BYD Establishes New Division To Upgrade Their Autonomous Driving Infrastructure

BYD Co Ltd may be China's biggest electric vehicle maker by a country mile but it knows it lags rivals in autonomous driving, and has set up a new division and embarked on a huge hiring spree to rectify that shortcoming.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 software engineers have been hired recently, BYD senior vice president Stella Li told an investor forum this month when quizzed why the automaker was behind in automation and intelligence technologies.

"We are not ahead of others but we will come up with various types of innovation in two to three years," she said according to a transcript that was confirmed as accurate by the company.

Current BYD recruiting advertisements for engineers specialising in autonomous driving that target top Chinese universities such as Zhejiang University, indicate that the hiring is ongoing.

BYD set up an intelligent driving research division in Shanghai last year, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Previously, engineers working on autonomous driving had been scattered across various parts of the company and the new division will bring more focus to BYD's efforts in high-level automated driving technologies, they said.

BYD sold some 510,000 pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars in China during the first quarter, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of sales of such vehicles and nearly four times more than Tesla Inc.

By comparison, rivals like Tesla, Xpeng, Nio and Li Auto have developed their own automated driving features that are more advanced and can, for example, allow drivers to cede control of the car when on highways.

BYD has also this year teamed up with autonomous driving chip technology firms Nvidia and Horizon Robotics, saying it wanted to develop more intelligent vehicles.