Chinese automaker Geely teams up with Tencent on smart car tech

China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding, which owns Volvo Cars and holds 9.7% of Daimler, said on Tuesday it has signed an agreement with Tencent Holdings to develop smart vehicle cockpit and autonomous driving.

In this recent partnership in the fast-evolving sector, the automakers will jointly develop smart car cockpits to have more mobile and mobility service applications, and find opportunities for testing autonomous driving, Geely said.

The deal with Tencent, which has investments in electric automakers including Tesla and Nio, is developing smart auto technologies, is the third recent partnership by Hangzhou-based Geely with companies associated with the tech sector.

Geely said this month it would launch a smart electric vehicle (EV) company with Baidu Inc and later that it would form a separate venture with Foxconn to provide contract manufacturing for car manufacturers.