ZYT's AI autonomous driving system already outperforms its CEO on crowded Shenzhen streets

ZYT Unveils AI That Outdrives Its Own CEO

The chief executive of Chinese autonomous driving startup ZYT has made a striking admission: the AI system his company is preparing to debut already surpasses his own driving abilities on the crowded streets of Shenzhen1

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. CEO Shen Shaojie, 39, says the new ZYT AI navigates narrow roads with oncoming traffic and children near schools better than he can. "It actually drives better than me," he told Reuters2

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. When his engineers gave him a test drive, they delivered a stark reminder of how advanced the system has become: "We don't know what the car is thinking." The model, they explained, is "thinking in its own internal brain"3

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A Novel Approach to Autonomous Driving

ZYT, a DJI spin-off, will demonstrate what it calls a mobility foundation model at the Beijing auto show in April1

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. Shen Shaojie describes this as a cost-saving departure from how autonomous drive systems have traditionally been built and trained. Rather than relying on dedicated modules to detect cars, pedestrians, or traffic lights, and training systems based on specific geography and traffic patterns, the ZYT model learns how to drive on its own2

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. The foundation AI system was fed video from diverse sources beyond road driving—including drones, robots, household vacuum cleaners, motorcycles, and even people carrying moving cameras1

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. This training approach gives it the ability to operate across vehicle types and geographies in ways conventional systems cannot, and could make it useful for controlling the movement of future autonomous robots or other devices2

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Strategic Partnerships and Market Position

ZYT has secured partnerships with five of the six largest Chinese truck manufacturers, a group controlling more than 98% of the domestic market1

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. In January, the company announced plans for highway-based truck driving systems with three Chinese truck makers—XCMG, SHACMAN, and SINOTRUK—in the first half of this year3

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. Remarkably, ZYT's AI model trained on passenger car data was adapted for heavy-duty trucks in about six weeks2

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. Shen said the truck business offers a more compelling financial case than passenger cars because advanced driving systems generate immediate savings, with the ZYT system delivering low single-digit percentage savings on fuel.

Ownership Changes and Global Expansion

Late last year, state-owned automaker FAW Group bought a 35.8% stake in ZYT from New Territory, a DJI-linked holding company that retains 34.85% ownership3

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. FAW now owns the largest stake in ZYT. Shen said this transaction would resolve any compliance issues for customers outside China, since the company is no longer majority owned by the drone maker1

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. DJI has been operating under U.S. sanctions due to national security concerns cited by U.S. agencies2

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. VW, whose China partner is FAW, was ZYT's first customer. ZYT has established an engineering and compliance presence near Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters, where it has been testing a prototype from FAW's Hongqi brand on European roads3

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Technical Challenges and Timeline

ZYT's foundation model currently runs on expensive, high-powered computing hardware found in robotaxis and prototypes, not mass-market cars2

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. The company is working to compress it to run on cheaper, mass-market chips, though Shen said this work is "still ongoing." The first passenger car to use the system is expected in 20271

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ZYT is targeting a Hong Kong listing as early as 2027 as it seeks to capitalize on commercial partnerships and the recent FAW Group investment3

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. "The potential quickest is somewhere sometime 2027," Shen told Reuters2

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Competition in AI-Powered Driving

The rollout comes as China works to embed AI across its economy under Xi Jinping's push to develop "new productive forces" that counter U.S. technology restrictions1

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. It underscores fast-moving competition to develop AI-powered driving systems involving Tesla and Chinese automakers including Xpeng2

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. ZYT's rivals include Huawei's smart driving unit and Momenta3

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. While the technology landscape changes quickly, Shen emphasized the value of early advantages: "If you can get six months of advantage, that's already a huge thing." The United States is not on ZYT's roadmap. "We will keep ourselves away from the market at this moment," Shen said.