June 2025 – Haomo.AI, a key player in China's autonomous driving sector, is reportedly undergoing major personnel upheaval. Several senior and mid-level executives have recently departed, including Chairman Zhang Kai, who has submitted his resignation. Core executives such as Vice President of Technology Ai Rui and Vice President of Product Cai Na had already left as early as April.
Founded in November 2019, Haomo.AI originated as the intelligent driving division of Great Wall Motors. Its founding chairman Zhang Kai was formerly Deputy Chief Engineer of Great Wall and Head of its Autonomous Driving System Division. Gu Weihao, former GM of Baidu's Intelligent Vehicle Division, served as CEO.
Over the past five years, Haomo.AI focused on two main business lines: assisted driving solutions for passenger vehicles and autonomous last-mile delivery vehicles. In the passenger car sector, the company has developed intelligent driving systems aimed at enhancing safety and convenience. Its products include map-free highway NOA (Navigation on Autopilot), memory driving, and automated parking features.
In the logistics sector, Haomo introduced its "Little Camel" (小魔驼) autonomous delivery vehicle, designed for last-mile logistics. With large cargo space, flexible design, and autonomous capabilities, the vehicle is suitable for scenarios like supermarkets, courier services, campuses, and airports. The company has partnered strategically with giants such as Meituan and Alibaba DAMO Academy.
In an internal letter issued this February, Zhang Kai highlighted positive developments in 2025: successful financing, new commercial vehicle orders, and a surge in sales of low-speed autonomous vehicles during the Spring Festival.
Technologically, Haomo achieved several milestones. In 2023, it co-developed the autonomous driving compute center MANA OASIS with Volcano Engine and launched its generative autonomous driving model, DriveGPT. On the commercialization front, its HPilot assisted driving system was adopted by over 20 vehicle models. As of May 2024, Haomo-powered vehicles had logged over 141 million kilometers of assisted driving. The Little Camel delivery platform has also evolved, with version 2.0 and 3.0 launching and going into commercial operation across nine use cases including retail and campus logistics.
Haomo had also expressed intentions to pursue a Hong Kong IPO in 2025. However, there has been no official filing or updates on the listing. In February last year, the company secured over 100 million RMB in Series B1 funding led by Chengdu Wufa Fund. Previous Series A investors include Meituan, Hillhouse Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures, with total funding nearing 1 billion RMB.
Despite early successes, Haomo.AI is now facing serious obstacles. Its two core business lines are seeing limited commercial traction. In the assisted driving space, Haomo currently supports only two Hyundai models, providing memory driving and parking functions, with delivery planned for August. However, sources report development delays, casting doubt on timely delivery.
Delays are not new. The company's flagship City NOA system was originally scheduled for 2023 but faced technological bottlenecks, pushing its release back to the end of 2024 with no confirmed deployment.
The autonomous delivery business is also struggling. The sales target for the Little Camel in 2025 is reportedly only 50 units, and there are no new models in the pipeline-far from Haomo's initial vision and marketing narrative for the segment.
Given these mounting issues, Haomo faces several possible paths forward. The first is acquisition or integration into a larger entity-a path that may ease financial strain but compromise its independence. The second is a pivot toward becoming a pure tech supplier. While Haomo does have robust tools like MANA OASIS and DriveGPT, success in this space is far from guaranteed. Current project delivery, such as the Hyundai contracts, remains unproven, and competitors like DJI and Momenta now dominate the mid- to low-end market with more cost-effective solutions.
Haomo.AI's rise and struggles epitomize a key paradox in the autonomous driving industry: technological advancement in labs doesn't always equate to commercial success. While DriveGPT may offer sophisticated algorithms and MANA OASIS boasts powerful compute, delayed deliveries and unmet customer expectations undermine their value.
Unless Haomo can quickly regain market trust with scalable and profitable products, the company-once hailed as a unicorn-may be headed for absorption by a larger entity. This serves as a sobering reminder to the industry: balancing technological excellence with viable business models is crucial to long-term survival.
