn profitable first as a commercial enterprise? And why is it because your technology, the local regulations, or the road conditions, there are public sentiment there? Whoever wants to go first?
Oh, okay. Well, in terms of attorney profit, I think if we're talking about breaking into different product line, our global bas, mineral mobis will turn profit in these already have a profitable product for us now. And the way the code developed this many robots was written and at like I just mentioned, it can be an open road to driverless. So the log all the government, different governments in China, they are very embracing the product. And we are selling hundreds office mini buses to the public, to different cities this year already. And in terms of Robo taxi that really depends on when we can truly remove all the drivers from the from the vehicle. And that's the time when people can really deploy a large a large Robo taxi fleet.
Yeah. For us, as I mentioned earlier, we're very, very focused on Robo taxi applications. And for that application, specifically, we see China market as one of the most exciting and most profitable market because I think when you talk about profitability, it's also about the TAM, the total addressable market. And there are a lot of niche markets, lower speeds, road sweepers, etc. But I think globally, the recognized largest applications for level four are the number one is Robo taxi, it's a trillion dollar market. And smaller markets involve long haul trucking, delivery robots, and everything else are even smaller, more niche markets. I think focusing on the largest market was the highest return is something that the approach that we're taking, and especially in China, the car ownership culture is not as much in a cities you spend 10 minutes driving 30 minutes parking, it's extremely painful to have your daily commute, driving on your daily commute. So we have already removed the safety drivers in our car, there's no safety driver in the driver's seat, not in the CO driver's seat, not in the backseat, either the whole car is empty. So I think this is our first step, it's zero to one product. And next step for us is to scale it up to more cities, and that's on the right path for commercialization.
And one, yeah, so from our own experience, we see the autonomous driving society starts from us earlier, but what we see China market can actually run faster than in the US. So because we see the China as our best country, China is actually the best playground to experiment new technologies. Output one observation as an example, like last month, when we were in Shanghai Auto Show, where you can see there are a lot more new Evie brands and the new brands coming from a local automakers that they are equating with their cars with a more intelligent features such as how fast China can run like in Shanghai you know many, many people are buying Tesla but a stay on companies like psych they are also very fast in the race and they put in their high end new Evie brand thought I am to the market. So our earliest commercialized full function software called am pilot will be equipped with sex. I am brand It will be is a door to door and pilot company so far, and they will be in the market early next year.
Okay, got it. And in your scaling up and overseas expansion, what has been your experience with the local regulators in terms of data regulation? I want what are the different government's attitudes towards autonomous driving startups collecting passenger and driver data?
I think it's more a global consensus that not just for China or us all data that is collected stays within the country, we're seeing this trend, because we have experienced talking to Southeast Asian countries, also the European countries, they have been very strict on this. I think it's not necessarily the data that needs to be moved in or out. We all know that it's super expensive. So it's also impossible technically, to move data in and out countries. But it's the learned experience that can be shared, and which is powerful. Yeah, what have you seen in Europe one?
Yeah, so. So the data, so you know, in Europe, there is a GDPR, that's actually I have a very good guideline for us to complying with data regulations in like our VR, so you know, to making the level for for autonomy into reality data is very important. And when we want to have a, say, for the, for the business model that build around data, we first need to really comply with all of the data policy all over the world. So our first principle is that data belongs to the end users, and the OEMs, it doesn't belong to the autonomous driving companies. So what we can provide the capability in helping the OEM to understand the data better in a regulated way, in a generating insights and the generate the algorithms and the models out of the data. So it's, so at the very end, the data doesn't belong to certain companies, the data, we want to make the use of ad and data in meta, meta algo made the algorithm out of the data to be available with partners that we work with.
Okay, got it. And we're coming close to the end. But I want to get to the more juicy question, which is your investments. So over the past year, it's been a great year for a lot of autonomous driving companies. And we ride and momentum, you both announced hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over the past year. And previously, you told me that you your other X has just been aggressive in fundraising, do you want to share a bit more?
