BYD shares hit record high after EV maker rolls out driver assistance tech with DeepSeek's AI help

cnbc.com:

BEIJING — Chinese electric car giant BYD shares hit a record high in Hong Kong trading Tuesday after the company said it is going all in on driver assistance with the help of DeepSeek, after previously taking a more cautious approach on autonomous driving technology.

Shares rose more than 4% Tuesday morning to an all-time high of 345 Hong Kong dollars ($44.24), before paring gains. The stock had soared nearly 21% last week in anticipation of BYD's event on Feb. 10.

Advanced smart driving will become a standard safety feature similar to seatbelts and air bags, BYD's founder and chairman Wang Chuanfu said at a China-focused launch event livestreamed late Monday.

The automaker announced that it was releasing a «DiPilot» assisted driving system across its range of cars, which includes a 69,800 yuan ($9,555) low-cost vehicle.

That makes BYD likely the first automaker in China to offer such advanced driver-assistance capabilities for a vehicle below 70,000 yuan, Nomura analysts said in a Tuesday note. «BYD is changing its competition strategy from price cutting last year to functions' upgrade in 2025,» the analysts said.

BYD also said it was integrating artificial intelligence from Chinese startup DeepSeek into at least the most advanced version of the new driver-assistance system. Such systems use a combination of software, AI and cameras or other sensors to control a vehicle, minimizing the need for human intervention.

«The DeepSeek integration is very significant,» said Tu Le, founder and managing director of Sino Auto Insights, «because now there's a homegrown standalone AI technology that BYD can work with to offer equivalent intelligent features offered by their competitors.»

«This puts BYD firmly back in the driver's