The two companies will collaborate on a lower cost, mass-production-ready L4 autonomous driving front-end solution based on solid-state LiDARs.

(Image credit: DeepRoute)

Alibaba-backed Chinese autonomous driving startup DeepRoute today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with MEMS LiDAR maker Zvision.

The two companies will collaborate on lower-cost, mass-production-ready L4 autonomous driving front-end solutions based on solid-state LiDARs, according to DeepRoute.

The two will create a model for autonomous driving applications in urban mobility scenarios, leading a new landscape of L4 autonomous driving mass production, DeepRoute said.

"Our collaboration with Zvision, China's solid-state MEMS LiDAR pioneer, will ... drive L4 autonomous driving into the mass production fast lane and help urban mobility develop better and faster," said Zhou Guang, CEO of DeepRoute.

DeepRoute was founded in February 2019 and has already conducted extensive road tests in urban cores, including Shenzhen, Wuhan and Hangzhou.

In April 2021, it became the first company to be able to conduct Robotaxi manned tests in Shenzhen.

On September 14, 2021, DeepRoute announced the closing of a $300 million Series B funding round led by Alibaba, making it the first such company the e-commerce giant has invested in in China.

On December 8, 2021, DeepRoute announced a very low-cost L4 autonomous driving solution that promises to accelerate true driverlessness into reality.

Founded in 2017, Zvision has developed a full suite of MEMS LiDAR solutions covering long-range, short- and medium-range applications.

Last June, Zvision announced the completion of RMB hundreds of millions of RMB Series B funding, led by Intel Capital and Chinese investment house and startup platform Sinovation Ventures in Series B1 and Series B2, respectively.

Zvision announced last Monday that it has closed RMB hundreds of millions of RMB Pre-Series C funding round led by Xpeng Motors.

XPeng leads latest round of funding in LiDAR maker Zvision