WeRide Inc.

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to WeWrite's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. The company will be hosting a question and answer session after management's prepared remarks. Please note that today's event is being recorded. The company's unaudited financial and operating results were released by the Newswire earlier today and are currently available online. Joining us today are WeWrite's founder, chairman and CEO, Dr. Tony Han, and CFO, Ms. Jennifer Lee. Before we continue, I'd like to refer you to the Safe Harbor Statement in the company's earnings press release, which also applies to this call, as today's call will include four looking statements, including WeWrite strategies and future plans. These forelooking statements are made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forelooking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by these forelooking statements as a result of various important factors, and please refer to the risk factors section of the company's Form 20F filed with the SEC for full disclosure of these risk factors. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please note that all numbers stated in management's prepared remarks are in RMB terms, and we will discuss non-IFRS measures today, which are more thoroughly explained and reconciled to the most comparable measures reported in the company's earnings release and filings with the SEC. With that, I'll now turn the call over to the company's founder, chairman and CEO, Dr. Tony Han. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I'm excited to give you an update on our last quarter. We have reached a number of new milestones as we continue our global expansion and also cemented deeper collaboration with key partners such as Uber, Specifically with Uber, we have committed to providing robot taxi service in 15 additional cities internationally and accepted a commitment for an additional $100 million equity investment on the heels of their initial investment at our IPO. Other notable milestones included launching the first driverless robot taxi testing in Abu Dhabi, the first of its kind in Middle East. In China, we roll out the country's first autonomous mobility service in the central area of Guangzhou, the number three city in China. While some of this will be reflected in our near-term financial results, others lay the foundation for the robust growth in the quarters to come. First, let's quickly discuss our latest Uber announcement. This expanded partnership and the incremental $100 million investment is a testament to our shared commitment to autonomous mobility and the confidence in our operational and technological excellence. We began our partnership with Uber in the Mid-East and continue to scale our operations there. As a reminder, we first launched UpDavi in December of last year and have recently announced plans to expand in Dubai. There have also been mentions of expansion to a third city recently in the press, so look out for more information there. We are excited by our program in the region and the opportunities that it presents. In addition to the Mid-East, we expect to scale and expand our RoboTaxi presence to other geographies, such as Europe, with a particular focus on markets, where we have already deployed some of our other autonomous mobility products such as our autonomous buses. We believe having multiple autonomous mobility products widens our time and also makes dialogues with stakeholders such as regulators more substantial. We continue to expand our autonomous mobility operations in China and abroad. As alluded to earlier, we launched full driverless robo-taxi testing in AptRB. This means that we will be the first company to have robo-taxi running without safety drivers. At the same time, we also expanded our operational service to include new destinations such as El Maria Island and El Rim Island, covering a range of vibrant areas in the city. Through this, you can see in action our phased approach to operational expansion. This phased approach allows us to ensure a high quality of service while ensuring that we meet all regulatory and safety standards. To date, we have a leading safety track record in the commercial delivery of our services. In China, we expanded our robo taxi service in Beijing and Guangzhou In Beijing, we added routes between the sub-center of the city, Beijing Yizhong, and the Beijing railway station, spanning over 600 square kilometers. In Guangzhou, we launched China's first 24-7 autonomous ride-hailing network and added eight routes in the city center, connecting landmarks and the transport hubs, such as airport, Guangzhou South Railway Station, Canton Tower, and the Canton Fair complex. These roads cover more than 250 kilometers of public roads in a densely populated urban area with very busy traffic. Going forward, our robo-taxi service in China will be integrated into Tencent Smart Transportation mini program on WeChat to serve a wider use base in China. We also continue to expand our other autonomous mobility business. Our RoboBus has entered downtown Guangzhou, one of the most complex urban environments. The development follows our launch of the first robust BRT road in city last year. RoboBus has now become an integral part of the day life of Guangzhou citizens who can easily hop on the driverless shuttle in the main district by simply tapping their city pass. It stands a paradigm of the future mobility that we envision, where autonomous vehicles are fully integrated with the local transportation system, enabling safe and a seamless movement for the communities. We are also making headway in the international market, bringing our product to Switzerland, Spain, and France. In March, our RoboBus was granted an operation permit by France, making WeRide the first and to date the only autonomous driving company whose products have received operational approvals in five countries, including China, the UAE, Singapore, France, and the US. Technology and safety are the cornerstones of our success. Our autonomous mobility product all operates atop what we call WeRide One, an autonomous driving technology platform. designed to handle a broad spectrum of operational environments, from complex urban settings to full-day functionality and varying weather conditions. Its proven adaptability in a range of real-world applications provides a fundamental tech advantage over our peers. The high level of universality of WeWrite1 has recently demonstrated once again through our RoboWan W5, which secured Guangzhou's first group of driverless testing permits for logistic equipment in less than three months after the product launch. The powerful adaptability of WeWrite1 is further demonstrated by our real-world operations across abroad a broad geographic area. The initial deployment of our AV fleets in a new city can be completed in just a couple of weeks, enabling rapid adoption for our partners. We believe safety is the best test of autonomous driving technology. In over 2,000 days of operation, our safety records remain industry-leading. While we have iterated multiple times we have not had any accident attributed to the failure of our autonomous driving systems. Our commitment to safety and transparency is key to earning the confidence of both regulators and partners. We also leverage our core autonomous mobility know-how in our ADAS business. In April this year, we announced a partnership with QNNX, a division of BlackBerry. to work together to enhance the safety and the reliability of our ADA solution. By integrating QNAP OS for safety into our ADA system repilot, we will be helping OEMs and tier one companies fast track the future of intelligent vehicles. I will now hand over the call to our CFO, Jennifer Li, to discuss our financial results in more detail. Jennifer, please go ahead.

