Valeo and Didi Autonomous Driving to jointly develop safety solutions for L4 robotaxis

Valeo and DiDi Autonomous Driving have reached a strategic cooperation and investment agreement to jointly develop safety solutions for robotaxis. On May 29, the two companies announced a future roadmap under which Valeo intends to invest in DiDi Autonomous Driving and the two partners will develop intelligent safety solutions for L4 robotaxis together.

Valeo and DiDi Autonomous Driving state that they "will bring together their expertise to provide passengers with safe, reliable, comfortable and cost-effective autonomous driving services." 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 research and development team to work on safety systems for L4 robotaxis. To offer extra safety to users, Valeo and DiDi Autonomous Driving 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 customized safety features designed for specific operation scenarios. This customized 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 Outquot, Valeo Executive Vice-President Strategy and CTO 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. This strategic partnership will contribute to Valeo’s commitment to offer solutions for smart, safe and affordable mobility.“

According to Meng Xing, COO of DiDi Autonomous Driving, “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 standardizing 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. Together, we aim to accelerate the commercialisation of autonomous driving technology.”