Huawei's Qiankun driving assistance system surpasses 17.3 billion kilometers of driver-supported mileage

A research group led by Chen Mohan from Peking University adapted ABACUS—an open-source density functional theory (DFT) package developed in China—for the full line of Huawei Kunpeng 920 processors. Furthermore, the team optimized 19 different classes of core operators. This was reported by Huawei Computing in a publication on October 31, as learned by IT Home. The code was uploaded to the project repository on GitHub.

Density functional theory (DFT) is a primary first-principles method for studying the properties of materials such as metals and semiconductors. ABACUS was jointly developed by several institutions and has over a thousand users across more than one hundred organizations.

According to the team's data, when configuring both sides to 28 cores with 28 processes running one thread each, the Kunpeng 920 build, utilizing the SVE instruction set, showed speeds 1.3 to 3.9 times faster than a standard x86 CPU when working with a standard set of 10 material systems containing 8 to 216 atoms, including GaAs, MoS2, BaTiO3, iron, and silicon. When using the chip's matrix computation unit, the speedup reached up to 10.7 times when operating on all cores of a single node. In cases of stochastic DFT, the team recorded a speed increase of 2.8 to 3.1 times for SVE and 6.1 to 20.1 times for the build using the matrix block.

The initial step was porting, as various Kunpeng 920 models support vector instructions NEON, SVE, or SVE512, as well as a dedicated matrix block, which remain unused when using general compiler options. The team created separate toolchains: gcc with OpenMPI and OpenBLAS was used for NEON and SVE builds, while clang with HMPI and KBLAS from Huawei was used for others, and the USE_KML option was added for integration with the Kunpeng Math Library. All compiled versions passed ABACUS integration tests covering DFT for plane waves and LCAO Kohn-Sham, stochastic DFT, and DeePKS, with results matching the main implementations.

Next, the team rewrote frequently called small operators. Replacing the recursive procedure for the generalized Laguerre polynomial with an iterative recurrence allowed complexity reduction to O(n) and made it approximately eight times faster in a million-test run. Switching interpolation search to binary search reduced the average number of comparisons in a 400-entry table from about 200 to nine. Other changes included trigonometric recurrences, cycle invariant lifting, mixed-precision tuning, and memory layout, with the numerical results of each operator being re-verified.

Using automatic source code optimization in Huawei's DevKit, the team also increased the processing speed for an 8-atom high-density carbon case by 2.28 times and a 512-atom silicon case by 2.66 times on the newer Kunpeng 920 model. Huawei notes that the resulting tuning experience can be applied to other scientific software.

Xiaomi plans to invest 1.7 billion yuan in Sunwoda Mobility, becoming a shareholder with a 5.34% stake in this electric vehicle battery manufacturer. This deal will be executed through a wholly-owned investment subsidiary of Xiaomi, according to a report filed by the parent company Sunwoda Electronic on October 29.

The investment involves subscribing to newly issued capital. After the completion of the investment round and the planned change in the board of directors' composition, Sunwoda Electronic will not own more than half of the seats on the Sunwoda Mobility board of directors. This will lead to the company relinquishing control over its battery business and ceasing to consolidate its financial results.

This investment strengthens Xiaomi's partnership with the battery supplier as part of the expansion of its automotive division. Previously, Sunwoda Mobility was recognized as a strategic partner in the Dragon Armor battery program, which the automaker presented in September.

VinFast, the Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer that has not achieved commercial success in the United States, has implemented a new tactic to introduce its SUVs to the American market: transforming them into taxi services.

Green SM, a ride-hailing company owned by the same manufacturer's owner, began operations in Los Angeles on October 13, utilizing a fleet of 500 VinFast VF8 vehicles.

This volume of operational vehicles significantly exceeds the sales recorded by VinFast in the country during the current year. According to data from S&P Global Mobility, only 389 registrations were recorded between January and July, representing a 63% reduction compared to the same period in 2025.

Concurrently, dealerships continue to promote the sale of 2024 model VF9 and 2025 VF8 models, offering substantial discounts of approximately US$ 20,000 (nearly R$ 100,000).

Green SM was established in 2023 by businessman Pham Nhat Vuong, founder of the Vingroup conglomerate that owns VinFast. This billionaire holds 95% of the company, which exclusively uses its own brand's vehicles. This approach had already been applied in Vietnam, where, in two quarters of 2023, Green SM acquired about two-thirds of the electric cars sold by VinFast, as reported by Reuters.

In Los Angeles, the service operation differs from the model adopted by Uber. Green SM owns the cars and hires the 500 drivers as employees with defined work schedules. Passengers can request rides via app, phone, or directly on the street, with fares comparable to Uber Comfort. Additionally, the first five trips offer a 50% discount, limited to about US$ 12 (approximately R$ 60) per trip.

This taxi initiative occurs while VinFast's expansion plan in the US is scaling back. The $4 billion factory, located in North Carolina and scheduled to begin production in 2024, has had its timeline postponed to 2028. In May, the state government filed a lawsuit to reclaim the land, alleging failure to meet construction deadlines, although VinFast is contesting this claim.

Furthermore, the manufacturer recorded a loss of US$ 3.9 billion (about R$ 19.5 billion) in 2025. Despite these financial challenges, the brand reaffirms its commitment to the American market, announcing the preparation of three new dealerships: two in California and one in Philadelphia.