TikTok's parent company is more massive than you might think, it's reportedly eyeing up self-driving. - Tiktok's parent company, ByteDance, reportedly wants to get into the self-driving car race. - A new report claims that the company's R&D team is exploring driving scenarios for unmanned logistics and has already had talks with top talent and other AV companies. - ByteDance says that it is exploring the "physical" space of AI, but denies the rumors. ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is reportedly making moves in the autonomous car race. Yes, you read that right. No, this isn't a fever dream. The same company that is behind the app that controls the algorithm behind all your favorite viral videos is reportedly eyeing self-driving cars. News of the pivot comes from 36kr which cites several unnamed "insider" sources who confirmed that ByteDance "is exploring entry into the autonomous driving sector." The outlet reports that ByteDance is looking into the business of "unmanned logistics," according to one source. According to the sources, the project is being overseen by ByteDance's Seed division. Seed is the company's R&D team that covers AI tools used in the company's products—this might be vision and speech-based models, world models, or even next-gen interaction. Seed's purview overlaps with how autonomous vehicles see the world. The models it works on are precisely what driverless cars need to understand the environment around them, as well as predict and plan the intent of other drivers (and humans). The sources also note that ByteDance has also held business discussions with other providers in the AV space and offered jobs to top talent in the industry. ByteDance was quick to shoot down the rumors. "ByteDance conducts extensive early research and exploration in cutting-edge fields of large AI models, including physical AI, but has no plans