The first 20 Robotaxis, based on SAIC's Rising Auto-branded Marvel R electric SUV, were put into trial operation in Shanghai today.

(Image credit: SAIC)

SAIC Mobility, the mobility services platform of Chinese automotive giant SAIC, has used technology from autonomous driving unicorn Momenta to build the first Robotaxis capable of L4 autonomous driving, making it the latest player in the field.

The first 20 Robotaxis, based on SAIC's Rising Auto-branded Marvel R electric SUV, were put into trial operation in Shanghai's Jiading district today, according to an announcement from SAIC.

By the end of this year, SAIC Mobility plans to increase the fleet to 40 vehicles in Shanghai and will put 20 vehicles into service in the neighboring city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province.

SAIC Mobility plans to launch the service in the southern city of Shenzhen in 2022, at which time the fleet will reach 200 units.

By 2025, SAIC will form a commercial Robotaxi fleet, creating a new form of shared mobility and a sustainable and profitable business model, the company said.

Momenta provided the software and hardware solutions for the project, which carries a computing platform with a computing power of 600 Tops, according to SAIC's announcement.

Founded in 2016, Momenta is a SAIC-backed self-driving technology company that received $5 million in Series A funding in November 2016.

In 2017, Momenta received a Series B investment of $46 million led by Nio Capital, the venture capital arm of Nio, with participation from Daimler Group, Shunwei Capital, Sinovation Ventures and Unity Venture.

In March, Momenta announced the closing of its first Series C funding round of $500 million and said its self-driving solutions would be used in models from IM Motors, a joint venture between SAIC and Alibaba.

Early last month, Momenta announced it had closed a Series C+ round of more than $500 million, giving it a Series C round of more than $1 billion, the largest funding round in China's autonomous driving sector so far this year.

The round was led by SAIC Group, and international strategic investors General Motors, Toyota, Bosch Group, Temasek and Yunfeng Fund participated.

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