According to Reuters, China’s Geely Automobile Group has chosen Zenuity, a joint venture between Volvo and Swedish autopilot company Veoneer, as its preferred supplier of auxiliary and autonomous driving software.
The autonomous driving technology will be applied to Geely Automobile, Polestar, Lynk & Co and Lotus brands.
Regulatory challenges and rising development costs mean that automakers have postponed forecasts of large-scale use of autonomous vehicles, putting pressure on suppliers such as Zenuity, and dealing with Geely is a good thing. Zenuity declined to comment on the financial terms of the partnership with Geely.
Veoneer is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sweden’s largest auto parts manufacturer, Autoliv. It established Zenuity with Volvo in 2017 and invested 1.1 billion Swedish kronor (US$115 million). The company said in April that it is evaluating Zenuity and will focus on developing autonomous driving (AD) software for Advanced Driving Assistant System (ADAS) and seeking joint ventures with other car companies to increase efficiency.
Dennis Nobelius, CEO of Zenuity, said the deal with Geely was a major victory because only 3-5 first-generation autopilot software platforms survived until the end of the next decade, while CB Insights estimated that there are more than 40 autopilot software platforms.
