TikTok owner ByteDance, start-up Haomo.AI launch new infrastructure to boost autonomous driving push in world’s biggest car market

Founded in 2019 in Beijing, Haomo.AI provides so-called Level 2 automated driving solutions, such as intelligent cockpits, to carmakers and sells Level 4 autonomous driving vans at around 128,800 yuan (US$18,717) each. Level 4 vehicles can achieve fully autonomous driving, but might require human intervention in some circumstances.

The autonomous driving-focused initiative of Haomo.AI and ByteDance-owned Volcano Engine reflects increased optimism in China about the expanded adoption of this technology, several months after Beijing allowed fully driverless cars to operate in a pilot zone at the nation’s capital and Shenzhen rolled out the first local regulations for autonomous vehicles.

China is predicted to become the world’s largest autonomous vehicle market by 2035, with more than 5.7 million such vehicles on its roads, according to international professional services firm Deloitte.

Before the Mana Oasis project, TikTok owner ByteDance in December 2021 led a US$16 million Series-A funding round for Senior Auto, a developer of autonomous driving technologies for trucks in commercial ports. In March the same year, ByteDance was reported to have invested in local autonomous driving start-up QCraft. At the time, QCraft’s technology was being tested on minibuses in parts of China.