Anhui Backs Automakers’ Cross-Over Into Robotics, Eyes ‘Second Growth Curve’

Anhui is treating automakers' idle engineering capacity — platforms, prototyping, testing — as shared infrastructure for smaller robotics firms, rather than pushing car companies to build robot brands themselves. That matters because it lowers the barrier for mid-sized robot makers that cannot afford their own validation lines, and it gives carmakers a policy-sanctioned route to monetize assets already on their books. The open question is whether technology-sharing between competitors and suppliers can work in practice, or whether it stays a provincial directive without commercial teeth.