The future of autonomous driving star Xing Chi is worrying

As the current vent, autonomous driving has become an industry that is eager for all car companies and capital. However, some companies are struggling to get out of the box during the critical period of development. On September 14th, the rumors of the online outflow "by the report of the Jingchi Technology co-founder Pan Sining and the litigation, the billion yuan of funds under the name of Beijing Jingyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. have been frozen by the bank", Jingchi Technology Issue an official statement to deny it. Although the rumors have been denied, the foundation of Jingchi Technology is not stable, and internal frictions have arisen. Whether it is the definition of Pan Sining’s legal identity in July or the use of corporate names today, the future of Jingchi Technology is worrying.

Civil strife

After only four hours of rumors of funds being frozen, Jingchi Technology officially responded that the so-called latest developments on the Jingchi technology lawsuit and related fund freezes were misdirected on the Internet. The Beijing Haidian Court is still in the process of hearing the relevant lawsuit, and no judgment has been made. All should be based on the final judgment of the court. Jingchi Technology operates normally. In the evening, Pan Xining responded by social media that after she filed the relevant lawsuit, Jingchi Technology refused to accept the subpoena, which led to the delay in the court session.

As for the latest progress of the lawsuit, the Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted the Jingchi public relations department, but as of press time, the other party has not yet received a reply.

It is understood that Pan Sining is the co-founder of Jingchi Technology and the original legal representative of Beijing Jingyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. Beijing Jingyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a company established in Beijing by VIE Architecture. After checking the business registration information, the reporter found that on June 28, the information of the legal representative and executive director of Beijing Jingyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. was changed from Pan Sining to Lu Qing. The legal representatives of the four major companies registered by Jingchi Technology in Beijing Jingqi Information Technology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Jingchi Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Jingqi Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Jingqi Technology Co., Ltd. have also been changed to Lu Qing and Han Xu.

On July 7, Pan Si Ning issued a statement saying that Lv Qing, the CFO of Jingchi Technology, pledged her equity without her consent, and recently forged her personal signature, and will be the legal representative and executive director of Beijing Jingqi Information Technology Co., Ltd. Changed to Lu Qing. On July 8, Jingchi Technology issued a statement in the name of the board of directors of Jingchi Technology, saying that the shareholders meeting of Beijing Jingwei Information Technology Co., Ltd. has removed the duties of Pan’s legal representative and executive director in accordance with the law and the company’s articles of association.

Subsequently, Pan Sining issued a statement saying, "According to the regulations of Beijing Jingwei Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Jingchi Technology Co., Ltd., the company does not have a board of directors, and has one executive director. The executive director is the legal representative of the company, and the company is the company, a legitimate executive director and legal representative. Those who wish to use the 'King Chi Technology Board of Directors' to make a statement will respond to my statement by the real name."

On August 9th, Pan Sining publicized the appraisal conclusion of the Judicial Identification Science Research Institute on social media, indicating that the Pan Xining signature and fingerprints in the above-mentioned industrial and commercial change registration information were forged. On August 23, the legal representative was Pan Xing's Jingchi Technology Co., Ltd., and infringed on the company's name right, Guangzhou Jingchi Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing Jingyi Information Technology Co., Ltd., Han Xu, and Lu Qing were sued to Guangzhou Huangpu, District People's Court. The Huangpu District People's Court of Guangzhou City has filed a case for trial.

Brilliant dispute

According to the data, in April 2017, Jingchi Technology was established in Silicon Valley, USA. In December of that year, Jingchi Technology announced that its global headquarters was stationed in Guangzhou. Since its inception, Jingchi Technology has been focusing on autonomous driving technology and has developed rapidly. It is a star enterprise in the industry.

