Huawei collaborating with European carmakers to launch self-driving cars in two years

Huawei is now collaborating with several European, Japanese and Chinese car manufacturers. They are planning to launch self-driving cars as early as 2021.

         Dang Wenshuan, the company’s strategy chief, told the Financial Times that Huawei is developing self-driving AI software with Audi, GAC Group, and Chinese manufacturers Beijing New Energy Automobile and Changan Automobile

         Could this be an answer to the trade war? As you probably heard earlier in May Donald Trump placed Huawei and 70 of its affiliates on a blacklist that basically restricts US companies from business interactions with Huawei. This means that the Chinese company will no longer be able to produce most of its tech gear, like phones and laptops (In 2018, Huawei spent $11bn purchasing equipment from key tech firms such as Qualcomm and Intel, which specialize in building chips). Furthermore, they won’t be able to use Google service, which is the most crucial part. There have also been reports of a growing “Boycott Apple” movement in China as a means of fighting the criticism facing Huawei in the west.

Despite all the shitstorm that the company is facing right now, we shouldn’t forget that Huawei still is one of the top tech companies in the world. So, yeah, they have a lot of money to invest. And the new direction is actually a quite good move plus, it was planned ahead af. 

Furthermore, last year, Audi signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to develop smart car technology using new wireless connection standards, which the companies said would look at “intelligent driving and the digitalization of services in the vehicle environment”. Audi has said it plans to spend £12.5bn on self-driving and electric cars over the next five years.

In November, Huawei announced it was developing a Mobile Automation Engine, designed to enable autonomous car technologies using cellular networks.

The company partnered with Jaguar Land Rover and Vodafone to show off a vehicle communication system for road safety alerts, such as lane changing or speed limit alterations. The company said much of the value of a self-driving car would be in its information and communication technology, giving firms like Huawei an opportunity to take a major slice of the market.

The bottom line is that if someone wants to spy on people, he’ll find the way. This whole situation can be taken from two sides. The first one is that China is getting over the world and one of the instruments is Huawei. The second one is more humanistic. More than twenty years ago Jack Fresco said that the car future is atomized, so now we have not only Tesla and Ford who are working on it. Healthy competition is always good for the market. And, come on, let’s face it already, all the countries are spying on each other, just some are doing it real low-key while others don’t care.

If you can’t go one way, go another. Or how the Huawei company is dealing with the Trump restrictions (hat would require US firms to request a license before selling components to the Chinese firm). If you remember, Huawei was blamed for espionage and data drain to Beijing. Of course, Huawei denies it all… The US is not the only market place in the world.

         Spies or not, Opinions have separated