Horizon Robotics booth overview. The 'Ecosystem Collaboration Plan' partner wall is visible behind the purple HSD demo car.

One of the most striking scenes at Auto China 2026 was a wall at the booth of Horizon Robotics, a Chinese smart driving solution company. Hanging there were names like Bosch, ZF, and CARIZON, displayed alongside actual ECU modules. While it might look like a simple list of partners, that wall demonstrated who is currently building the AI computing solutions in the automotive industry and who is beginning to build upon them.

By Sang min Han _ han@autoelectronics.co.kr
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At the Horizon Robotics booth at Auto China 2026, a purple sedan sat in the center. The brand "HSD (Horizon SuperDrive)" was clearly marked on the side of the vehicle. Looking past it, an entire wall was filled with dozens of physical ECU modules from partners like Bosch, ZF, CARIZON, ASTEMO, BYD, Chery, Freetech, iMotion, and TCL, each paired with their respective logos.
Why are Bosch and ZF here?In the middle of a booth for a Chinese smart driving solution startup, no less.
Horizon Robotics was founded in 2015 by Yu Kai, formerly of Baidu  s Institute of Deep Learning. Although often referred to as "China  s ADAS computing solution company," the company encountered at Auto China was no longer confined to that role. If Mobileye sells algorithms and NVIDIA sells computing power, Horizon appeared to be a company striving to enable Chinese OEMs to build their entire autonomous driving stacks without either. What this booth showcased was not just chips, but who was beginning to connect on top of them.




Journey generation timeline. It marks the stages of autonomous driving popularization rather than just a chip roadmap.



From ADAS to NOA:
The Journey Generations and the Meaning of HSD

Horizon  s line of ADAS chips is named "Journey." The timeline displayed at the booth showed the progression: Journey 2 (2019), Journey 3 (2020), Journey 5 (2021), and Journey 6 (2024). However, this timeline is more than just a performance spec sheet for each generation. Next to each generation are functional stages such as "Standardization of Advanced Driver Assistance and Active Safety," "Leading Highway NOA," "City NOA," and "Full Scenario Integrated Driving." Horizon was explaining the process by which Chinese autonomous driving technology entered the actual mass-production market, rather than just the evolution of a chip.
"Our Journey is more like a family name. We are currently collaborating with over 400 vehicle models and over 40 brands in China. You can consider almost every OEM mass-producing in China as having our solution. Regarding smart driving chips alone, we are the only company in China to have supplied more than 10 million mass-produced units," said Wei Feng, Senior Director at Horizon Robotics.
The focus is on the solution layer rather than the hardware. HSD is the autonomous driving functional solution that sits on top of the Journey chips. In other words, Horizon does not stop at supplying processing hardware; they are directly involved in algorithms, functional stacks, and OEM integration. This is why the HSD-branded demo car was positioned in the center of the booth.
Furthermore, the HSD compute board displayed in a glass case symbolically demonstrated this. The printed circuit board (PCB), thermal design, and connector layout were all revealed without filters. While Chinese autonomous driving companies in the past focused on algorithm demos and screen simulations, Horizon put physical, automotive-grade hardware at the forefront. It was a board, not a screen; evidence of mass production, not a demo.




The HSD board displayed in a glass case.
It emphasizes its status as a mass-production-ready Tier 1 by revealing the PCB, thermal structure, and connectors.



Mass Production and Real-World Data

Journey 6 and HSD are not just names for the booth. Director Wei Feng stated that vehicles equipped with the Journey 6-based "HSD 600" solution first entered mass production in November last year. Those vehicles were equipped with 1 LiDAR, 10-11 cameras, and 3 radars. Mass production of related models has continued since then.
What is particularly interesting is the actual usage data. According to Director Feng, in the case of Chery vehicles, the take rate for models equipped with the HSD solution is 77%, and the City NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) feature accounts for nearly 50% of the total mileage driven - a tipping point in real-world autonomous driving adoption. Horizon repeatedly emphasized that these were real-world user data points, not simulation videos.
Strategic choices regarding LiDAR are also notable, maintaining flexibility according to the OEM's cost structure."While many Chinese cars currently feature LiDAR, many are looking to remove them to reduce costs. Premium vehicles often maintain LiDAR, while it is offered as an option for lower-priced models. Therefore, Horizon's solutions treat LiDAR as an optional specification."




