(Yicai) July 23 -- Horizon Robotics will deepen its ties with Volkswagen Group on artificial intelligence foundation models to help bring the German auto manufacturer's advanced Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities to market, the Chinese self-driving tech firm said yesterday.

Horizon did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. However, Shanghai Securities News reported that the project is valued at around CNY1 billion (USD147.7 million) and started this year.

CARIZON, the joint venture set up by Volkswagen's software unit CAIAD and Horizon at the end of 2023, will adopt a white-box licensing model that allows it to leverage Beijing-based Horizon's advanced AI foundation models to independently develop and accelerate a unified AI driving solution for Volkswagen's vehicles in China, Horizon said.

Under a white-box licensing model, the technology provider grants its partner access to underlying source code, model architecture or core algorithms, enabling the partner to modify, further develop and independently iterate on the technology.

The AI-powered intelligent driving system will be integrated with Volkswagen's China-developed Central Electronic Architecture, which is the Wolfsburg-based carmaker's first locally developed regional control electronic and electrical platform, Horizon said. The technology will be deployed across a broad range of Volkswagen models sold in China and some international markets.

According to Volkswagen's roadmap, the firm plans to begin delivering vehicles equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities, which enables conditional automated driving, as early as the second half of next year.

As of the end of last year, CARIZON had delivered its first advanced driver assistance system, which has been deployed in two Volkswagen models currently on sale. The system offers features including highway navigation assistance and memory parking.

CARIZON's full-scenario ADAS solution has also entered mass production and will begin rolling out in the third quarter across seven new electric vehicle models produced by Volkswagen's three JVs in China. Starting next year, the technology will be expanded to a broader range of vehicles based on the CEA architecture.

Editor: Kim Taylor