Overview
DeepRoute.ai (元戎启行) is an AI company founded in 2019 by CEO Dr. Maxwell Zhou. Headquartered in Shenzhen with an R&D centre in Beijing, it operates in Silicon Valley, Germany, Singapore, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Baoding and elsewhere, focusing on end-to-end model based intelligent driving and large-scale robotaxi deployment.
Technology
The company built its next-generation intelligent driving platform DeepRoute IO on end-to-end models and developed a vision-language-action (VLA) model. The VLA model supports both camera-only and LiDAR-camera fusion configurations and works across chip platforms; the first production car equipped with it went on sale in mid-2025.
Mass production and funding
DeepRoute.ai has mass-production partnerships with automakers including Great Wall Motor and smart, covering more than ten models. A Great Wall Motor SUV launched in August 2024 gave it more than 15% share among third-party intelligent driving solution providers in the fourth quarter of 2024. The company states it has completed six funding rounds totalling over US$500 million, with more than 1,000 employees, 84% of them in R&D.