(JW Insights) Sep 13 -- Horizon Robotics, a Chinese provider of intelligent driving computing solutions, will transfer hundreds of employees from its internal software algorithm team to the self-driving joint venture with Cariad, the software unit of German automaker Volkswagen, reported Yicai Global on September 12.

The size of the JV's staff is expected to reach 300 people after the transfer, according to a recent report by Chinese technology media 36Kr.

Cariad would appoint the JV's chief executive officer and Horizon Robotics would appoint JV's chief technology officer, according to a previous arrangement. The Beijing-based company sent its co-founder and CTO Huang Chang to the JV to lead the Level-2 assisted driving, high-speed pilot assisted driving, and automatic parking function teams.

Volkswagen announced in October last year that Cariad would join hands with Horizon Robotics to speed up customization of automated driving systems in the Chinese market. The German carmaker invested EUR2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) for a 60 percent stake in the JV.

Since then, Volkswagen's intelligent transformation in China has made substantial progress.

However, Cariad still faces challenges, such as sluggish intelligent software with frequent bugs. Therefore, Volkswagen had to pour more local research and development resources into China and seek external help, according to the Yicai report.

(Gao J/Yuan XY)