GAC and Didi to Launch Level 4 Self-Driving Taxi by End of Year

Most passenger cars currently offered on the Chinese market are equipped with at most a Level 2 autopilot, which prevents the driver from being distracted from driving for long periods of time. The joint venture between GAC Aion and Didi hopes to launch Level 4 self-driving taxis by the end of this year.

Image source: GAC Aion

Let us recall that according to the SAE classification, this means the presence of familiar controls that can be influenced by a person, but it implies the ability of automation to do without the driver in most situations. As CarNewsChina notes, a week ago, GAC Aion and DiDi Autonomous Driving announced that their joint venture Guangzhou Andi Technology had received a license, which plans to establish mass production of unmanned taxis with a level of autonomy of the fourth level by the end of this year. The development of this vehicle is already in the final stages. This will be the first car in China with an autopilot of this class, the developers gave preference to the popular and universal body type – “crossover”. The focus on the provision of transport services will be expressed in the layout of the cabin, providing a large space for rear passengers.

In this alliance, GAC Aion is predictably responsible for the hardware and mass production, while DiDi will develop software and some of the control electronics. The latter company will also be responsible for maintaining the information infrastructure that allows for the management of the fleet of driverless taxis. DiDi’s current hardware platform involves the use of a total of 33 sensors, including cameras, lidar and radars of various ranges, as well as microphones. This combination allows for monitoring the situation around the vehicle for hundreds of meters around in all weather conditions. DiDi will equip the driverless taxis with its own operating system.

It is noteworthy that GAC separately intends to introduce passenger cars with the third level of autonomy to the Chinese market by the fourth quarter of this year. The range of models will be expanded next year. GAC management sets the Chinese holding the task of becoming one of the world leaders in the field of autopilot by the end of 2027. Among other developers of driverless taxis, GAC cooperates with Pony.ai, which already has data collected over more than 40 million km traveled on the streets of five Chinese megacities.