HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast said on Tuesday it had entered a strategic partnership with Israeli automotive artificial intelligence (AI) company Autobrains to develop advanced autonomous driving technology and a low-cost autonomous vehicle platform.

The collaboration will focus on developing enhanced Level 2++ autonomous driving systems for future VinFast electric vehicles. VinFast currently offers Level 2 driver-assistance features across its passenger EV lineup, with pilot testing of the upgraded system under way on its VF 8 and VF 9 models.

The two companies will also jointly develop a so-called robo-car system designed to enable autonomous driving without the use of costly LiDAR, radar arrays or high-definition maps. Instead, the system relies on seven cameras and a compact high-performance computing chip capable of processing around 20 trillion operations per second.

According to the companies, the system is based on Autobrains’ Agentic AI architecture and Air-to-Road localisation technology, which combines real-time camera data with satellite imagery to reduce reliance on detailed digital maps.

VinFast said the robo-car technology is currently being tested in controlled areas in Hà Nội, with plans to expand trials to larger cities and overseas markets. — VNS