Qiming Venture Partners Portfolio Company WeRide Launches 24/7 Fully Driverless Robotaxi GXR Commercial Operations in Guangzhou's Huangpu District

Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD) announced that its newly mass-produced autonomous ride-hailing vehicle (Robotaxi), the GXR, has officially launched 24-hour fully unmanned commercial operations in Huangpu District, Guangzhou.

Users can download the "WeRide Go" app to view the service area and select any pickup point and destination within that zone to book a ride, enjoying a "anytime, anywhere, comfortable and convenient" future mobility experience. This also marks the industry's first point-to-point autonomous commercial ride-hailing service in the core urban area of a megacity, fully demonstrating WeRide's leading position, operational experience, and deep expertise in the global Robotaxi industry.

From the October 2024 launch of the GXR model, to rapidly completing road testing, vehicle certification, operating permits, and other regulatory processes, and then efficiently transitioning from manned commercial operations to fully unmanned commercial operations, WeRide accomplished all of this in just 11 months — once again showcasing to the industry the "WeRide Speed" at which the company drives fully unmanned Robotaxi commercial deployment.

As a vital gateway for Guangzhou's opening-up and innovation-driven development, Huangpu District is home to numerous high-tech enterprise headquarters, research institutions, and multinational investment projects, encompassing diverse business, shopping, entertainment, dining, leisure, and cultural scenarios with strong and varied demand for urban mobility.

The GXR is a mass-produced Robotaxi model tailor-made by WeRide for urban mobility scenarios, featuring industry-leading L4-level public road commercial operation capabilities. It boasts not only a "most powerful brain" capable of completing over 2,000 trillion complex calculations per second — the world's first WeRide HPC 3.0 high-performance computing platform powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE Thor X chip; but also "insightful eyes" that can penetrate darkness, rain, fog, snow, and haze while detecting jaywalking pedestrians, cutting-in vehicles, nighttime construction, and other complex road conditions — the WeRide Sensor Suite 5.6; and a "robust body" integrating comprehensive redundancy across architecture, F-O drive-by-wire chassis, computing units, braking, and more. Through the seamless integration of these self-developed technologies, the Robotaxi GXR achieves safe, reliable, all-weather, all-day operation in complex urban traffic environments.

User experience is another strength of the WeRide Robotaxi GXR. Based on an open mobile mobility space design philosophy, WeRide has endowed the Robotaxi GXR with industry-leading vehicle length and wheelbase, while offering users worldwide the largest entry and exit space, in-cabin personal luggage area, second-row VIP comfort seats, spacious third-row seating, voice-controlled electric sliding doors, entertainment screen with music on demand, app-based remote climate control, and other innovative features — fully enabling freedom of entry and exit, freedom to stretch, freedom of luggage, freedom of entertainment, and freedom of climate control for up to five passengers.

WeRide Robotaxi GXR smoothly handling multi-vehicle merging during evening rush hour

As early as November 2019, WeRide pioneered China's first Robotaxi commercial service open to the general public in Guangzhou, covering approximately 145 square kilometers of public roads across Huangpu District. By May 2025, WeRide's Robotaxi operating area in Guangzhou continued to expand, now running through "heart-level" landmarks including Canton Tower, Canton Fair Complex, Garden Hotel, and Zhujiang New Town, while also connecting national transportation hubs such as Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Guangzhou South Railway Station.

To date, WeRide Robotaxi has operated safely for over 2,200 days, providing the "Guangzhou Model" and "Huangpu Experience" for the company's global Robotaxi commercial expansion.

WeRide Robotaxi GXR safely arriving at its destination

Going forward, WeRide will continue to deepen its core autonomous driving technology, optimize the Robotaxi service experience, accelerate large-scale fully unmanned commercial deployment, and collaborate with more cities and partners to jointly explore the boundless possibilities of future intelligent mobility.

P A S T H I G H L I G H T S

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Founded in 2006, Qiming Venture Partners currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total committed capital reaching $9.5 billion. Since its inception, the firm has focused on investing in outstanding early- and growth-stage companies in Technology and Healthcare.

To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative enterprises, of which more than 210 have listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means. Over 80 portfolio companies have become recognized unicorns or super-unicorns.

Many Qiming Venture Partners portfolio companies have grown into the most influential players in their respective fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE: ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD), Insta360 (688775.SH), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ: SDGR), MicroPort EP MedTech (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), Amoy Diagnostics (300685.SZ), Berry Genomics (000710.SZ), Sinocelltech (688520.SH), Yuanxin Technology, Insilico Medicine, MediLink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, Zhipu AI, StepFun, Biren Technology, and others.