Byte explores autonomous driving, Seed world model team is responsible

36Kr learned from many industry insiders that ByteDance is exploring entering the field of autonomous driving. This project is currently in charge of Zhou Chang’s world model team under Seed. It is understood that Seed not only has Zhou Chang’s multi-modal model, world model and other teams, but also has a large language model direction. The technical routes of autonomous driving and world models overlap. Another source told 36Kr that in terms of business direction, the autonomous driving scenario that Byte intends to lay out includes unmanned logistics. This business belongs to Byte's Volcano Engine Automotive Industry Line. Some people close to Byte said that the Byte team has previously conducted business discussions and exchanges with some leading autonomous driving teams, and Byte's autonomous driving project has entered an early stage of preparation. Byte has sent invitations to many head-assisted driving or autonomous driving talents, and some technical talents who are optimistic about Byte's layout also plan to join. In response to the above news, 36Kr asked Byte for verification, and Byte responded: "Byte has a lot of early research and exploration in the frontier exploration fields of large models, including the field of physical AI, but there are no plans to do intelligent driving business." Seed is Byte's large model basic research team. It was established in 2023 and is a first-level strategic department of Byte. Zhou Chang is one of the core leaders of Byte Seed AI R&D.他于2024年加入字节，负责多模态大模型的研发等，此后他管理的业务范畴不断扩大。 Last year, the vision generation business was included in its scope of responsibility, and this year the Seed Robotics team also switched to reporting to Zhou Chang. This means that Zhou Chang’s current management boundaries cover multiple fields such as multi-modal large models, world models, visual generation, and embodied intelligence. Volcano Engine is Byte's cloud service brand. As early as 2020, Volcano Engine established an automotive industry line. Tan Dai, president of Shan Dynasty Engine, also publicly stated: "We are the first among all cloud vendors to make cars a first-tier line." Since this year, the wave of physical AI has risen, and autonomous driving and embodied intelligence are regarded as the two first scenarios for physical AI to be implemented. Among them, autonomous driving is recognized as one of the earliest embodied intelligent scenarios to be implemented. Therefore, when major manufacturers are chasing physics