Thank you, Tony. Hello, everyone. Before we get into the financials, please know that all amounts are in RMB and all comparisons are on year-over-year basis, unless otherwise stated. Now let's discuss our first quarter financial performance. Total revenue for the first quarter of 2025 increased 1.8% to 72.4 million, primarily driven by the growth in product revenue, which was partially offset by a slight decline in our service revenue. RoboTaxi has been one of the core drivers in our business, following our achieving record high RoboTaxi revenue for the financial year of 2024. We continue with the momentum in the first quarter of this year with RoboTaxi revenue of 16.1 million. RoboTaxi's contribution in group revenue reaches 22.3%, rising from 11.9% of the same period of 2024. Product revenue delivers strong growth increasing by 46.7% to 9.5 million for the first quarter. This encouraging growth was primarily driven by a substantial increase in the sales of RoboTaxi and RoboSafers, which were introduced into a new international market with extended operations. To 62.9 million, primarily due to a reduction of 33.5 million in revenue from ADAS, Research and Development Services. as the compromised R&D project for a certain client has been completed in 2024. This decline was partially offset by an increase of $29.8 million in revenue from intelligent data services and an increase of $1.9 million in revenue from operational and technical support services. As technical support engagement increased this quarter, along with the transition into the operation phase of certain projects, We recorded a group-level growth margin of 35.0%, representing a growth margin for a product of 49.9% and a growth margin for service of 32.8%, respectively. This reflects a sustaining improvement of our business structure in line with our Robotech's business expansion and globalized commercialization. We are building a sustainable business model by engaging trusted partners and localizing employees. localized deployment. It helps us sustain a healthy gross profit level. Now turning into our operating expenses, we recorded a rise of 14.2% for the first quarter, amounting to $463.5 million. The increase was driven by a 48.4% rise in personnel-related expense compared to the same period of 2024. we remain highly cost cautious and disciplined. The increase of operating expense is mainly driven by our incremental R&D effort. In this important phase of development, we prioritize strategic investment in talent acquisition and retention to drive our technological advancement. Combining with our expansion of selling and marketing activities, We aim to solidify our leading position by laying a sustainable foundation. To further break down, R&D expense represents 70.3% of operating expenses. This line item increased by 17.3% to 325.7 million compared to the same period of 2024. Excluding share-based compensation, R&D expenses increased by 54% to 278 million. Administrative expense increased by 5.2% to 123.9 million compared to the same period of 2024, excluding SBC. Administrative expense increased by 105.8% to 73.9 million. Selling expense increased by 32.4% to 13.9 million compared to the same period of 2024, excluding SBC, selling expense were up 66.7% in the first quarter. Our net loss increased by 17.7% to $385.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. On non-IFRS basis, the net loss increased by 108.2% to $294.6 million, which was mainly contributed to our continuous investment in R&D. As of March 31, 2025, we held a total capital reserve of $6.2 billion, including $4.4 billion in cash, cash equivalent, and time deposits, $14.7 million in restricted cash, and $1.7 billion in financial assets measured at fair value through profit and loss. We believe that our strong cash Capital position will continue to support our ongoing RMD initiative and facilitate expansion of our growing global business. On a separate note, our board has recently authorized a share repurchase program under which the company may repurchase up to $100 million of its Class A ordinary share over the next 12 months and indicate a vote of confidence in our business fundamentals, growth trajectory, and long-term outlook. In conclusion, we feel encouraged by our financial performance of the first quarter. As we continue to scale our operation with additional deployment underway in international markets, we are confident to build on this success and turn global opportunity into long-term value for our stakeholders. With that, operator, we are now ready to take on questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and on to session two of the questionnaires. you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. We will now take our first question from the line of Tim Hsiao from Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question, Tim.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. This is Tim from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions, and those are related to our collaboration with Uber. So the first question, we noticed that Tony briefly touched on the collaboration with Uber at the beginning of the call. I just want to quickly follow up on why Rewrite and Uber decided to expand this partnership. It would be great if you can share more colors on the deal with us. That's my first question. Thank you.

