She Xiaoli, chief functional security expert at Huawei's automotive BU, is said to be joining Nio as an expert in algorithm research.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

She Xiaoli, chief functional safety expert at Huawei's automotive BU (business unit), will join Nio as an in-house expert in algorithm research, Auto-time said today, citing multiple sources.

She joined Baidu in 2015 as a functional safety expert after receiving her PhD from Tsinghua University and introduced functional safety concepts to Baidu's autonomous driving business unit.

In 2016, She joined Huawei as chief functional safety expert and chief big data application expert, leading the design of vehicle-side data collection, cloud processing architecture, and value-added cloud applications applicable to autonomous driving data features, the report noted.

She previously worked at Huawei's Connected Car Lab, which was established in 2012 and was the predecessor of the current automotive BU, Auto-time said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

If the report turns out to be correct, it could mean another exodus of top talent from Huawei.

Local media outlet caijing.com.cn reported last week that Chen Qi, founder of Huawei's self-driving team and head of its self-driving R&D department, had left in the middle of this year and recently joined Zeekr as vice president of its self-driving business.

Zeekr later confirmed that Chen has joined the company to head the development of smart driving technology.

He was one of the patriarchs of Huawei's automotive business, but doesn't share the tech giant's insistence on not building cars, according to a report by caijing.

"Huawei has chosen not to build cars, but many of its team still advocate building one. The company has chosen one path, so those who want to go the other way are gradually marginalized. It's not just Chen's problem," the report said.

For now, Huawei's smart car business is still undergoing an intensive staff restructuring. On the one hand, the business is still expanding at a high rate, with the autonomous driving team alone having reached a size of about 1,000 people; on the other hand, several senior talents have left since this year, the caijing report said.

In April this year, Zhang Xiaohong, former director of Huawei automotive BU's smart driving product project team, joined Nio as a senior product manager. He joined Huawei in 2000 after graduating from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a master's degree.

In early July, there were rumors that Su Jing, then president of Huawei Smart Driving, had joined Nio, but this was denied by Nio as well as Su.