China Roundup: facial recognition lawsuit and cashless payments for foreigners Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China Roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. This week, a lawsuit sparked a debate over the deployment of China’s […]

China’s Didi to relaunch Hitch carpooling service this month Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing said today it will conduct a trial relaunch of its Hitch carpooling service in seven major Chinese cities with additional safety features by end of the month, more than a year after suspending the service following the murder […]

Didi Chuxing to launch self-driving rides in Shanghai and expand them beyond China by 2021 Didi Chuxing will begin picking up ride-hailing passengers with self-driving cars in Shanghai in just a few months, according to company CTO Zhang Bo (via Reuters). The plan is to roll out autonomous pick-ups in Shanghai first, […]

Didi Chuxing’s autonomous driving unit is now an independent company Didi Chuxing’s autonomous driving unit is now an independent company, the Chinese ride-sharing and transportation giant said today. Didi’s autonomous driving team was created in 2016 and now has more than 200 employees in China and the United States. Didi’s announcement comes […]

Didi Chuxing and oil giant BP team up to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure in China Ride-sharing and transportation platform Didi Chuxing announced today that it has formed a joint venture with BP, the British gas, oil and energy supermajor. to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure in China. The charging stations will […]

SoftBank pumps B into Indonesia through new Grab investment, putting it head to head with Gojek Grab — the on-demand transportation app that is the Uber of Southeast Asia — today announced yet another investment on top of the $7 billion that it has raised to date. SoftBank is putting another $2 billion […]

Toyota invests 0 million in Didi, with the two setting up a new joint venture for driver services Didi Chuxing announced today that it has received new investment totaling $600 million from Toyota Motor Corporation. As part of the deal, the two companies will also set up a joint venture with GAC […]

Microsoft in talks to invest in SoftBank’s second Vision Fund SoftBank is said to be preparing the announcement of a $40 billion investment in its second Vision Fund, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. News of the mammoth investment comes after weeks of rumors the Japanese telecom giant […]

China’s Didi removes 300,000 drivers amid safety overhaul 2018 was the year when Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing company that defeated Uber in China, vowed to put safety ahead of rocket-ship growth after two deadly passenger incidents. One way it works to ramp up safety is a stricter vetting process for drivers. The […]