Valeo to invest in China’s DiDi Autonomous Driving, to co-develop L4 robotaxis safety tech too

French tier 1 supplier Valeo has announced a new strategic cooperation and investment agreement with China’s DiDi Autonomous Driving. In addition to investment, the two partners will co-develop intelligent safety solutions for L4 robotaxis.

By investing in DiDi Autonomous Driving, Valeo intends to take this strategic partnership one step further and to support the long-term development of a key player in the future of autonomous driving. In particular, they will set up a joint R&D team to work on safety systems for L4 robotaxis.

To offer extra safety to users, they will complement the main system of L4 standard technology that allows the robotaxi to navigate autonomously and safely, with another set of hardware and software. This Automated Safety Pilot will provide redundancy to the main system in case of a sudden failure, as well as customised safety features designed for specific operation scenarios.

This customised intelligent safety solution will be able to take over and control the robotaxi to execute actions to ensure the safety of both passengers and other road users. This intelligent safety solution will be initially deployed in DiDi Autonomous Driving’s L4 Robotaxis.

Geoffrey Bouquot, Executive VP Strategy and CTO, Valeo said, “Valeo has been developing leading technologies to reach and support L4 autonomous driving for many years. DiDi Autonomous Driving, with its strong focus on shared mobility, holds a leading edge in technology R&D and operational capabilities. Today, we are proud to sign this agreement to invest in DiDi Autonomous Driving and join our R&D efforts to develop safety solutions.”

Meng Xing, COO, DiDi Autonomous Driving said, “We are fully committed to promoting the mass production and commercialisation plan, in which safety has always been the first priority. Valeo has continued to innovate for a century and has accumulated rich experience in mass production of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS). The strategic partnership with Valeo enables us to achieve major breakthroughs in the standardising and scaling of key modules of autonomous driving systems, to further improve the overall system safety of L4 Robotaxis, and to provide passengers with high-quality driverless mobility services.”