Whale Dynamic

Founded by an industry veteran from the Chinese multinational technology company Baidu, Whale Dynamic is a Chinese company that develops autonomous driving technology with Level 4 autonomy (i.e., fully autonomous vehicles limited to specific locations and/or conditions), which includes an ADV. Its ADV uses multiple sensors such as LiDAR, cameras, and high-precision map-matching technology for autonomous navigation. The company targets the US and Chinese markets for deployment.

The company started mass manufacturing its vehicles in 2023 and the plan was to produce the vehicles in China under a contract manufacturing agreement that would give them a cost advantage over its other US-based rivals whose manufacturing takes place in the US. The company’s planned business model involves the outright sale of vehicles and software-as-a-service without maintaining its own fleet. Whale Dynamic’s ADVs were to be priced at around USD 20,000 (March 2022).

Key customers and partnerships

Whale Dynamic’s key product partners include 1) Felxposition, to integrate high-precision positioning technology (April 2024); 2) Ouster (as of March 2022) and Innoviz Technologies (August 2021) to obtain LiDAR sensors; and 3) NVIDIA and Intel to obtain chips (as of March 2022).

Funding and financials

In March 2022, Whale Dynamic raised USD 2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Qianchuang Capital. The company intended to utilize it to expand its team and assess market opportunities in China and the US.