Yes, whatever is not publicly disclosed, I will not be able to disclose here. However, you know, as as we talked offline, as the only other company globally, other than Wei mo that can operate Robo taxi service to the public that has nobody in the car with a completely empty car. The first one and the only one in China. We're obviously one of the few most funded AV companies with very sufficient funding, and we have very long term devoted investors, who share our vision and will support us all the way
is a safe to say that you also have raised hundreds of millions of dollars that are on par with your few peers here. Good. That's a scoop for us. Sorry, just joking. And so you've also receive funding from these big multinational automakers, who are not only your investors, but also strategic partners. Can you each talk about how you're working with your automaker investors together, or your relationship with them? Well, then,
well, one in the past half a year, where right raised more than 600 million US dollars. And one of our key masters strategic master as our return group, they are the largest manufacturer in the world. And we worked with them very closely for the past year to develop that driver list Robo many, many Robo bass and we also have different products. We have some that are not publicly disclosed yet. We also got strong support from Renault Nissan, Mitsubishi, they are our series eight leading master. By the time they by the time they invested in us, that's the first time that a global OEM invested in China autonomous driving startup. They are also participating US and around as well. And they we are working with them to get there. Yes, not to be publicly disclosed, but we are also working with working with them on something in the line of Robo taxi. Yeah. Right.
I can go next. We also have OEM investments, who are actually relatively smaller shareholders in our investor portfolio. This is in a strong contract, compared to like the US players, right. Usually, you see, the US players, one or two dominant OEMs are the shareholder of the autonomous driving startup. However, we are also working with a lot more global OEMs, the publicly announced ones are Honda, and also FCA. They are the one of the US OEMs and one Japanese OEMs. And there are more that are on disclosed. I think this interesting question brings out the special landscape for China market is that the OEM to autonomous driving company ratio is a lot higher compared to anyone globally. There are three OEMs in Germany, three in us, one in Korea, three in Japan, all of those global OEMs, the 10 OEMs have to fight for the China market. Plus the 200. Chinese Oh, yes. So the ratio is significantly higher. So we think the way that autonomous driving companies are going to collaborate with OEMs are going to be really different compared to the US. And it's possible, I think it's only impossible in China to have a platform, a true platform giant, maybe not just one, maybe a few platform for autonomous driving giants coming out. Great. Great. That's very interesting. And one.
Yeah, so yeah, so you're our case, we have been working very closely with OEM since day one. Because I think with the OEMs, and momentum, we have the same synergy. Achieving level four, autonomy with a tool like strategy. Other internally, we call the left leg and a right leg, the left leg is called I'm highlighted the right leg is called MST, because we believe, you know, approach the level two to level four approach that can be you know, with a lesser amount of data from serious production vehicles at a median of level, you know, with our training capability of data driven algorithms. And today, we're working with the OEM, how we can achieve full autonomy level four together. So that's our that's a that's a strategy that's built in our approach when we are working with OEMs. So along the way, actually, since 2016, we have been working closely as I mentioned, the Daimler, Toyota, Bosch and Shanghai motor, they are not just our investors, they are our patrol partners. We develop, we deploy our AI algorithms, how are we done together? So in a lot of ways, they also put a lot of trust yesterday and give us a lot of support over the over several in the past several years, we have raised over 700 million US dollars to support the development. In our earliest as you will see the earliest series production vehicle farm site will be on the road earlier, Nasir q1 from their high end car I am and for our MSC level four, we have launched moment ago, our level four mobility service and we have placed running sudo in Shanghai and later on, we'll be also globally working locally with our global partners. Yeah.
Great. And with that, I have to wrap this up. I'm very happy that you're all here today to speak to our global audience. And I'm sure they will see you more around. So thanks very much for your time. And thanks for watching. Thanks, everyone. Thanks Rita. Bye, everyone.