On September 26, Netease Technology News reported that King Chi Technology, an autonomous driving startup, has successfully raised $52 million in a Pre-A funding round. The round was led by Qiming Venture Capital, with strategic investment from NVIDIA’s GPU Ventures, and other institutions and individual investors also participating. This funding will enable King Chi to rapidly expand its global R&D team and accelerate the deployment of Level 4 autonomous vehicle fleets in China by the end of 2017. Yanzi Ping, a managing partner at Qiming, will join King Chi’s board of directors.
Founded in early April 2017, King Chi made impressive progress within just a few weeks. In less than five weeks, the company completed its first closed-course autonomous test. On June 18, it became the 34th company to receive a California license for autonomous vehicle testing. Just 81 days after its founding, on June 24, King Chi completed its first open-road autonomous test in Sunnyvale, California.
On August 15, 2017, King Chi signed a comprehensive agreement with Anqing City in Anhui Province, allowing the company to deploy 50 autonomous vehicles for operational testing in Anqing before the end of the year. In 2018, King Chi plans to launch hundreds of vehicles equipped with NVIDIA DRIVE PX to provide “robot taxi†services in the city.
“We are committed to building an innovative and intelligent mobility ecosystem that makes public transportation safer, more efficient, and more comfortable,†said Wang Jing, founder and CEO of King Chi. “We aim to be the first company in the world to bring large-scale commercial applications of autonomous technology to China. This investment brings us one step closer to our dream.â€
“The NVIDIA DRIVE PX AI computing platform is crucial for enhancing King Chi’s deep learning capabilities and supporting autonomous projects globally,†said Han Xu, co-founder and CTO of King Chi. “NVIDIA’s computing power significantly improves onboard processing, making our autonomous vehicles more secure and reliable. We look forward to working closely with NVIDIA to maximize the potential of DRIVE PX and bring autonomous travel to China.â€
“Over the past few years, Qiming has been closely following the development of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. We believe these technologies will completely transform future life,†said Qi Mingping, a partner at Qiming. “Wang Jing and his team have impressed us from the very beginning, and we are excited to support King Chi as it becomes the first company to bring autonomous driving to the mass market.â€
Jeff Herbst, Vice President of Business Development at NVIDIA, added: “Artificial intelligence is reshaping the entire transportation industry. We’re excited to support King Chi’s remarkable progress in developing driverless technology and fully back what they are doing.â€
Dong Lei, Deputy Mayor of Anqing City, stated: “Anqing is a historical and cultural city that is now accelerating its development. As part of the national industrial transformation, the municipal government is actively promoting strategic emerging industries. We will fully support the establishment of King Chi in Anqing and help advance the development and testing of its autonomous technology. Together, we aim to create a model city for autonomous vehicle operations.â€
According to reports, King Chi is a fast-growing autonomous technology company with over 50 employees, more than 80% of whom are engineers. Many hold doctorates from top universities such as Carnegie Mellon University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and USC. The core team has decades of experience in autonomous systems, with many members previously working at companies like Baidu, Shenzhou Special Vehicles, Didi Chuxing, Uber, and Tesla.
I-Beam Inductors,Chip Inductors,Color Ring Inductor,R-Bar Inductors
Shenzhen Sichuangge Magneto-electric Co. , Ltd , https://www.scginductor.com