Okay, I'll take this question. Thank you, Tim, for this question. So first of all, I think our expanded partnership with Uber builds on a proven model. This model is demonstrated by our successful integration of WeRide Global Taxi into Uber's app in AppDavi. Under this collaboration, WeRide delivers our tried and tested autonomous driving product with Uber manages, Uber will manage fleet operations and the customer access via its platform. Together, we have, we are also announced a joint robot taxi launch in Dubai, where we are currently finalizing mapping and expect to begin operations soon. So I want to talk about this strong collaboration So we have committed to deploying services across 15 major global cities within the next five years. This is a significant milestone for scalable autonomous mobility. And I think this partnership combines VY's world-class autonomous driving technology and the international expertise with Uber's unparalleled marketplace reach and operational excellence. And also, I want to reemphasize as a testament of this alignment. Uber is already our shareholder and will invest an additional $100 million in VY over the next six months. To my best knowledge, this ranks among Uber's largest investment in non-affiliated autonomous driving companies. Besides, you know, beyond the technology, I think our mission is very important. Our shared mission is to make autonomous mobility affordable and accessible worldwide. WeRide operates in over 30 cities across 10 countries with our research, R&D, testing, commercial deployments. We're entering new markets. We are not just solving the mobility challenges. We want to invest in local ecosystem by creating jobs in fleet management, maintenance, and customer support. So we have a community-oriented approach to ensure sustainable growth And I think we share this kind of mission with Uber. We also believe that by leveraging both companies' leadership in our respective fields, we can accelerate the global adoption of autonomous mobility service. So I think in terms of assembly technology, mission, and approach, and the shared value, I think Uber and WeRide are well aligned. We are very excited for the next five years to expand 15 cities globally.

Great. Thank you very much for sharing all the details, Tony. And just another quick follow-up on the collaboration. So according to the announcement also what you just shared, out of the 15 cities and probably others, the potential global market, which regions or market would be the main focus to rewrite for the Robotex era out? And in the following quarters, any cycles or milestones the investors should monitor? Yeah, that's my second question.

Thank you. So about the regions of focus, currently, you know, we are focusing on markets, mainly in Europe and the Middle East. So we are going to take a phased approach. So basically we are not going to roll out like a global tax service in one night in 15 cities simultaneously. Basically we want to add cities one by one. So new cities will come online each year, maybe probably three new cities every year. It's just a rough estimate. And we are following a pattern of regulatory approval and then testing and then commercial operation and then scale deployment. So there are four stages. These four stages have been approved in our current deployment in Abu Dhabi, and I think soon it will also be approved in Dubai. And cities will be chosen based on favorable policies, guidelines, and the initiatives of Autonomous Driving. And also we want to We look forward to really maximize social value and also want to create value for our long-term stakeholders.

