Although European regulations do not allow exceeding level 2 autonomous driving, the first mass-produced EV to reach Level 4 has just been unveiled in China.
It is called JiYue Robocar 01 and is the result of a partnership between Baidu (which can be called China’s Google) and Geely, which has under its umbrella brands such as Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Zeekr and Smart.
The most technological car in the world?
The Robocar 01 is the first car from the JiYue brand, a company born out of an alliance between Baidu and Geely (originally called Jidu), whose internal organization was restructured two months ago.
The car has reached the fourth level of autonomous driving thanks to the application of the Apollo system, which Baidu has been working on since 2021 and which is presented for the first time in the most complete version equipped with artificial intelligence. It’s based on Nvidia’s Drive Orin chip and benefits from 11 HD cameras and 12 radars, some ultrasonic, some 5mm.
According to JiYue, the car is able to drive almost autonomously on 90% of Chinese highways and in three cities of the country: Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. The company said that by 2024, the number of cities where Robocar 01 will be able to travel without a driver will increase to 200 (but all of them will be located in China).
The car is also able to park itself. Just give it an “order” using a voice command from outside the car, and it will start maneuvering to the chosen location, which can be anywhere within a radius of 2 km from the place where the driver got off.
More than 700 km of autonomy
Under the hood, the Robocar 01 is based on the Geely SEA platform and will be sold with two different batteries: 71.4 kWh and 100 kWh. Have respectively range of 550 and 720 km according to the Chinese CLTC cycle.
The car will be available in two versions, with one or two electric motors, power from 272 to 544 hp. The latter is able to accelerate from 0 to 100 in just 3.8 seconds. This model is currently not planned for the European market.
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Source: Auto Plus
Robert is an experienced journalist who has been covering the automobile industry for over a decade. He has a deep understanding of the latest technologies and trends in the industry and is known for his thorough and in-depth reporting.