Autonomous driving received $5 billion in investment last quarter, exceeding the total of the past four years

According to BloombergNEF data, private market investment in driverless car companies increased significantly in the second quarter of this year, even exceeding the total of the past four years.

In the four years to the end of 2017, investments in companies related to connected car and self-driving technology totaled $4.4 billion. In the first quarter of this year, investments totaled just $197 million.

In the second quarter of this year, the total investment reached US$5 billion.

Masayoshi Son's Vision Fund is the largest investment contributor.

SoftBank's Vision Fund led a $1.9 billion financing round for logistics platform Manbang Group and also invested $2.25 billion in Cruise Automation, General Motors' driverless division.

The Vision Fund has already cashed out $900 million of its investment in Cruise, with the remaining $1.35 billion planned to be in place once the company deploys driverless cars through its ride-hailing app, which is expected to happen next year.

Manbang Group's financing in April this year was led by SoftBank, followed by Tencent, Alphabet's CapitalG, GSR Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

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.