President of DiDi Reseach leaves company to reportedly set up driverless truck venture

Much like in Silicon Valley, the self-driving scene in China is going through a turbulent period. Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi Chuxing lost the president of DiDi Research Dr He Xiaofei which has reportedly set up its own driverless truck venture. The news has been confirmed by DiDi to TechNode.

According to 36Kr, He Xiaofei left his job quietly as early as last year when it was rumored that he returned to teach at Zhejiang University. According to insiders quoted by the report, He set up his unmanned truck company which has reportedly entered road test stage.

DiDi does not seem discouraged by the loss of their expert. DiDi’s head of autonomous driving is Jia Zhaoyin who previously worked at Google’s Waymo. In February, DiDi revealed that they have completed a series of driving tests for its autonomous cars. The company is actively testing over 10 prototyped vehicles in three cities in China and US since last year. In January, it launched “Didi Smart Transportation Brain,” a solution that brings data from government and other partners to develop a city traffic management powered by AI and cloud technology.

What you get

Full access to all premium content and our full archives

Members'-only newsletters

Preferential access and discounts to all TechNode events

Direct access to the TechNode newsroom