China L3 AV Landscape (Part 2)

This article is an overview of the traditional auto OEMs in China with series production plans for Level 3 autonomous vehicles. New generation OEMs were covered in the previous article.

By definition, Level 3 vehicles are conditionally automated. An example would be the redesigned Audi A8 equipped with Traffic Jam Pilot where the driver can relax on freeways and highways in traffic jam and slow-moving traffic at up to 60 km/h.

Although the new A8 is equipped with all the components necessary to make Traffic Jam Pilot work, Audi has not activated this feature due to some challenges to Level 3 technology namely lack of legal and regulatory support, consumer behavior and acceptance, safety with shared responsibilities between machine and human.

Despite that, most auto OEMs are trying to get ahead in the L3 race. Here is an overview of the OEMs in China with L3 plans according to official announcements. OEMs are divided into two categories: new generation OEMs and traditional OEMs.

This is Part Two, covering traditional OEMs in China.

BJEV 北汽新能源

BJEV, a subsidiary of BAIC Group, started R&D on autonomous driving technologies in 2016 and the L3 features (part of Darwin System) will be first carried by their luxury brand ARCFOX in 2020.

According to a company official, BJEV focuses on balancing cost with features. They aim to upgrade from L2 to L3 for a cost of less than RMB 3000 (about USD 430) per vehicle. It can be achieved by layering more scenarios with the current sensors instead of adding more sensors. They believe consumers need to experience automated features step by step to be willing to pay for it.

GAC NE 广汽新能源

The latest model Aion LX from GAC has been available to consumers since October 2019, while the L3 features will not be activated until March 2020.

Aion LX’s L3 system, ADiGO pilot, comes with 1 HD millimeter-wave radar and 1 Mobileye EyeQ4 camera in middle front, 4 Aptiv millimeter-wave radars and multiple ultrasonic radars on the body. It is also equipped with a HD map of 20cm accuracy horizontally and 2m accuracy vertically. According to an official from GAC R&D Center, it enables the SAE standard L3 features except steering redundancy.

In the future, GAC plans to enable L4 features on the Aion LX model as robotaxis instead of consumer vehicles. Pony.ai is a major partner with the robotaxi plan.

SAIC Motor 上汽集团

SAIC Motor announced in April this year that a new model called MARVEL X Pro will be released with L3 features, one of which would be Auto Valet Parking. There are no model details or dates specified.

SAIC Motor is known as a keen investor in AV technology with holdings in startups like Metawave, Civil Map, Deepmap, AutoX, Plus.ai, Horizon Robotics and Savari. In fact, a number of their models have been carrying L2 features — examples of passenger models like Marvel X, MG6, MAXUS D60 and MG ZS.

Changan 长安汽车

Changan Automobile is one of the big four state owned automakers in China. They started a project on automated and connected vehicles in 2009 and aim for L3 vehicle production in 2020.

In 2011, Changan built the first vehicle with automated features like AEB and LDW. It didn’t proceed to production for reasons including limited sensor choices and cost. But in the following years, ADAS technologies underwent rapid development, hence the availability of a fuel-powered model CS55 in October 2018. CS55 was equipped with only 2 sensors — 4th generation millimeter-wave radar and MPC2 Plus camera both from Bosch to detect obstacles enabling multiple L2 features.

At this point, Changan has completed testing of major L3 features and L4 in a closed area. These will likely be deployed in EV models.

Geely 吉利汽车

Geely Auto is aiming for L3 series production in 2020. They also plan to provide L4 electric vehicles within the 2022 Asian Games area in Hangzhou where the company is headquartered.

Geely’s hybrid model Bo Rui GE is the first model with L2 features (G-pilot 2.0) launched in 2018. While on the way to G-pilot 3.0 and 4.0, they were reported to collaborate with Zenuity, a joint ventures of Volvo Cars and Veoneer providing autonomous driving solutions.

Great Wall Motors 长城汽车

Great Wall Motors aims for L3 vehicle production in 2020/2021. They have a team of over 200 people working on AV technologies across China, US and India. They have announced partnership with Ibeo, a leading solid state LiDAR manufacturer as well as with AutoBrain, which develops the entire autonomous driving system.

Daimler (Mercedes-Benz)

According to Daimler, the next Mercedes-Benz S-Class offering the brand’s first L3 features is due in 2020.

Audi

As mentioned earlier, Audi launched Traffic Jam Pilot on the new A8 in 2017. It is not being activated in China yet.

BMW

BMW is aiming for L3 features on a new model iNext in 2021.

In the China market, they have a team of nearly 100 people in Beijing and Shanghai focusing on the R&D and testing of AV technologies in China road conditions. BMW also partners with China Unicom on 5G communications, with Navinfo on HD map, and Tencent on specialized data platform for AV.

2020 will be a key year for L3 automated vehicles. We will see how the productions live up to the plan and the SAE L3 standard.