Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is reportedly testing its self-driving prototype car, as the telecom equipment and smartphone maker joins the ranks of Google Inc and Baidu Inc to gain a lead in the red-hot industry.
The move comes as China strives to promote the development of internet-connected vehicles, which are highlighted in the country's Made in China 2025 initiative.
Huawei is partnering with Tsinghua University on driverless car technologies and is now testing its prototype in a high-tech industrial park in Shanghai, according to news portal sina.com.
In the Jinqiao Manka Tech Park, the car can now automatically avoid pedestrians, bypass obstacles and maneuver itself into parking lots, sina quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.
Huawei said in a statement to China Daily on Thursday that it has no intention of manufacturing cars.
"We focus on information communication technology and advocate intensive cooperation with the automobile manufacturers. We aim to offer technological solutions to help connect cars," Huawei said.
Sina.com released a photo of Huawei's autonomous car prototype. The picture featured a computer, without car shell but with internal frames.
Tech giants, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Baidu, are all eyeing cars, which are widely seen as the ultimate mobile devices to connect people with their online services.
Zhang Zhiyong, founder and CEO of Wenfeng Automobile Consultancy, said Huawei's years of research in telecommunications, especially 5G, would give it a big edge.
"It is impossible to have fully autonomous vehicles without the commercial application of 5G, which is essential in enabling super fast internet speed and real-time data analysis," Zhang said.
Global consultancy Accenture Plc predicts that the Chinese market in internet-connected cars will grow to $33.8 billion in 2020, from $7.7 billion in 2016.
