Didi Chuxing announced that its autopilot unit has been upgraded to an independent company which will focus on autopilot research and development, product application, and related business expansion.

Didi Chuxing's CTO Zhang Bo will take the CEO position of the new autopilot company. Meanwhile, Meng Xing, former executive director of Shunwei Fund, was appointed COO of the new company; Jia Zhaoyin will lead the American R&D team of the company; and Zheng Jianqiang will lead the Chinese R&D team of the company. The three people will all report to Zhang.

Didi Chuxing said that the newly established autopilot company will integrate Didi Chuxing's platform resources and technical advantages, continue to invest in core technology research and development, and expand cooperation with upstream and downstream automobile industrial chain companies. At the same time, the company will cooperate with government and various social communities to promote the realization of autopilot and enhance the security and effectiveness of future transportation with innovative technologies.

It is said that Didi's autopilot technology R&D team was established in 2016 and it has developed many professional teams, covering high-precision map, perception, behavior prediction, planning and control, infrastructure and simulation, data annotation, problem diagnosis, vehicle modification, cloud control and vehicle networking, vehicle coordination, and information security. At present, those teams have over 200 people, implementing development and test in China and U.S.