Jianxiong Xiao

The founder and CEO of AutoX, Xiao Jianxiong has built a company that is set to power the autonomous car revolution. With a business model that involves selling its technology to existing players, it is the only company that operates fully driverless taxis in China, in cities including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing; it also has a robo-taxi licence in California. With its main offices in Shenzhen and Silicon Valley, it has five R&D centres around the world, and has received more than US$160 million in funding.

From a humble background in Chaozhou, Guangdong, he was formerly an assistant professor and founding director of the Computer Vision and Robotics Lab at Princeton University in the US. He turned down an offer from Ford to run its autonomous driving unit to start AutoX in 2016. He also glories in a superhero movie nickname: Professor X.