(Yicai Global) April 6 -- NavInfo’s shares rose after the Chinese digital mapping services provider announced a partnership with the Chinese unit of US automation giant Honeywell on vehicle chips, self-driving technology, and intelligent networks.

NavInfo [SHE: 002405] closed up 6 percent at CNY15.03 (USD2.36) today. The broader Shenzhen market fell 0.5 percent.

The Beijing-based company, which also counts carmakers Ford, BMW, Daimler, Volvo Cars, and Toyota Motors as clients, will become Honeywell Sense and Control China’s preferred supplier of car-grade chips for in-vehicle hardware and devices, it said in a statement late yesterday.

NavInfo will use Honeywell’s sensors in its level two to L4 autonomous driving solutions, it added, noting that the parties will also cooperate to provide clients with core autonomous driving solutions qualified for mass production. Moreover, they plan to consolidate the products, resources, and capabilities of their units to co-build top-class energy solutions.

The tie-up will help NavInfo to speed up the adoption of self-driving and new energy solutions and Honeywell to boost its market share in the auto chip and autonomous driving solutions market, it added.

NavInfo is one of China’s major developers of road navigation, internet of vehicles, and self-driving technologies. It led a consortium of companies and research institutes to win a CNY100 million (USD15.7 million) Ministry of Industry and Information Technology project for an IoV data management platform in November 2020.

Editor: Futura Costaglione