The 'Ecosystem Collaboration Plan' partner wall.
Actual ECU modules from global Tier 1s like Bosch and ZF and Chinese OEMs are displayed together.



What the Partner Wall Says- CARIZON, Bosch, ZF

Returning to that wall.The "Ecosystem Collaboration Plan" wall, filled with actual ECU modules from partners, is not just a list of collaborators. The key is CARIZON. CARIZON is a joint venture established by CARIAD, Volkswagen  s software unit, and Horizon. CARIAD holds a 60% stake, and the Volkswagen Group reportedly invested approximately 2.4 billion euros in the partnership and JV.
A German OEM's software organization has joined forces with a Chinese AI stack. This reflects the reality that a German-style software strategy alone is insufficient in the Chinese market. CARIZON is responsible for developing an intelligent driving platform for next-generation Volkswagen models intended for the Chinese market.
Global Tier 1s like Bosch and ZF are on the same trajectory. They are designing their own ADAS ECUs based on Horizon  s chips - as partners, not competitors. Horizon operates as a Tier 2 supplier, providing the computing foundation upon which these global Tier 1s build. Local Chinese AI startups have begun to enter the computing platforms of global Tier 1s.
Director Wei Feng noted, "Mass production started in India this year."




Starry, unveiled at this Auto China.
It claims to be 'China  s first cockpit-driving integrated computing platform,' specifying 650 TOPS and a 5nm process.



Starry - The Next Frontier:
Cockpit-Driving Integration

Horizon revealed another entity at this Auto China: Starry. Displayed inside a small transparent dome, figures were etched at the bottom of this chip: 650 TOPS, 5nm process, and 273 GB/s ultra-high bandwidth. Above it sat the title: "China  s first cockpit-driving integrated whole-vehicle intelligent computing platform." This represents the integration of the cockpit domain and the smart driving domain.
This is not just a story about Horizon. Huawei, Qualcomm, NVIDIA Thor, and emerging Chinese chip companies are all moving toward a single centralized intelligent computer rather than a collection of multiple ECUs.
Horizon explained that through Starry, the integration of existing cockpit ECUs and ADAS ECUs can reduce the Bill of Materials (BOM) cost per vehicle and system complexity. In the field and presentation materials, a cost reduction potential of several thousand yuan was suggested. Ultimately, cockpit-driving integration is not just a technical logic, but a matter of cost and development speed.
The KaKaClaw demo showed how far this direction has actually come. One screen displayed a visualization of NOA driving, while the other showed an AI assistant interface interacting with the user. Using the concept of a vehicle AI agent with Soul, Skill, and Memory, it seeks to bind autonomous driving and AI interaction into a single system.




KaKaClaw demo screen. NOA driving and AI assistant interaction UI are implemented simultaneously.



Questions from the Field

Horizon Robotics is already deeply embedded within the Chinese automotive industry. At Auto China, physical ECUs were hanging, partner names were attached, mass-produced vehicles were on display, and real-world driving data was presented in figures.
However, the bigger question at the scene was not just about Horizon itself. As the CARIZON case shows, if global OEMs and Tier 1s are starting to build on top of a Chinese AI computing stack, it signifies something closer to a shift in the axis of AI computing within the automotive industry rather than just the growth of one company.
The reason the Bosch and ZF logos were on the wall was ultimately found here. They were partners who had entered the Horizon ecosystem - with Horizon firmly positioned as a Tier 2 computing foundation upon which they build.




Wei Feng, Senior Director at Horizon Robotics, and Pei Zhonghao, Director at Horizon Robotics.

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