Chinese startups Horizon Robotics, others steer country towards 30m driverless vehicle target

Chinese startups Horizon Robotics, others steer country towards 30m driverless vehicle target

Targets detected by Horizon Robotics's Journey processor are displayed onboard a vehicle during a demonstration in Beijing. Photographer: Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg

China’s aspiration to deploy 30 million autonomous vehicles within a decade is seeding a fledgling chip industry, with startups like Horizon Robotics Inc. emerging to build the brains behind those wheels.

The Beijing-based company is taking aim at Nvidia Corp. and Mobileye NV just as the autonomous-driving business takes off and uncertainty looms over international trade. Annual revenue from the chips used in driverless vehicles globally should more than double to $5 billion by 2021, according to Gartner Inc.

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