Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng stands subsequent to the corporate’s P7 electrical sedan as he addresses media on the 2020 Beijing auto present.
Evelyn Cheng | CNBC
GUANGZHOU, China — Chinese language electrical carmaker Xpeng Motors has introduced a brand new autonomous driving characteristic designed to work on highways, because it ramps up its problem to home rivals in addition to Tesla.
The characteristic — known as Navigation Guided Pilot or NGP — will permit the corporate’s flagship P7 sedan to routinely change lanes, velocity up or decelerate, or overtake automobiles and enter and exit highways.
It’s a part of the following technology of Xpeng’s XPILOT 3.0 so-called superior driver-assistance system (ADAS) which the corporate expects to launch within the first quarter of this 12 months. ADAS refers to a system with some autonomous options however the place a driver continues to be required.
Xpeng is one in every of China’s electrical automobile start-ups trying to race forward within the nation’s rising market because it battles different upstarts equivalent to Nio and Li Auto, in addition to U.S. electrical automobile big Tesla.
Mass deliveries of Xpeng’s P7 sedan, a direct rival to Tesla’s Mannequin 3, started final June. Xpeng delivered 27,041 vehicles in 2020 — greater than double from a 12 months in the past.
The NGP is a problem to Tesla’s autonomous ADAS known as Autopilot. One in every of Autopilot’s options is known as Navigate on Autopilot, which has comparable capabilities to Xpeng’s NGP.
China’s electrical automobile corporations wish to add extra autonomous options to their automobiles. Nio has its personal system known as NIO Pilot.
How Xpeng’s system works
A driver might want to watch a security video earlier than with the ability to activate Xpeng’s freeway driving operate. Drivers must maintain their palms on the wheel whereas utilizing the automobile’s autonomous driving options.
Customers then enter their vacation spot into the map. The automobile will then start to hold out among the capabilities like lane switching by itself.
Drivers will get a warning when they should take guide management of the automobile, for instance, throughout antagonistic climate circumstances or a street accident.
Xpeng says its automobiles are geared up with 14 cameras and different important sensors. Nvidia‘s Xavier computing system powers XPILOT 3.0.
The freeway driving characteristic will probably be accessible on the premium model of the P7 and accessible to clients in China solely.
