Xiaomi Group officially revealed the development status of Xiaomi Pilot Technology today, in the first R&D and personnel update since it announced its entry into the intelligent electric vehicle segment in March 2021, 500 days ago.
Xiaomi plans to invest RMB 3.3 billion in the first phase of research and development of its autonomous driving technology and has built a sizable R&D team of over 500 world-class professionals. A series of precious acquisitions and strategic investments in upstream and downstream companies have also allowed Xiaomi to constantly develop its medium and long-term industrial capabilities in the field of autonomy guide.
During today’s press conference, Xiaomi also released a live road test video of its autonomous driving technology, demonstrating its advanced algorithms and the ability to handle a comprehensive list of scenarios.
“Xiaomi’s autonomous driving technology adopts a self-developed full stack approach and the project has made progress beyond expectations,” said Lei Jun, founder, president and CEO of Xiaomi Group.
First planned R&D investment at RMB 3.3 billion, talent recruitment and industry-wide distribution
Since announcing its entry into the intelligent electric vehicle industry, Xiaomi has remained committed to entering the field of autonomous driving. The company’s shift from zero to one was made possible thanks to a massive allocation of resources to research and development, the selective hiring of the best talent in the industry and investments in upstream and downstream businesses.
As revealed by Lei Jun, Xiaomi plans to invest RMB 3.3 billion in the first phase of research and development of its autonomous driving technology and the size of the dedicated team now exceeds 500. By the end of the year, the team is expected to continue to grow to more than 600 members.
Since last year’s official establishment, Xiaomi’s self-driving team has attracted many of the best professionals in the industry. Currently, the 500-member department includes 50 industry experts who form the backbone of the team and an exceptional team-level training team, with over 70% holding masters or PhDs. Core team members have experience working for some of the most popular companies in the AI field. Their professional experience covers all areas needed to develop Xiaomi-developed autonomous driving technology, including: sensors, chips, algorithms, simulation, tool chain, data platform and more.
Xiaomi has fully acquired the autonomous driving startup Shendong Technology, in order to improve its autonomous driving technology experience and talent pool. Furthermore, Xiaomi is also committed to building its medium and long-term strategic industrial capabilities by investing RMB 2 billion in more than ten upstream and downstream enterprises in the field of autonomous driving. These companies cover a variety of categories, such as core sensors, core actuators, domain controllers, and more.
Self-developed algorithm, with the aim of becoming an industry leader in the intelligent electric vehicle sector in 2024
Xiaomi adopts a self-developed full stack approach to autonomous driving technology, which covers all key areas, such as hardware and software development, perception and positioning, and focuses on large-scale proprietary solutions to enable data capabilities to complete closed circuit. This approach allows you to quickly iterate autonomous driving algorithms based on user needs.
In a demonstration video, Xiaomi’s test vehicle showed precise, safe and intelligent assisted driving in multiple scenarios, including U-turns, roundabouts and continuous driving downhill.
With an emphasis on parking, Xiaomi’s autonomous driving team has announced an innovative automatic parking solution that covers scenarios such as “reserved parking”, “self parking with valet service” and “automatic robotic arm charging. “. More parking services will be made available in the future, and in order to comply with relevant national laws and regulations, a mix of AI and service-oriented features will be added.
Lei Jun also said that Xiaomi plans to create a fleet of 140 test vehicles in the first phase of the development of its autonomous driving technology. They will be tested individually nationwide, with the aim of becoming an industry leader in the intelligent electric vehicle industry in 2024.
In addition to using internal resources, the Xiaomi Auto team also receives strong support from multiple other teams within Xiaomi, such as the Xiaomi AI Lab, XiaoAi AI Assistant team, and Smartphone Camera team to create an autonomous driving experience together. vanguard.
In just over a year, Xiaomi’s autonomous driving technology has reached a real breakthrough from 0 to 1 and has become a new force attracting considerable attention in the industry.