Beijing (ZXZC)- China’s tech giant and automaking freshman Xiaomi recently invested in chassis maker Shanghai Trugo Technology Co. Ltd. (Trugo Tech) through its wholly-owned subsidiary Hanxing Venture Capital Co., Ltd., according to China’s corporate database Tianyancha. 

Photo credit: Xiaomi

Tianyancha's information shows that, aside from Xiaomi’s addition, Trugo Tech also saw its registered capital rise from 12.3915 million yuan to 13.8785 million yuan. 

Trugo Tech is a provider of wired chassis technology solutions, specializing in EBS brake-by-wire systems, ESC vehicle stability control systems, ABS anti-lock braking systems, REPB redundant electronic parking brake systems, and core products that meet the full wired chassis requirements for L3/L4 autonomous driving. The company has established a complete closed-loop system that covers R&D, production, and mass application on vehicles.

According to Xiaomi Auto's previous plan, its first product is expected to be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024. By August 2022, Xiaomi’s autonomous driving team has grown to over 500 employees, Lei Jun, founder and chairman of Xiaomi disclosed.

Xiaomi plans to deploy an autonomous driving fleet of 140 test vehicles, preliminarily, to conduct nationwide R&D and validation works. By 2024, the company aims to stand among major players in this field. 

According to the chairman, Xiaomi has by then formulated a technology strategy regarding proprietary full-stack algorithms, which covers the cover areas of autonomous driving, including perception, prediction, high-precision location, planning, and control. The company decided to built its own data-closed-loop system to effectively drive the iteration of core algorithms and products.

Photo credit: Xiaomi

However, last November, sources revealed that Xiaomi's autonomous driving business was undergoing personnel adjustments, and the originally planned full-stack self-developed approach may be temporarily shifted to a supplier-reliant approach. Insiders suspected that the change may be due to the unsatisfactory performance of Xiaomi’s autonomous driving tests, as evidenced by the company’s previously published autonomous driving test videos. Furthermore, in order to meet its mass production target by 2024, choosing an off-the-shelf supplier solution would be more practical.