Nasdaq-listed Chinese autonomous driving company WeRide has said it hopes to become profitable within five years but warned that uncertainty over international government regulation and commercial partnerships make the timing “difficult to predict”.

Tony Han, WeRide founder and chief executive, said autonomous driving required huge investment and generating returns would be a “long process”. The Nvidia-backed company has reported higher losses in each of the past three years.

“What I want in the next five years is that first of all?.?.?.?this company can become profitable,” Han told the Financial Times. “I think from a technology perspective it will definitely support this within five years, but there are more commercial and policy considerations.”