SF Motors Begins Testing Autonomous Vehicles in California

SF Motors, an electric vehicle startup financed by the Chinese  Chongqing Sokon Industry Group, has officially started testing autonomous cars in California. Since March 5th the company’s been driving on public roads in Californian like more than four dozen other companies are already doing.

The company joins the ranks of others such as Waymo, Intel or Voyage. The CEO of robotaxi startup Voyage, Oliver Cameron, has noticed that SF Motors became one of their neighbors and tweeted a picture of one of their test vehicle.

One of SF Motors’ board member is Tesla-co-founder Martin Eberhard, who’s joined SF Motors through the acquisition of his battery-startup. He now serves as SF Motors’ Chief Strategy Officer. Late March the company announced to present its first electric concept car.

SF Motors currently seems to operate two vehicles, both Lincoln MKZ, a vehicle type also used by other companies for testing self-driving car technology. The mounts and sensors on the car seem to have been equipped by AutonomouStuff. SF Motors just finalized a 2.5 million dollar development partnership with the University of Michigan, which it had since 2016. SF Motors is also testing autonomous vehicles in China.

This article has also been published in German.