Great. That's very helpful. Thanks for the additional callers. Thank you, Tony and Tim. Thanks. Thank you, Tim.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Li Ping Zhao from CICC. Please go ahead, Li Ping. Good evening, Tony and Jennifer. Congrats for the strong robo-taxi revenue in this quarter. I got two questions here. First, could you share with us your robo-taxi economics? How should we consider the cost structure as you scale? And second, could you please share more about your recent rollout at Guangzhou City Center? When should we expect you to start providing RoboTaxi service in the whole city? Thank you.

Okay. I'll take the first question. Tony will take the second. And the first question on RoboTaxi economic, let's just take a look at the number. In the conventional , driver takes home roughly like 60% of each fare, that's like 6 out of every 10. RoboTaxi revolutionized this model by reducing the driver cost to nearly nothing. Yes, we still have the vehicle cost for RoboTaxi, which is slightly higher than traditional taxi, but eliminating the 60% cost changes everything about this business model. And cost optimization has been one of our key focuses, and we are making cautious and continuous progress. First, let's talk about the vehicle cost. Leveraging on the booming and, like, very mature EV supply chain here in China, we have access to components of high quality and competitive pricing. Second, we have also built in-depth collaboration with global OEMs, such as Renault and Nissan, And thirdly, we adopt a modularized design of our sensors, which enabling 90% shared component across different autonomous driving products. We also converted to the most cost-effective semi-solid ladder a few years ago. So leveraging on all of those, our autonomous vehicles are quite cost-competitive. For instance, the cost of our sensor suite has reduced by more than 70% over the past five years. And going forward with the more integrated design and increasing adoption of redundant drive-by-wire services, we anticipate another 20 to 30% have room for a future cost reduction for the next gen of robo-taxi. Today, we operate one of the world's largest AV fleets globally, over 1,200 vehicles, and with more than 500 dedicated overtaxes. All of our vehicles using the standardized tech, as well as the similar sensors, same computing platform. This will give us tremendous buying power and make maintenance so much simpler in the long run. Our OEM partnership helps us keep optimizing every part of the supply chain. So in short, compared to the traditional taxi and road-hailing services, RoboTaxi is expected to be 50% or more cost-effective in developed markets. We're doing testing and operation of AV in 10 countries already. We're seeing that on the ground confirms a very critical pain point Many markets are facing very severe driver shortage, also with growing challenge in hiring and retention of the drivers. This is exactly where our solution makes the difference. And by working hand-in-hand with our local partners, we're not just deploying technology, we're solving real transportation prices caused by the labor shortage. That's all for this first question, Leaping Waste. Tony, I'll leave you to a second question on the Guangzhou plan.

So I believe the second question is about, like, we want to discuss a little bit about our recent rollout at Guangzhou City Center. And also, you know, some details about our remote taxi service. So first of all, you know, I want to say last week we launched China's first 24-7 autonomous ride-hailing network covering the core areas of Guangzhou. As I mentioned, Guangzhou is the number three city in China. And our expanded Robotech service features actually eight pilot operation routes in the city center, connecting landmarks and transport hubs such as the airport, Guangzhou South Railway Station, Canton Tower, and the Canton Fair Complex. If you are familiar with Guangzhou, you know they are all the most busiest and also the most important place and, you know, the hubs, and you probably, if you come to Guangzhou, you will visit these places. And when we first kick off commercial robot taxi service back in the year of 2019, we started in Guangzhou. This is a mega city with very busy traffic, and the population is at least 20 million. To date, we have been providing autonomous mobility service to the local citizens for more than 2,000 days, so I'm quite confident and quite proud for this achievement. The expansion of this service is a very important milestone in the industry. For the first time, robot taxis are allowed in the central area of such a big city. That's not easy, actually. It incorporates some of the most complicated scenarios we have ever seen, including really various road types and traffic conditions, as well as very subtle interactions with a wide range of road users, like passenger cars, engineering cars, pedestrians, cyclists, the three-wheelers. You have to handle all of these things. So it is a big challenge to our technology, but I think we solved all these issues quite well. And also, Being allowed to operate in central Guangzhou underscores our confidence in safety records and robust technology. And we will strive to maintain a high standard of service. And we will also be very careful. We will expand progressively and responsibly in accordance with the requirement of local authorities. So I think that's all I want to say about this question.

Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Joel Ng from Nomura. Please ask your question, Joel.

Thank you for taking my question. This is Joel from Nomura, and I have two questions. For the first one, what's the implication of the recent launch of driverless testing in Abu Dhabi? Is there any operation plan as the next step? And my second question is, since we see some aggressive OEMs also plan to enter into robot taxi business, so what's our company's view on it? Are they comparative compared to level four players, given they have more driving data? And what is our edge on this? Thank you.

Okay, I'll take the first question. We're very excited about the driverless test in Abu Dhabi. To my knowledge, this is the first of its kind in the Middle East, And it's also the first time that robotaxi without safety driver on public road is allowed outside China and the U.S. V-RIDE is a veteran in the Middle East. We started robotaxi trial in UAE as early as 2021. The desert climate of the country, including high temperature and the sunny environment, created all the special challenges to the autonomous vehicles. Nevertheless, our Robotech fleet delivered a high level of reliability and safety during the initial two-year public operation. Building on this confidence, so VRI secured the first national autonomous driving permit in UAE in 2023. Sorry. Which also remains the only national permit in the world as of today. Last year, our local operation entered into a new chapter. Sorry. as a joint process.

Yeah, from water, you know, kept from water. And then, you know, we have plenty of time.

Yeah, speaking of our joint process with Uber, it also allows us to provide local citizens with better services and the accessibility. So the driverless testing marks a major milestone as they begin driverless testing. This is a segment that can live forward in the journey, in our journey in Middle East. We are also particularly excited to have received approval to expand our service area to include Abu Dhabi's Almeria Islands and our Rim community. So both islands, there is the most dynamic urban center in Abu Dhabi. We're very excited to bring the cutting-edge transportation solution to those places. So now, Tony, I'll leave it to you for the next question. Thank you.

Okay, yeah, you can take this time to really clear this road. Okay, I'll answer the question. So I think, thank you, this question is really deep and I really appreciate this question. So the question is about like, you know, our competition against major car OEMs for robo-tactic service and my view and our edge. So first of all, I want to say, you know, the competition is ubiquitous. You know, if you are afraid of competition, you are not eligible to be a leading company. WeRide is a first mover and a leading company in the autonomous industry, so we welcome competition. And as long as the winner can bring the best quality of service, most reliable mobile tech service to ordinary people, the citizen, I think that will be great enough. But we are confident with V-Ride because, you know, first of all, I think, you know, our proven record has already shown the superiority of our technology and also the reliability of our technology. And we, you know, over the past seven years, we have been closely working with some major car EMs. You know, major car EMs help us to build the reliable vehicle platforms for robo-taxi service. And I want to say OEM actually plays a very important part in the whole ecosystem. We did learn a lot from them. Having all this said, I want to emphasize the difference between the AIDA system and the RoboTax system. AIDA system stands for Advanced Driver Assistance System. So the major component who are responsible for driving a car is the person. L4-level robotaxi is for autonomous driving vehicle. There are two different things, two different species. Mistakenly, you only add us for robotaxi. It's just like mistakenly using an L2 system for L3 system. We will lead to very tragic accidents. I think some accidents we have already experienced. So I want to emphasize, if you really want to do robotaxi, do L4, you really need to spend lots of time, lots of energy, in simulation platform, in robot taxi fleet, software technology, and test for millions of miles. Only have a big user base is not enough, okay? Lot of time, a big user base only tells you that your car is very good, can produce a very good L2 system, but there's nothing to do. You can do an L4 system. So basically, a warrior, a great warrior, on the land may be not so good warrior in the sea warfare. So we are totally different. So today we write real-world robo-taxi operation in multiple locations. It's actually supported by continuous investment in building and improving our platform. And the safety has been improved. We want to very proudly announce over the past seven years we have a very good record. We haven't experienced any autonomous driving system failure. I think that's a very remarkable score. And currently, VYD is one of very few companies that have brought level four mobility to the public, and we are really confident to maintain a leading position in this industry. Thank you for this question. That's all I want to say about this question.

