World’s Largest Electric Vehicle Maker to Use Huawei's Self-Driving Tech

Chinese automaker BYD will use automated driving tech from Huawei in its latest model.

The agreement pairs the world’s biggest manufacturer of electric vehicles with the Apple-rivaling conglomerate in an intriguing new deal that again underlines the potential – and ambitions – of Chinese companies in the automotive market.

The tech in question is Huawei’s Qiankun ADS 3.0, which was released in April and facilitates a suite of automated functionality, including Navigate On Autopilot – broadly similar to Tesla’s Full Self Driving – in urban areas.

Although it has already appeared in another vehicle – the Stelato S9 built by Huawei and the BAIC Group – the new deal marks the first time the automated system has appeared in a BYD car.

The model in question is the Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8, the second production vehicle from a new, upscale BYD sub-brand.

Qiankun ADS 3.0 features an end-to-end neural network architecture, which is said to make the automated capability of the cars it is used in feel more “human-like.”

It is also claimed to be able to autonomously navigate from parking space to parking space – negotiating complex scenarios such as roundabouts, gates and narrow U-turns – before facilitating remote parking once a destination has been reached, if the owner chooses to leave the car before it is in its spot. 

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Beyond the tech’s capabilities, though, the partnership has attracted interest for a number of reasons.

For a start, it’s being hailed as the “world’s first smart driving solution exclusive to a hardcore off-road vehicle.” The Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8 is a rugged but stylish SUV that is due to go on sale later this year with an expected price of $70,000.

It is hoped that it will help increase sales of the fledgling premium Fang Cheng Bao brand, which has been introduced alongside two others – Denza and Yangwang – to try to increase BYD’s profitability. Despite its success in toppling Tesla from the summit of the global EV sales chart at the end of 2023, BYD is keen to generate more revenue from sales.

The reliance on automated tech from an exterior partner also underscores that BYD is lagging a little behind in the development of its own automated solutions. As recently as 2023, a spokesman for the company said: “We think self-driving tech that’s fully separated from humans is very, very far away, and basically impossible.”

But since then, it has committed to investing nearly $14 billion into autonomous driving and it is believed to now have 5,000 people working in a dedicated self-driving division.

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Arguably most significantly of all, though, it illustrates the growing influence of Huawei in the arena of driver-assistance features.

It was recently revealed that German automaker Audi’s next A5 and Q6 e-tron will use Huawei ADAS in China and it is understood that Toyota is also set to use Huawei tech for one of its Chinese joint-ventures. 

Now, with BYD still working to develop its own solutions, the appearance of Huawei tech in the Fang Cheng Bao model could open the door for much more significant collaborations.