In the photo album of Xiao Chen, an engineer at WeRide Inc., there is a cherished picture completely unrelated to any technical diagram: on a summer day on Guangzhou's Bio Island, a group of dark-skinned Yi ethnic children are gathered around a small blue bus with no steering wheel, their smiles brighter than the sunshine. This group photo, taken in August 2025, captures a special encounter—children from Sichuan's Daliangshan mountains saw a "car that drives itself" for the very first time here. A foundational lesson about the future began on the banks of the Pearl River.
When the innocence of mountain children met the wheels of the future, Meigu County, located in the northeast of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture—the largest Yi community in China—is characterized by towering mountains, deep valleys, and inconvenient transportation. For the children growing up there, the outside world seems distant and abstract. When the concept of "autonomous driving," which still feels somewhat cutting-edge even to city dwellers, encountered these children who were largely unfamiliar with conventional cars, communication became the first hurdle to overcome.
To address this, WeRide Inc. specially prepared a "precision science popularization" plan, with the core idea being to "make abstract technology concrete and personify cold machinery." "We are not here to灌输 technology, but to open a window," said Zhang Yuxue, Head of Marketing and Public Relations at WeRide Inc. In the company's conference room, engineers explained the most advanced technology in the simplest terms. "Everyone guess, where are the car's 'eyes'?" Engineer Xiao Chen asked, holding up a model. Eleven-year-old Ma Hai'azuo immediately raised her hand: "The cameras!" This girl, who consistently ranks first in her class at Niu Niuba Town Primary School, had specifically researched autonomous driving before coming to Guangzhou.
To help these children, who had seen traffic lights only a handful of times, understand complex technology, the engineers went to great lengths. Millimeter-wave radar was compared to "ears," the computing platform was the "brain," and high-definition maps became "memory." Engineer Xiao Chen, who hails from the mountainous regions of Guangxi, deliberately stood among the children and said, "I hadn't seen cars like this when I was little either, but now I can design them."
The most popular attraction was undoubtedly the WeRide minibus without a driver's cabin. Ten children sat inside the cabin, watching the scenery along the Pearl River outside the window—an autonomous street sweeper clearing fallen leaves, an autonomous logistics vehicle delivering packages, and another minibus stopping at a station to pick up passengers. Together, this painted a vivid picture of a future cityscape. "So this is what technology is like!" exclaimed Ashu Guha, the Yi teacher leading the group. This teacher, who has taught in Meigu County for 15 years, noted that before the trip, the children's most frequent question was, "Can the buildings in Guangzhou really touch the clouds?" Now, their question had changed to, "Can I build a car like this in the future?"
"Height" and "Warmth" Can Coexist. Shortly after hosting the children from Daliangshan, at the World Autonomous Driving Challenge in Dubai, WeRide Inc., partnering with Deutsche Bahn, defeated all competitors to win first place. On one side, it was competing against the world's top contenders on an international stage in Dubai; on the other, it was explaining to children from Daliangshan in its R&D base on Guangzhou's Bio Island "why the car can drive itself." This恰好 illustrates the dual aspects of modern tech companies: while pursuing technological peaks, they never forget their humanistic foundation.
For WeRide Inc., the "height" of international competition and the "warmth" of public science education have always been compatible. "Watching the children's eyes light up as they stared at the automatically rotating steering wheel was just as thrilling as the feeling our team had on the international podium," Zhang Yuxue remarked. This autonomous driving company, which grew up in Guangdong, transforms the "hard power" of technological breakthrough into the "soft touch" of warming society, creating a unique "two-way奔赴."
This "two-way奔赴" connecting technology and humanity is evolving from a one-off heartwarming encounter into a replicable, sustainable long-term initiative. It is understood that WeRide Inc. has partnered with the Fanhua Public Welfare Foundation to systematize these autonomous driving experience activities. To date, WeRide Inc. has hosted nearly a hundred children from remote mountainous areas.
The boundaries of public welfare are also being expanded through these repeated activities. It's not just about showing children from the mountains the future; in 2025, WeRide Inc. also transformed its autonomous minibus into a "Wish Bus" serving young people with intellectual disabilities; in the same year, autonomous vehicles drove into the campus science day at Guangya Middle School. Even earlier, in 2023, in Wuxi, the WeRide bus even became a "Happy Bus," giving students a special outdoor psychology lesson.
"The height of our technology determines what we can bring to society, while our original aspiration determines for whom we are willing to do it," Zhang Yuxue stated. When engineers use metaphors like "eyes," "ears," and "brain" to break down the principles of autonomous driving for children, they are not merely普及 scientific knowledge; they are also传递 a belief: the most cutting-edge technological achievements should be seen and understood by the groups who most need their horizons broadened.
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