All right. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Yawen Tan from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, Yawen. Hi, this is Yawen from BNP. Thanks for Tony and Jennifer's time, and thanks for opportunities to discuss the exciting industry here. And I have two questions. The first one is, is there any specific plan for further expansion of the fleet size and operation area? And secondly, what's your view on regulations in different markets, Have we seen there are countries that is accelerating the adoption of L4 technology? Thank you.

Thank you. I will take the first question for the plan for future expansion. So as Robotech is penetrating traditional mobility in different regions, will remain a balanced strategy between China market and international markets. So in China, we will gradually increase the deployment in selected tier one cities. Our service was throughout step-by-step and which is in accordance to this adoption was met by the local authorities. We have a track record of more than five years public operation in China. And our recent development that entered into the city center in both Beijing and Guangzhou is a natural progress built on the existing momentum. And we'll keep the momentum, keep on the momentum, ready on the momentum. And the overseas market will be scaling through a strong global partnership. So by working together with mobility and transportation stakeholders worldwide, we'll be able to localize and accelerate our deployment in the market more in an international market more effectively. For example, some of our global partners, including, like, say, in UAE, we have the Integrated Transportation Center in Abu Dhabi and the Road and Transportation Authority in Dubai that are extremely helpful. And in France, we have Renault, SETI, and Massif as our partners. And in Switzerland, we have the SBB, which is the Swiss National Railway, and we have the Condensurig and Swiss Transit Lab that are also – we are working on multiple projects in Switzerland as well. And in Singapore, we have Comfort Devil and Track and Maintenance in Singapore. And we also have – in Germany, we have Bosch as a key partner. So, last but not least, Uber is a key partner with our plan rolling out commercial local taxi service in 15 new cities globally. So, like I said, if we're talking about the size of the expansion plans, So all those cities we're planning to enter typically already have an existing ride-hailing and taxi ecosystem that ranges from a few thousand to tens of thousands of shared mobility vehicles. So this is an ideal environment for L4 technology to integrate and to scale up. So as part of this partnership, V-Ride's Robotech service will be available through Uber's app, and Uber will be responsible for the fleet operation. So as you can see, our global partner strategy is based on our shared execution, risk management, and local market insight. We are not entering into the new market alone. We're building a network of trusted global collaborators to accelerate adoption, to shorten the deployment cycle, and to meet the regulators' expectation of each region together. Tony, I'll leave you to the... to the next question on the regulation in different markets?

Okay, so I'll talk about like the regulations of different markets. And actually, you know, there are markets that are favorable to autonomous driving vehicles. And so currently, you know, I want to name a few, like several countries in the Middle East, like UAE and Saudi, and also, several countries in Europe, and of course China. China is very, very welcome, and is also very, China is actually fostering autonomous driving vehicle, and so they are the major markets we want to deploy. So, actually, there are also, for the cities actually, For the countries, if they really want to welcome or embrace the autonomous driving vehicle, that's because there are several factors they could consider. Number one is the safety. Number two is the cost of labor. You need to take all of these factors into account. In this region, for the countries that favor autonomous driving or need autonomous driving or need robot taxi service, I think that represents huge opportunities for first movers like WeRide. Actually, we experience this kind of increasing interest in AV talk technology. Actually, this kind of increasing interest can be demonstrated by our expansion and our operation. I just want to name a few, actually. In January and May, we rolled out our robo-taxi and robo-bus service in Guangzhou city center successfully. And that one I have already mentioned. In February, we actually received approval to launch our GXR for fully unmanned paid threat handling service in Beijing. Just only four months after we officially announced the new purposely built robo-taxi GXR And in March, we obtained level four operation permit in France. In April, we partnered with Dubai's Road and Transportation Authority and Uber to integrate our robo-taxi fleet into Dubai's public transportation system. I can't wait for this to come, because our dream, our mission is to deploy robo-taxi all over the world. In May, we have started first driverless testing in Abu Dhabi. Actually, I'm currently in Abu Dhabi. I just tested, and I think it's fantastic. We now have deployed in 10 countries across Asia, Middle East, and Europe. From our experience, we understand that regulators are generally supportive towards autonomous driving, but conditioned on we can keep our track record for safety. Overall, you know, we are really optimistic about the future and we believe we ride is well positioned to capture the expanding penetration of autonomous driving technology. That's my answer to this question. Thank you for this question.

