TechCrunch Mobility: The Nvidia backup plan for China’s self-driving industry

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I am traveling through Portugal now that Web Summit has wrapped up, so please enjoy this shortened edition. 

Web Summit leaned heavily into Chinese founders and companies this year. The opening remarks from Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave drove the point home when he said the superstars of the future are coming from China, not California. He also gave a strong endorsement of China and open source technology when he noted that Chinese companies are building more of our shared future than anyone else. 

These remarks carried a different kind of weight just a few days later as the news spread throughout the conference that Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang had resigned from his leadership post after admitting to an affair with an alleged spy.

The former CEO, after all, has been one of the strongest proponents for open source in the United States. And anyone who has followed the emergence of autonomous vehicle tech knows how central Nvidia is to that ecosystem. 

Nvidia is a major supplier of AI computing technology to the industry — although the degree of reliance varies. Some companies are using Nvidia’s automotive processors to run automated driving software, while others are using Nvidia GPUs to train autonomous driving models. And then there are the full-stack partnerships, which includes Mercedes-Benz, Zoox, and Wayve. 

I spoke to Leo Wang, the CFO of Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai, this week. I asked him about the challenges China’s self-driving industry faces and what he thinks will happen if the fallout from Huang’s resignation results in even stricter export controls on Nvidia chips shipped to China. 

Demand is already far greater than supply, Wang said, noting that it’s one of the pain points Pony.ai struggles with. The company’s strategy is twofold. Engineers are directed to be as efficient as possible when deploying its training models. That might mean using midtier compute resources instead of high-end ones, he said. 

Pony.ai is also turning more to domestically produced chips to help close the gap. 

“If you look at the whole ecosystem, especially in recent years, definitely domestic chips in China also get lots of attention and development,” he said, noting that these chips provide another option for AI training. “I think that gives us some flexibility.”

When asked what he thinks will happen if export restrictions on Nvidia chips tighten, Wang said Chinese companies have already been preparing. 

“If you look at the whole situation, this has been developing for already a couple of years,” he said. “Everyone, I would say, is also practicing kind of like a Plan B for a few years, so at least if you think about that, I would say there are alternatives. Although cost-effectiveness-wise, probably it’s not the best choice yet. But still, it’s an alternative way that already exists and which is more mature than a few years ago.”

Deals!

May Mobility plans to use the Volkswagen all-electric ID. Buzz for its global ride-hailing platform. The company said it is targeting the deployment of more than 10,000 autonomous vehicles through 2031. This does not mean that VW’s MOIA group is ditching Mobileye, I have been told. Instead, VW told me, the company is offering an automated driving-ready base vehicle to other companies that develop their own self-driving systems. (This was just presented last month during Nvidia GTC in Berlin.)

Newmo, a Japanese robotaxi startup, raised a ¥20.8 billion (roughly $135 million) round led by KDDI. 

ParkBee, a Dutch parking technology company, acquired Mobian’s city and parking operations.

Port, an urban logistics company, raised €14.5 million in a round led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Balnord. 

Notable reads and other tidbits

Lucid reported Q3 revenue of $350 million, below Wall Street expectations, and it is still losing money. Although its Q3 net loss did narrow to $830.9 million. Notably, the EV maker increased its delayed draw term loan from its largest shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to $1.75 billion.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating a Waymo software recall from a year ago that was issued after numerous reports that its robotaxis were illegally passing school buses. The agency said that a majority of these reported incidents occurred after the company deployed a software update intended to fix the problem. Sources familiar with Waymo tell me that there have not been school bus-related incidents since March. I have not been able to independently verify that with the Austin Independent School District. 

The Tesla Cybertruck will live on through next summer, but production will ultimately end, according to Elon Musk, who defended the polarizing steel-clad truck.

Tesla is expanding its robotaxi service to San Antonio, Texas, as it seeks to compete with Waymo and position itself as more than just an automaker.

Uber is launching a new service that lets customers reserve and pay for parking in major U.S. cities, about nine months after the ride-hailing company acquired parking app SpotHero. Meanwhile, the company is notifying thousands of drivers that their personal and driver’s license information was stolen during an October data breach at one of the company’s tech providers.

United Airlines will restrict access to AI agents seeking to book flights and manage reservations on their users’ behalf.