Albert Sibo Hu

Zexiang Li, Ph.D. ’89, and Al Hu, Ph.D. ’17, led intelligent driving technology company CiDi Inc. to a successful IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The listing marks a dual milestone: it is Hong Kong’s first publicly listed company focused on commercial autonomous vehicles and the world’s first public listing for driverless mining haulage technology.

Founded on deep R&D in automation and robotics, the company has delivered multiple industry benchmarks. These include deploying China’s first fully autonomous electric mining truck fleet, and delivering the world’s largest fleet of driverless trucks operating in mixed traffic alongside manned vehicles. The company’s core technologies in AI-perception and self-driving vehicles have also been expanded into adjacent fields, including railway-based AI systems and cooperative intelligent transportation. Zexiang is Colin Lam Ko Yin Professor of Engineering at HKUST, and founded CiDi with Bay Area technologist Wei Ma in 2017. As a leading figure in robotics and hardware commercialization, he was a co-recipient of the 2019 IEEE Robotics and Automation Award, and also founded hardware incubators XbotPark and Shenzhen InnoX. Al Hu joined CiDi after graduating from Haas with a PhD in business administration, and now leads the company as CEO.