Adelaide-based connected autonomous vehicle technology company Cohda Wireless has opened an office in Shanghai aimed at supplying China’s rapidly developing markets for Smart Cities and autonomous cars.
Cohda Wireless chief executive Paul Gray says the Shanghai office aims to build the company’s profile as a proven provider of CAV applications as the Chinese Government finalises standards for the 2025 National Development goal for connected smart vehicles, a key component of the Smart Cities strategy.
Gray said China was a global leader in developing Smart City technology as its government aims to encourage information-rich connected systems to improve the liveability of its rapidly growing cities.
“There are no local V2X stack and mature application suppliers in the Chinese market yet, so we have an opportunity to add value as this market is developing,” he said.
{loadposition peter}According to Gray, Cohda, which already has offices in the US and Europe, has systems deployed in world-leading CAV projects including:
- The 2017 Cadillac CTS sedan, which contains Cohda’s world-leading V2X software as a standard feature;
- A pioneering research project by Jaguar Land Rover which used Cohda Wireless connected vehicle systems to enable future autonomous cars to drive over any surface or terrain; and
- Collaborating with Telstra to successfully trial Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technology over Telstra’s 4G network in South Australia.
Located in the Regus Central Towers business centre in Shanghai’s Putuo District, Cohda Wireless’ China office will be managed by business development manager Shuning Yuan, a tri-lingual executive with a PhD in Intelligent Transport Systems from University Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris.
The company says local staff will grow to include technical support and engineering resources during this year.
Yuan said he intended to leverage Cohda’s existing local presence. “Cohda already has connections with most of the major vehicle OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in China.”
“Cohda’s hardware and software solutions are being used in major field trials and pre-deployment projects across the country while all major OEMs, Tier 1s and leading universities are evaluating or using our market-leading V2X system solutions.
“Because China is rapidly overtaking the rest of world in the number of vehicles sold, it’s the fastest growing market for e-vehicles, with the largest number of automotive OEMs. Our Shanghai office places us closer to these customers and markets to cultivate first-hand intelligence of developing trends and requirements.”