China will be one of, if not the biggest market for self-driving cars.

In 2017, 29 million new vehicles were sold in China, more than US, Japan, and India combined. The number of new vehicles sold will reach 37 million by 2025 assuming a 3% annual growth rate (3% is a conservative estimate as the CAGR in the past 5 years is 8.57%).

% of new vehicles sold by countries in 2017 (source: OICA)

How many of those 37 million cars will have self-driving functions? According to a plan for automotive industry (link in Chinese) published by Chinese government last year, 25% of new vehicles will be Level-2 or Level-3 autonomous vehicles by 2025 (all the levels mentioned in this post are SAE standard). Level-4 and Level-5 autonomous vehicles will start to enter the market.

The huge market potential attracts more and more companies to enter the self-driving car industry. Tech giants, startups, and OEMs in China all want to play a crucial role in the self-driving car era. Let’s take a look at who they are, and how they are doing right now.

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Tech giants

Startups

OEMs

Tech giants

Baidu, Didi, Tencent, and JD all announced their self-driving car projects. Although not officially confirmed yet, it is widely believed that Alibaba is also developing autonomous vehicles, most likely for its warehouses and delivery services.

Other than the resources and engineering talents, the control over HD mapping business is another important advantage of tech giants. Baidu and Alibaba own two of the 3 major HD mapping companies in China, and Tencent is the 2nd-biggest shareholder of the third company.