Xpeng, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, is making significant strides in the development of autonomous driving technology with the expansion of its City Navigation Guided Pilot (City NGP) feature. Similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, Xpeng's NGP is equipped with LiDAR sensors that enable the vehicle to detect and avoid obstacles, making the driving experience safer.
Starting in Shenzhen, China, Xpeng's NGP system will be available through an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade for the Xpeng P5 electric sedan. This will be the seventh OTA upgrade for the P5, and Xpeng claims it will provide up to 90% efficiency compared to a human driver, allowing the vehicle to handle dense traffic and complex road conditions during peak hours.
The NGP feature was first introduced in Guangzhou, where Xpeng is headquartered, and is now available in other cities as well. The OTA upgrade to the Xpeng P5 will also bring more than 20 enhancements to the Xmart OS version, upgrading it to 3.4.0. The feature is expected to be rolled out to other Xpeng models and in other cities across China, including Shanghai, starting this month.
See also: Everything You should know about City Navigation Guided Pilot (City NGP) from Xpeng
Xpeng is committed to building trust in the co-driving experience between humans and machines, and its NGP system is a step in that direction. The company claims that the system can recognize traffic lights by lane and can start and stop automatically. It can also assist drivers on regular roads, in addition to highways.
The development of autonomous driving technology has had a bumpy start, but now it is gaining momentum, and all car manufacturers are pushing hard to include some form of autonomous driving in their vehicles. Xpeng's NGP system is a significant step towards the future of autonomous driving, and it will be interesting to see how it evolves and improves over time.
