On May 26, Black Sesame Technologies, a global leader in autonomous driving computing chips, announced a platform-level strategic cooperation with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (JAC Motors). Multiple mass-produced models under JAC Motors’ Sihao brand will be equipped with Black Sesame’s intelligent Huashan II A1000 series chips.
In 2018, JAC Motors jointly established the “Volkswagen (Anhui) Automobile Co., Ltd.” with Volkswagen China, and released the new Sihao brand. Sihao is also a subsidiary brand of Volkswagen, and its models include new energy and gasoline-powered vehicles.
Based on the Huashan II A1000 series chips, as well as the supporting upper-layer software algorithms, Shanhai tool chain, and Hanhai autonomous driving middleware platform, the two sides will jointly build an integrated intelligent driving platform for parking and driving. This platform will be applied to JAC Motors’ Sihao mass-produced models, and will also be upgraded and iterated based on Black Sesame’s next-generation high-performance chip platform in the future. At the same time, the two sides also plan to further explore close cooperation at the capital level.
The Huashan II A1000 series chip is currently the most powerful autonomous driving computing chip in mass production in China, and has completed all the necessary vehicle regulation certifications and software support.
Black Sesame Technologies has obtained ASPICE CL2 vehicle regulation-level software certification, ISO 26262: 2018 ASIL-D functional safety process certification, ISO26262 functional safety product ASIL-B certification, and AEC-Q100 reliability certification. It is the first domestic autonomous driving chip company that has obtained the certification of functional safety experts, functional safety process certification, product certification, and ASPICE certification.
About Black Sesame Technologies:
Established in 2016, Black Sesame Technologies has established R&D and sales centers in Wuhan, Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Singapore with more than 500 employees. Its core team comes from industry companies such as Bosch, OV, and Nvidia, with an average of more than 15 years of industry experience.
Black Sesame Technologies is a development enterprise of vehicle regulation-grade autonomous driving chips and platforms, focusing on the research and development of technology in the field of large-scale computing chips and platforms, and can provide complete solutions for autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration, including autonomous driving perception computing chips and autonomous driving computing platforms based on vehicle regulation-grade design, learning-based image processing, low-power and accurate perception. It supports the rapid industrialization of related product solutions in the autonomous driving industry chain.
Currently, Heizhima Intelligence has launched commercial cooperation with several leading Chinese companies including FAW, Bosch, SAIC, Baidu, Dongfeng Yueduang, T3, Junlian Zhixing, Zhongke Chuangda, and APAC in the field of L2/3 level ADAS and autonomous driving perception system solutions.
In September 2021, Heizhima Intelligence has completed hundreds of millions of dollars strategic and Series C financing. The strategic round was invested by domestic industrial leaders such as Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund and Fusi Automotive, and the Series C financing was led by Xiaomi Changjiang Industry Fund with follow-up investment from Wentai Warburg. After this round of financing, Heizhima Intelligence’s valuation has approached USD 2 billion, making it one of the unicorns in the field of automotive chips.
This is also the first investment in the automotive chip sector announced by Xiaomi after its foray into car-making. Xiaomi has announced the development of an L4 level autonomous driving system and partnership with Heizhima Intelligence to help overcome its shortcomings. In the future, Xiaomi’s cars are likely to adopt Heizhima Intelligence’s autonomous driving computing chips and research and development platform.
Heizhima Intelligence has launched several chips to date, including the Huashan No. A500, Huashan No. A1000, and Huashan No. A1000 Pro, etc. Its products have been covering levels ranging from L2 to L4 of autonomous driving scenarios. Among them, the single-chip computing power of the Huashan No. A1000 Pro can reach 196 TOPS, supporting advanced autonomous driving features that seamlessly connects parking, city-driving, and high-speed scenarios. The Huashan No. A1000 series chips were released in June 2020, which was the first domestic chip that supported L2+ autonomous driving, and also the largest computing power and strongest performance mass-produced autonomous driving calculation chip in the domestic market.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.