Zhang Li‘s profession path has seemed like a bellwether for China’s tech developments. When the Cisco veteran joined WeRide in 2018, the Chinese language autonomous car firm was lower than a yr outdated. Within the subsequent few years, the nation would develop into a breeding floor for 3 AV unicorns, together with WeRide, of which valuation surged to $4.4 billion final yr.
Zhang’s resignation from WeRide in June, three months after the corporate filed confidentially for an IPO, got here as a shock to some folks. However as we realized about his subsequent step, it grew to become evident that his choice was pushed by his aspiration to work on the “subsequent huge factor.”
The previous WeRide chief govt officer has joined LimX Dynamics, a Shenzhen-based robotics startup, as its co-founder and chief working officer. Zhang will primarily deal with enterprise technique and operation, channel growth, advertising and marketing and communications, and authorities relations, each domestically and internationally.
The timing, once more, appears fortuitous. Simply final week, China’s Ministry of Trade and Data Know-how released a nine-page blueprint that outlined the nation’s aim to mass-produce humanoid robots by 2025. Such top-level pointers have traditionally helped lure expertise and capital right into a fledgling expertise subject.
After being within the AV trade for 5 years, Zhang felt an urge to maneuver on. Once more, he was searching for a startup to affix and had two standards in thoughts: first, it must have proprietary, cutting-edge expertise; second, it ought to have the ability to entice substantial capital.
LimX Dynamics was his reply. Based by a gaggle of robotics scientists, the startup has already raised 200 million yuan ($27.5 million) in angel and pre-A financing. Together with the hiring of Zhang right this moment, the startup can be appointing Dr. Jia Pan, a tenured affiliate professor on the College of Hong Kong, as its chief scientist.
“My energy lies in working with entrepreneurial scientists and corporations the place expertise and enterprise develop hand in hand,” Zhang instructed TechCrunch in an interview. Having helped WeRide discover product-market match and scale robotaxi operations in China, Zhang appears to be a really perfect candidate for the startup engaged on legged robots, a comparatively nascent sort of cell robotic that makes use of leg mechanics to maneuver.
From sensible driving to humanoids
The delivery of Optimus has sparked widespread dialogue on the similarities between robots and automatic or autonomous driving. When Tesla launched the humanoid robotic final yr, it highlighted the ties between the 2 areas. As my colleague Darrell reported then:
Give it some thought. We’re simply transferring from wheels to our legs,” defined one of many firm’s engineers. “So a few of the elements are fairly related [ … ] It’s precisely the identical occupancy community. Now we’ll discuss somewhat bit extra particulars later with Autopilot group [ … ] The one factor that modified actually is the coaching knowledge.
Echoing the statement, Zhang mentioned the transition to the brand new job would seemingly be easy, because of the transferability of his information and skillsets from self-driving.
“It’s apparent that like autonomous automobiles, legged robots additionally use SLAM [Simultaneous Localization and Mapping]. However as I delved extra into the 2 fields, I noticed that they’ve many different similarities. Right this moment, most households personal a automobile or two, however sooner or later, they could personal a number of robots to hold out home duties. Like self-driving automobiles, robots are tackling the problem of transferring from level A to level B.”
However as Darrell additionally incisively identified, the similarities may be an oversimplification:
The area experience, whereas diminished to a easy translation by Tesla’s presentation, is definitely quite a complex one. Bipedal robots navigating pedestrian routes is a really completely different beast from autonomous car routes, and oversimplifying the connection does a disservice to the immense current physique of analysis and growth work on the topic.
It’s too early to say the place bipedal and quadrupedal robots will discover their mass adoption. LimX Dynamics is presently piloting a prototype for industrial inspection use, with the intention of bringing its robots to vehicle manufacturing, logistics and family providers.
“Inspection is a no brainer, however my job is to search for instances that aren’t even conceivable right this moment,” mentioned the chief. “Should you consider robots as a tool with an working system, then there’s a variety of room for creativeness.”
After years of frenzied funding and hiring, the AV trade’s path to producing significant revenues nonetheless stays unclear in each China and the U.S. Will legged robots face an identical destiny? Zhang expressed his want for a greater final result.
“Let’s hope that the robotics trade gained’t dash forward with out having the ability to land like self-driving.”