In May 2017, Jingchi Technology announced the completion of the first closed road unmanned road test; on June 18, Jingchi obtained the California road test license; on June 24, Jingchi Technology completed the first open road unmanned road test; On September 8, Jingchi Technology completed the commuter road test during the peak time in Silicon Valley; in the same month, Jingchi Technology received a $52 million Pre-A round of financing. This series of rapid development is closely related to the founder team behind Jingchi Technology. As the original CEO of Jingchi Technology, Wang Jin once built Baidu's unmanned driving department, and in 2015 shouted the slogan of “three years of commercial use, five years of mass production, and ten years of changing travel modes”. Han Xu was the chief scientist of Baidu's Autopilot Division. Yang Qingxiong was the senior director of Divan's unmanned vehicle. Pan Sining was the product director of Baidu's Autopilot division. These founders have been working in the field of travel or autopilot for many years.

At the same time of rapid development, Jingchi Technology has not forgotten to propose a series of ambitious plans. According to the plan, Jingchi Technology will realize large-scale unmanned operation in China in 2020, and with the Huangpu District Guangzhou Development Zone, the Guangzhou Development Zone Financial Holding Group and other well-known funds, build a 10 billion yuan industrial fund around Jingchi Technology. Invest in unmanned upstream and downstream industries and artificial intelligence projects. The relevant person in charge of Jingchi Technology said that it will accelerate the introduction of the world's top talents, and plans to expand the global staff to more than 200 people, including more than 100 Chinese employees.

Although in the early days of its establishment, Jingchi Technology has achieved impressive results for its peers, it has not been good for a long time. In December 2017, Baidu sued Wang Jin and Jing Chi Technology to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court for infringement of trade secrets and became the “China Automated Driving Case”.

Baidu’s litigation reasons include that Wang Jin violated the competition restrictions and recruited Baidu employees. During the period of employment, he registered a new company that directly competes with Baidu, and did not return any computers with important trade secrets before leaving the company. This case has brought a big blow to the fast-growing Jingchi technology. Subsequently, after mediation with the director of Jingchi Technology, Wang Jin finally left. In March 2018, Jingchi Technology joined the Baidu Apollo platform. At the cost of Wang Jin’s departure, Jingchi Technology and Baidu realized reconciliation.

Financing decision prospects

At the time of its creation, Jingchi Technology had six co-founders. Today, former CEO Wang Jin has withdrawn in early 2018. Subsequently, Yang Qingxiong, vice president of technology, also withdrew from the creation of the self-driving truck company Mu Yue Technology. Many of Jingchi's technical backbones have left, and other co-founders have been mired in the current corporate control dispute.

In fact, in addition to internal problems such as executive loss and legal disputes, the external challenges faced by Jingchi Technology are becoming more and more prominent, and it is not easy to solve. At present, the competition in the domestic automatic driving field is becoming hot. Among them, Baidu Apollo and Xiaopeng Automobile plan to launch L3-class self-driving cars in 2020; GAC New Energy will launch L3-class automatic driving production models in 2019.

Although the competition is fierce, it is difficult for autonomous driving technology to obtain a large amount of revenue in the short term. Professor Li Keqiang, director of the Intelligent Networking Automotive and Transportation Research Center of Tsinghua University, pointed out that many companies' autopilot tests are in the gray area of the law. The L3 level can only be tested on the road under the current legal framework of the United States and China. It will take time.

For the financing situation of Jingchi Technology and how to make a profit, Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted Jingchi Technology Public Relations Department, but as of press time, it still has not received a reply.

As autonomous driving technology is difficult to produce large-scale economic benefits in the short term, therefore, for a startup like Jingchi Technology, which focuses on autonomous driving technology, financing is crucial to the company's development. The famous economist Song Qinghui said in an interview with the Beijing Business Daily that for the start-up technology enterprises such as Jingchi Technology, there is no business that can obtain stable revenue if the company is caused by high-level internal struggles and legal disputes. Difficulties in financing will have a very negative impact on the company's development and even threaten the company's survival.

With the ongoing fighting, the financing prospects of Jingchi Technology are not clear. In March of this year, Zhang Chi, vice president of operations of Jingchi Technology, revealed that the company's a round of financing is underway, with plans to raise $100 million to $200 million. However, there have been no signs of landing so far.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.