China’ largest ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing showcased an autonomous driving car during an exposition held in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province last week, reported Chinese tech media outlet Techweb on Sunday.
The driverless vehicle is a retrofit of the BYD Qin model, a plug-in hybrid compact sedan, according to the Chinese report.
Confirmed that it’s a Didi-retrofitted BYD model, a Didi spokesman told KrASIA on Monday that it is one of the 40 autonomous vehicles it has co-developed with multiple automakers.
The company is now testing these vehicles in both California and Beijing where it has obtained testing licenses, he said.
Sebastián Piñera, the president of Chile, took a ride in this BYD Qin-based autonomous driving vehicle late April in a ride within a test facility when visiting the company, he added.
Didi set up an autonomous driving subsidiary to compete with other companies such as Baidu which has already put its driverless minibuses to use.
Contact the writer at jingli@kr-asia.com
