LaiFu Che And Tensor Reach Cooperation To Deploy Hundreds Of Autonomous Vehicle Fleets In Europe And America Starting In 2027

On October 9, Lyft Inc., a US ride-hailing service platform company, and Tensor Auto Inc., an autonomous vehicle developer, released a joint statement announcing that they are collaborating to deploy a fleet of several hundred autonomous taxis (robotaxis) in Europe and North America starting in 2027.

Image source: Laifuche

The joint statement pointed out that the Tensor autonomous vehicle, Robocar, will be pre-installed with the Laifu vehicle platform at the factory. In markets supporting L4-level autonomous driving technology, vehicle owners can generate income through this platform in ride-hailing networks. Laifu has reserved hundreds of Robocars through its affiliated company for its own fleet operations, but this plan still requires approval from regulatory authorities. The parties did not disclose the financial terms of the cooperation, nor did they specify which metropolitan areas they would initially target.

According to reports, the Tensor Robocar is scheduled for its first delivery by the end of 2026. This model is equipped with over 100 sensors, including cameras, LiDAR, and radar, and is powered by NVIDIA's onboard chips to process sensor data using artificial intelligence technology.

After the report was released, the stock price of Lyft initially rose during pre-market trading, but fell after the New York Stock Exchange opened, with a maximum decline of 2.5%.

Among the many cooperative projects of Laifuche, this collaboration is particularly notable—this is the first time Laifuche has committed to purchasing and operating its own fleet. Previously, the company's cooperation agreements mainly involved facilitating transportation services on its app or providing fleet management services.

Laifuche has decided to own its vehicles, a move that highlights the shift in the industry's business model as autonomous vehicles become increasingly mainstream. Larger competitors like Uber Technologies Inc. have also formed similar partnerships with electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid: Uber and its third-party partners have committed to purchasing and deploying at least 20,000 autonomous taxis from Lucid and Nuro starting next year.

In the next frontier of ride-hailing services—autonomous driving—LaiFu Car is accelerating its efforts to catch up with Uber. Currently, Uber has formed partnerships with dozens of autonomous vehicle developers worldwide. It is reported that Uber has collaborated with Waymo to provide driverless ride-hailing services in Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta in the United States; at the same time, Uber has also partnered with WeRide Inc. to launch similar services in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Last month, Lyft collaborated with May Mobility Inc. to launch a safety driver-assisted autonomous driving service in Atlanta, USA. Lyft is expected to form partnerships with more companies next year, including a collaboration with Waymo, the autonomous driving subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., in Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, USA.

Headquartered in San Jose, USA, Tensor was formerly known as AutoX, a Chinese company. AutoX launched its autonomous taxi service in China in 2019 and began testing on public roads in California, USA, in 2017. In 2020, it received a passenger vehicle autonomous testing permit from the state. However, the company has not yet obtained a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, which would allow it to offer autonomous ride services to the public without a safety driver. As of now, Waymo is the only company that has received this permit.

In a statement this August, Tensor announced that it had completely divested its AutoX business in China to focus on developing the Tensor brand. The company will also collaborate with Vietnam's largest automaker, VinFast, to expand its automobile production capacity in Vietnam.