Visteon Corp. has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. Automotive Engineering Institute (GAC Engineering), a leading China-based vehicle manufacturer, to develop and deploy autonomous driving and other cockpit electronics solutions.

Under the agreement, both companies will collaborate on the development of autonomous driving solutions using Visteon’s DriveCore technology platform introduced at CES 2018, on a vehicle program that is planned for launch in 2020. In addition, both companies plan to explore potential commercial engagements in instrument clusters, displays, augmented reality head-up displays and domain controllers using Visteon’s SmartCore technology. Sachin Lawande, president and CEO of Visteon, and Wang Qiujing, president of GAC Engineering, signed the agreement last week at Visteon’s exhibit at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

Lawande said, “We are very pleased to engage with GAC, one of the leading vehicle manufacturers in China, on a broad range of autonomous driving and cockpit electronics technology developments. GAC is a fast-growing, highly valued Chinese automobile company with a solid foundation of quality and a proven record of innovation. Its development efforts in intelligent and automated vehicles are fully aligned with those of Visteon, which has a major presence in China.”

Qiujing added, “We are very pleased to be embarking on this collaboration with Visteon. Visteon’s technology innovation and strong presence in China is well-aligned with our vision for automotive technology development. We believe that this cooperation with Visteon will play an important role in promoting the rapid development of autonomous driving and cockpit electronics systems.”

Initial engagement will focus on development of Level 3 and higher autonomous driving solutions and cockpit domain controller systems using Visteon’s DriveCore and SmartCore technology platforms. Visteon says the cooperative agreement with GAC furthers its efforts to develop technology solutions addressing industry trends such as digitization of the cockpit, consolidation of cockpit electronics components and the transition to autonomous vehicles.

Visteon has had a presence in China for nearly 25 years, and today China is the company’s fastest-growing market. Visteon serves the China market through joint ventures, with 10 manufacturing facilities, four technology centers and one customer service center.