Waymo's wholly-owned subsidiary for driverless cars settles in China, shares office space with Google in Shanghai

Waymo's Chinese subsidiary is named Huimo Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which was registered in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone on May 22, 2018 and is 100% owned by Waymo LLC.

The subsidiary has a registered capital of RMB 3.5 million and is wholly owned by a foreign legal person. Its business scope includes business information consulting, corporate management consulting, trade information consulting, supply chain management consulting, logistics information consulting, design and testing of autonomous driving vehicle components and products, and provision of related supporting services.

Kevin Bradley Vosen, the legal representative, is also the chairman of Huimo. Kevin Bradley Vosen is a senior executive of Waymo. He officially joined in July 2016 as the general counsel and the first chief legal officer (CLO) since Waymo was spun off.

There is no disclosure yet about what Waymo China or Huimo will and can do specifically in China. A Waymo spokesperson responded that a Chinese legal entity has indeed been established and that there are employees working in Shanghai.

This time, Waymo set up an office in China, which is very independent in both its entity and its operations.

Huimo’s registered office is the Shanghai World Financial Center – the bottle opener, which is also the location of Google’s Shanghai office.

The establishment of Huimo means that Waymo has started its overseas expansion.

At the end of June this year, Waymo CEO John Krafcik announced that the company would launch overseas business. However, at that time, the outside world placed more "possibility" on Europe, especially Germany, where there are many car companies.

In August this year, the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission organized a delegation to visit Silicon Valley to test ride Waymo and other driverless cars, and to "strive to have a number of major projects such as Waymo driverless cars settled in Shanghai." The Shanghai Economic and Information Technology Commission also sent an invitation to Google executives, hoping that "Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other AI-related company executives will attend the 2018 World Artificial Intelligence Conference."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.