Chinese manufacturer Xpeng is looking to significantly reduce the amount of hardware it needs to offer semi-autonomous technology in a shift that follows rival Tesla but runs counter to much of the rest of the industry.
“We can see a clear trend in the future for needing less and less components for autonomous driving,” Meng Wu, product planning director for Xpeng, said on a call with journalists.
Xpeng is looking to cut costs as it battles to compete in China’s cut-throat electric vehicle market, where prices have fallen significantly in recent months.
“Everyone is trying to reduce the price. If you reduce the price, you’ve got to reduce the cost,” Jack Xu, Xpeng head of research and development, said on the same call, hinting that some rivals were taking a hit on profits to build volume.
Xu said Xpeng is “reviewing very carefully” the numbers of sensors it needs to support autonomous driving. It is also looking at whether it needs the high-compute power of the latest chips increasingly being fitted to facilitate semi-autonomous driving – for example, Nvidia’s Orin X. “If we need only 50% of the compute power, why should we fit such a powerful chip?” Xu said.
Chinese car makers including Xpeng and Nio were quick to fit more sophisticated sensors such as lidar as they sought to entice customers with the promise of increased driving automation in the country’s famously congested cities.
However, Xpeng has moved more towards Tesla’s model, which is to rely solely on cameras. Xu said Xpeng had reduced the cameras it uses to run its semi-autonomous driving systems from three to two. The brand hasn’t said whether the new G6 SUV, unveiled at the Shanghai motor show, will include lidar.
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