Thank you. We will now take a next question from the line of Tian Guanghu from China Securities. Please ask your question, Tian Guang.

Hi, everyone. Can you hear me?

Yes, yes, we can.

Yeah. My first question is, is there any new product development that you could share, especially Robotext?

Okay. So, you know, new product, you know, we are actually... Last October, we launched the new generation of RoboTaxi GXR, which is really a purpose-built RoboTaxi tailored for L4 driverless. We also trim it for the deployment in the Middle East, like in today, like the temperature is like 40 degrees Celsius. You have to have a car that is with very powerful AC and very big battery. We actually upgrade our GXR to make it more suitable. It's a purpose to build Global Taxi to make it more suitable for the market of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. And to work on this, we work closely with GD Verizon to customize GXR. We spent tons of time and efforts on it. Now our proprietary sensor suite 5.6 and our HPC are ready and integrating to GXR and it's very suitable for the extreme heat weather condition. And we also work on some redundant system. Okay, so the whole system, the GXR with full redundancy, several round of redundancy so that we have very reliable and stable braking and steering system. And there's another thing I want to mentioned, like for the new products, new things, like that is, we are going to further upgrade GSR with the computational platform, you know, in the second half of year, we will build our computational platform by newest NVIDIA's DriveSol platform, as you have already probably noticed. NVIDIA's next generation Sol platform is extremely powerful, and it has, like, has a computational power, you know, the whole computational power in our controller is actually more than 2,000 tops. So for the past five years, you know, we also tried to reduce the cost, like the cost of our sensor suite has reduced by more than 70%. So we want to do it through innovation and new products. And for the next generation of RoboTaxi, currently it's under development. I think we look forward to another 20 to 30% cost reduction. And further details, we will review it after the spec be finalized. So there are a lot of new things ongoing. That's the really happiness working on RoboTaxi and this AI stuff. The new things comes every day. And we believe that with a powerful and smart way the new GXR will not only provide a high level of safety and comfortability, it will also, our new purpose-built GXR will redefine the RoboTax business, and this car is ready for large deployment. I really look forward to see the large deployment of GXR in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Okay, that's my answer to this question.

Thank you, thank you. And I have another question. My second question is, what's your view on the growing level of competition in China as more companies are rolling out autonomous driving technology?

