Geely Autonomous Driving Merger: AFARI Chief Scientist to Depart

This round of adjustments only finalized the top-level personnel, implementing a “Dual CEO” structure.

With the deepening of the “One Geely” strategy, the integration of its intelligent driving teams is entering a critical phase.

According to Chinese media reports, the intelligent driving integration within the Geely ecosystem is undergoing new personnel changes.

Yuan Pingyi (pseudonym), the Chief Scientist of AFARI, is set to leave the company. He previously reported to Yang Mu, the CTO of AFARI. Concurrently, Gu Dao (pseudonym), the head of the Data Development Department at AFARI, has also departed.

It is important to add that, to address the previous issues of multiple parallel teams and fragmented resources within Geely’s intelligent driving business, in August of this year, Geely consolidated the Zeekr intelligent driving team (approximately 1,500 people), the Geely Research Institute intelligent driving team (approximately 1,000 people), and the intelligent driving brand “MACH” under Megvii (approximately 500 people) into Chongqing AFARI.

This round of adjustments only finalized the top-level personnel, implementing a “Dual CEO” structure: Wang Jun, Co-President of AFARI, serves as the CEO of AFARI; Chen Qi, former Vice President of Intelligent Driving at Zeekr, serves as Co-CEO; and Yang Mu, Co-founder of Megvii, serves as CTO.

It is reported that the AFARI business is currently divided into three main sectors: Intelligent Driving, Intelligent Cockpit, and Robotaxi (Autonomous Taxi). CEO Wang Jun has overall management responsibility, while Co-CEO Chen Qi oversees the Intelligent Driving business. The latter assumed the role of Vice President at Zeekr in 2021, with full responsibility for Zeekr’s intelligent driving technology R&D.

AFARI has 12 secondary technical departments, namely: Functional Solution Design Department, Platform Development Department, Map Development Management Department, Continuous Integration Development Department, Quality Operations Department, Vehicle Testing Department, Hardware Evaluation Department, Algorithm Development Department, Data Development Department, Pre-research & Technology Development Department, Technology Special Projects & Operations Department, and System Solution Design Department. These departments report to Chen Qi.

Outside of these departments, there are also the Project Management Office Department, the CTO Office Department, and the Pre-research Product Line Department, headed by Chen Baocheng, CTO Yang Mu, and Yuan Pingyi (departing), respectively. Among them, Chen Baocheng reports to AFARI Co-CEO Chen Qi, and most of the secondary departments are practically under his jurisdiction.

Some AFARI employees believe the integration has been initially completed. This person revealed that the AFARI system is set to receive an OTA version update, which will cover multiple mainstream Geely models. A Zeekr employee told us that integration is a dynamic process, and further changes cannot be ruled out.