Alibaba Invests in Hellobike's Robotaxi Business to Accelerate Autonomous Driving Push
Chinese bike-sharing company Hellobike announced September 17 that its robotaxi division has secured strategic investment from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., marking a deepened partnership to accelerate commercialization of autonomous ride-hailing services through joint development of AI models and computing platforms.
The investment builds on existing collaboration between the companies to develop cost-effective, high-safety autonomous driving technology. The partnership will focus on creating foundation models for vision, voice and language processing, as well as specialized models for intelligent cockpit systems and exploring world model applications in autonomous driving.
Alibaba Cloud will jointly conduct technical research and development with Hellobike to enhance algorithm iteration, user experience optimization and operational efficiency for the robotaxi business. The collaboration aims to establish industry benchmark products in the rapidly evolving autonomous vehicle sector.
"This investment reflects recognition and support for Hellobike's robotaxi capabilities," said Yang Lei, co-founder and CEO of Hellobike. "The deep integration of technology strategy and industrial vision will accelerate our technical iteration and commercial deployment."
Strategic Partnership Leverages Cloud Computing Strengths
Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu emphasized the synergy between Alibaba's AI and cloud computing advantages with Hellobike's mobility sector expertise. "We will accelerate the implementation of large models and autonomous driving technology together with Hellobike Robotaxi to comprehensively innovate users' travel experience," Wu stated.
The partnership positions Alibaba Cloud as a key technology provider for Hellobike's autonomous driving ambitions, supplying both cloud-based and vehicle-mounted model development computing power. This arrangement aligns with broader industry trends toward AI-powered transportation solutions.
Ambitious Scaling Timeline and Technology Architecture
Hellobike formally entered the robotaxi market in June 2025 through the establishment of Zaofu Intelligent Technology, a joint venture with Ant Group and Contemporary Amperex Technology with initial combined investment exceeding 3 billion yuan ($414 million).
The company unveiled its first mass-production robotaxi model "HR1" at the 2025 Bund Conference on September 11, based on Dongfeng Nissan's Venucia VX6 platform with suppliers including Horizon Robotics and Hesai Group.
Yu Qiankun, co-founder of Hellobike's autonomous driving division, outlined aggressive scaling targets: achieving unmanned operations of 10,000 vehicles by end-2026, expanding to 50,000 vehicles by 2027. The company has assembled a team of over 200 technical specialists from leading global institutions and research organizations.
End-to-End Technical Architecture Diverges from Industry Standard
Hellobike's robotaxi system employs an end-to-end integrated technical architecture that directly maps multi-sensor inputs to vehicle control commands, notably avoiding high-precision mapping solutions commonly used in the robotaxi sector.
The cloud-based model "Daoyu", jointly developed with Alibaba Cloud's Qwen team, comprises three layers: data mining models for identifying key elements and complex behaviors, world models for simulation to support reinforcement learning, and cloud-based VLA models serving as technical foundations for vehicle-mounted model distillation.
This technical approach represents a departure from traditional autonomous driving architectures, potentially offering advantages in scalability and deployment flexibility as the company pursues rapid market expansion across multiple geographic regions.