As I mentioned in my answers in the previous question, as a leading global company, you have to face all kinds of competition, either globally or inside China, either from Carl Yang or from Ada System Company or from RoboTaxi, another RoboTaxi company. So, For my view, my view is like the competition is good. I love the beauty of the free market. So through trading, through competition, the customers can get the most cost-effective and high-quality products. What's wrong with that? That's a great thing. But the thing is, are you worried about losing in this competition? I think the past eight years of record has already shown we might grow from... 10 people start up to a leading autonomous driving company with more than two million employees. The target has already proved that, you know, when we have nothing, we only have a few people, a very small fund, we can start to grow. And now we are in very advantageous and in a leading position. We are very confident. So, you know, I always mention, like, we have four core pillars that set WeRide apart from the competition. The four pillars, I want to name them one by one. They are tech competence, you know, technology is always our foundation. Second, proven business model. And we are really looking to the large-scale deployment and also deploying global market. Third one is the safety and reliability record. Please go ahead and check the record. I believe WeRide has the best safety record all over the world. And we have, the fourth pillar is a strong partnership network. If I have time, you know, do I still have some time? I want to elaborate, actually, this fourth pillar. Thanks for this question. So, first of all, you know, technology one, you know, over the past eight years, we built up a worldwide universal platform that can be deployed to use for robo-taxi, robo-bus, robo-sweeper, robo-van, and ADA systems. At the same time, you get data from all over these five branches. So basically, you are five times more efficient in collecting data, collecting common cases. And five times more efficient, improve your idea. You know, you are deploying your large scale, not only in RoboTaxic lead, but also in RoboWare and in RoboSweeper. That's a grand vision for me, right? And I think no other company has such a grand vision. And I think no other company has achieved concrete steps for such a great grand vision. And about proven business, you know, look at our operation. I think I'm quite proud. And every step we have created a repeatable, scalable, and monetizable business model across multiple verticals, including mobility, logistics, and sanitation. So that proves actually our autonomous solution can address a variety of real-world challenges. We operate in 30 cities across 10 countries. So that means like the business model approved, not in a timeframe, but also globally. Third pillar, safety and reliable records. I want to read you something about some record. So our L4 autonomous vehicle have undergo successful tests and commercial deployment in diverse and extreme environments, including urban village in China such as congested and unpredictable road environments in downtown Guangzhou. And in a very northern part of China, Heihe, that is like 30 degrees below, 30 Celsius degrees below zero in winter, and also in Abu Dhabi, the high heat, where I'm currently sitting in office, 40 degrees Celsius. We show that we can still operate safely. Last one, very strong partnership. We emphasize many times our collaboration with Uber, with all different local authority in Switzerland, with France, Singapore, UAE, and Japan. And we also have partners with multiple partners in Singapore, like in Resolve Water, Sentosa, and the Robles operation. So I won't be able to name them yet, This is way long list and also for ADA system, we work with the top one tier one supplier, Bosch. So with all of this, I think, you know, from a competition, we are confident. And I think that's also the value of rewrite. Okay, that's my answer to this question.

Okay, thanks a lot. Very clear. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Leo Yeo from CLSA. Please ask your question, Leo.

Hi. Good evening, management. Thank you for the opportunity. So I want to ask about the use of cash. So we are quite excited about the share repurchase program. So would you please share more about your thoughts behind rolling out the program now? how would you strike the balance between the shareholder return and investing in technology and product?

I'll take this question. Thank you, Leo. So the board has authorized a shared repurchase of $100 million, which reflects their strong confidence in the company's solid foundation and the leading position in the autonomous driving industry and the compounding long-term growth structure rate. And the proposed risk structure can be made from time to time in the form of compliant transactions. So, yeah, so we think this initiative can allow us to opportunistically to buy back shares when we see the opportunity, which also demonstrating our commitment to deliver value to the shareholder while maintaining financial flexibility for future growth, yeah.

Okay, thank you, Jennifer. And I have another question on the financial part. So can you share more about the growth drivers behind the product revenue and service revenue in the first quarter? And how do you see the trend of the revenue line?

Yeah, so at this stage, so our growth momentum for first quarter is primarily attributed to the growth of the Robotech business and our global expansion. So at this stage, given, you know, all the revenue for different product lines is still relatively small, so we think we'll just, like, focusing on the product itself instead of, like, breaking down for – because the product and service mix changes every quarter as sometimes when we deliver like a mega per project for one quarter so the product revenue can significantly increase and on a different quarter well the service revenue can be the dominant factor for the for the for the quarter um and then let's if we're talking talking about the robo taxi service that robo taxi as a business So this is our core business from day one. And so the revenue contribution for Robotech's business significant increase of 10.4% year-on-year, which marking up like 22% of the total revenue at this quarter. This is based on our knowledge, and it's also the largest published announced Robotech's revenue among the peers. And the margin level, we're still at a very healthy, like, level of around, like, gross margin of around 35%. So, yeah. Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Leo. Thank you. There are no further questions. I would like to hand the conference back to our management for closing remarks.

Okay. So, everyone, thank you again for your participation. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners and our employees. I have to say, none of the programs is possible without their support and hard work. And we look forward to keep speaking with everyone again in our next call. Goodbye.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.