Another Chinese Self-Driving Company Enters European Market!

Domestic autonomous driving "out to sea" again makes important progress!

On August 4, Baidu announced that its subsidiary, leekfast, a self-driving ride-hailing platform, would form a strategic partnership with Lyft, an overseas ride-hailing company, to provide self-driving ride-hailing services in Europe. According to the plan, leekfast's sixth-generation autonomous driving vehicle is expected to land first in Germany and the UK by 2026.

Since this year, including leekfast, Wuren Knowledge, and Xiaoma Wisdom, domestic multiple self-driving companies have frequently released latest dynamics of entering the overseas market.

At home, recent autonomous driving ride-hailing services (Robotaxi) have also encountered policy-friendly developments. On July 26, the "Modular Intelligent Driving" action plan for Shanghai's high-level autonomous driving leading zone was released during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The plan proposes that by 2027, L4-level autonomous driving passengers will break through 6 million people, open roads over 5,000 km, and achieve a new car ratio of over 90% with L2 and L3 functions. On the same day, Shanghai also released its first batch of smart networked vehicle operation licenses.

Baidu Leekfast Enters European Market

According to an interview with Baidu on August 4, leekfast will form a strategic partnership with Lyft and land first in the UK and Germany markets by 2026. According to the plan, both parties will gradually expand their scale to several thousand vehicles and achieve large-scale landing of autonomous driving.

After the news was released, Baidu and Lyft's stock prices rose simultaneously. As of closing, Baidu's share price rose 1.75%, and Lyft's share price rose 3.38%, with a market value exceeding $59 billion (420 billion yuan).

Open data shows that Lyft, founded in 2012, is headquartered in San Francisco, USA, and is the second-largest ride-hailing platform in the United States, occupying about 39% of the US market share as of 2024. In March 2019, Lyft listed on the Nasdaq exchange, becoming the "global ride-hailing first stock."

Regarding the latest cooperation, Baidu's founder, Lee Huanhong, said, "The collaboration with Lyft in Europe to deploy autonomous driving ride-hailing services and land first in Germany and the UK is a major milestone for leekfast's globalization strategy. We will work with global partners to provide autonomous driving ride-hailing services to global users. In the future, Baidu will continue to deepen its leading-edge autonomous driving technology and Lyft platform operation experience to provide European users with safer, greener, and more efficient travel services."

"Our collaboration with Baidu is focused on building an excellent customer experience." Lyft's CEO, David Risher, said that Baidu has the world's largest autonomous driving ride-hailing platform, with rich experience, which means that Lyft can bring autonomous driving ride-hailing services' advantages - safety, reliability, and privacy protection - to hundreds of millions of European users. He also emphasized that this is part of Lyft's "human-machine collaboration travel network" strategy: autonomous vehicles and human drivers working together to provide in-depth matching options for passengers.

Open data shows that Lyft has rich experience in team management, user operation, and localized deployment. Industry insiders analyze that Europe has a well-developed road infrastructure and high digitalization, providing an excellent condition for the large-scale landing of autonomous driving. Both parties will rely on these advantages to lay the foundation for the large-scale landing of autonomous driving cars in Europe.

It's worth noting that just this year, on July 15, Baidu announced a strategic partnership with Uber, the world's largest mobile ride-hailing platform.

According to data, leekfast has already deployed over 1,000 autonomous driving cars globally, covering 15 cities including Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Chinese Self-Driving Companies Gather to "Go Out"

From the commercialization process of Robotaxi, China has taken advantage of policy coordination and technological advantages to achieve limited-area autonomous driving safety driver commercial operation by 2023. Commercial progress ranked first.

In recent years, including leekfast, Xiaoma Wisdom, and Wuren Knowledge, domestic self-driving companies have actively deployed overseas, seeking rapid landing of commercialization.

On July 28, Wuren Knowledge announced that its Robotaxi product had obtained the first autonomous driving license in Saudi Arabia and became the world's only technology company with six national autonomous driving licenses, covering Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE, Singapore, France, and the United States.

According to the introduction, based on this license, Wuren Knowledge is authorized to operate autonomous driving services in Saudi Arabia and can deploy Robotaxi services nationwide. Initially, Wuren Knowledge will conduct a trial operation with Uber and local partner AiDriver in Riyadh.

It's worth noting that previous domestic self-driving companies, including leekfast, Wuren Knowledge, Xiaoma Wisdom, and Momenta, have all formed partnerships with Uber.

Among them, Wuren Knowledge in December 2024 collaborated with Uber to officially land autonomous driving ride-hailing services in Abu Dhabi, with a fleet of 50 vehicles by the end of 2025. In April this year, Wuren Knowledge expanded its Robotaxi ride-hailing service to Dubai, and plans to cover 15 new cities globally, including European markets.

In addition, on July 17, Wuren Knowledge also announced the launch of a pure autonomous driving bus Robobus in Singapore, becoming the first autonomous driving vehicle in Southeast Asia to achieve "vehicle interior without safety drivers" operation.

Similarly, Xiaoma Wisdom is also targeting the Middle East market. On July 4 this year, Xiaoma Wisdom signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Dubai Road Traffic Management Authority (RTA) in Dubai to promote the commercialization of Robotaxi services in Dubai, with the first batch of vehicles set to launch in 2025 and achieve full autonomous operation by 2026.

Open data shows that Xiaoma Wisdom has US, Korean, and Luxembourg autonomous driving licenses. Currently, Xiaoma Wisdom is conducting road testing in Luxembourg and exploring commercialization operations with Conford High in Singapore.

It's worth noting that despite overseas deployments, many self-driving companies have not yet achieved profitability.

According to Xiaoma Wisdom's financial reports, its 2024 revenue was $75 million, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%, and net loss was $275 million, an increase of 120%. In the first quarter of 2025, Xiaoma Wisdom's revenue was $14 million, up 11.6% year-over-year, and net loss was $374 million, up 79.81%.

In comparison, Wuren Knowledge's financial reports show that its 2024 revenue was RMB361 million, down 10.1%, and net loss was RMB2517 million, an increase of 29%. In the first quarter of 2025, Wuren Knowledge's revenue was RMB7244 million, up 1.8% year-over-year, and net loss was RMB385 million, a decrease of 22.42%