![](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/12\/db2016au01068_small.jpg?w=738\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Volkswagen is doubling down on China and\u00a0AI in one fell\u00a0swoop after the automaker announced a $180 million investment in Chinese startup Mobvoi to bring smart technology into its cars.<\/p>\n
Unlike a regular capital raise, VW\u2019s money is going into a joint-venture\u00a0that will \u201cdevelop and apply AI technologies to automotive industry\u201d rather than Mobvoi itself, the companies said in a statement. VW and Mobvoi will retain 50-50 ownership of the venture.<\/p>\n
Beijing-based Mobvoi is a five-year-old startup specializing artificial intelligence, and in particular voice recognition and natural language processing tech.\u00a0Prior to today, Mobvoi had raised $75 million from investors, including an undisclosed Series C round from Google in 2015<\/a>. The company was founded by former Googler\u00a0Zhifei Li.<\/p>\n Mobvoi\u00a0is best known for its Ticwatch smartwatch<\/a>, which raised over $2 million on Kickstarter<\/a>, and Chinese voice-based assistant\u00a0Chumenwenwen. The company ventured into automotive last year with\u00a0a smart rear-view mirror<\/a>\u00a0that integrates messaging app WeChat, navigation and more, and it seems like that product piqued VW\u2019s interest suitably.<\/p>\n The first fruits of the VC will be the smart mirror, which will be developed and optimized for\u00a0Volkswagen cars.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are impressed by Mobvoi\u2019s innovative approach of AI\u00a0technology, and we are pleased to form this joint venture to explore the next generation of smart\u00a0mobility,\u201d\u00a0Dr. Jochem Heizmann, president and CEO of\u00a0Volkswagen China said in a statement.<\/p>\n The German carmaker sold 10.3 million vehicles<\/a> last year to\u00a0make it the world\u2019s\u00a0biggest automobile seller. China was a critical component of that success, and its deliveries in the country rose 12.2 percent. That\u2019s largely because it doesn\u2019t sell\u00a0diesel vehicles in the country, that\u00a0shielded its China business from issues around its global emission scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s\u00a0alliance with Mobvoi comes four months after\u00a0Volkswagen announced\u00a0mobility solution platform Moia<\/a>. The separate company exist under the VW umbrella and is dedicated to disruptive transportation, including fleet-based commuter shuttles and, eventually, autonomous on-demand solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/12\/db2016au01068_small.jpg?w=680\")
Volkswagen is doubling down on China and\u00a0AI in one fell\u00a0swoop after the automaker announced a $180 million investment in Chinese startup Mobvoi to bring smart technology into its cars. Unlike a regular capital raise, VW’s money is going into a joint-venture\u00a0that will “develop and apply AI technologies to automotive industry” rather than Mobvoi itself, the companies said in… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-337798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}