Xiaomi's autonomous car testing spotted in public - Here's what we know

Xiaomi, now well known in the world as a smartphone and consumer electronics brand, had formally announced its plans last September for manufacturing electric vehicles. Xiaomi, which is building a large plant in Beijing capable of making 300,000-vehicles a year, is said to be working on four electric car models --- two in the middle-range and two in the high-end segments.

And now, a picture of an autonomous driving vehicle, sporting the sticker of Xiaomi, has emerged thanks to a posting on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

The pic shows a blue sedan that has a LiDAR system on the roof and stickers on the side that says 'Xiaomi Autonomous Driving Test' in Chinese and 'Xiaomi Pilot Test' in English. 

Interestingly, according to Chinese media reports, the vehicle bears a resemblance to BYD's Han EV. It is further claimed in the reports that  Xiaomi has bought 200 BYD Han vehicles for collecting self-driving data.

So, basically it is not Xiaomi's vehicle in the pic, but is merely testing self-driving technology. Xiaomi's use of BYD vehicles for testing isn't surprising, as it has been suggested previously that it would use BYD's batteries.

Xiaomi's car project: Investments and product timeline

The news about Xiaomi's automobile plunge, primarily EVs, has been sketchy so far. Three names for the company are being bandied about. They are: Xiaomi Automotive Co, Xiaomi EV Inc and Xiaomi Automobile Technology Co. Be that as they may be, but Xiaomi has made public many auto-related patent applications. And two of which are in the autonomous driving field. One of the two pertains to vehicle control method, and the other is about an image processing method, device, vehicle, and readable memory medium.

Xiaomi will pour in $10 billion into automaking over the next 10 years in a bid to build a big automobile brand. Last November, Xiaomi, through its automobile subsidiary, has signed a contract with the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area Management Committee to build a headquarters there for its automotive business and its sales and R&D base in Yizhuang (a suburb of Beijing). Xiaomi's first vehicle is expected to roll off the production line and achieve mass production in 2024. Initially, the plant will have the capacity for 150,000 EVs, and then soon it will double to 30,000 EVs per year.

Xiaomi had last year said that it had acquired DeepMotion, a self-driving technology company, for about $77.37 million.

• Want to know about the latest happenings in tech? Follow TechRadar India on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!