On the night of July 8th, I finally received the long-awaited XsmartOS 2.8.0 OTA update. After a few days of testing, the results of my experience with most of its features are as follows:
Advanced Driving Assistance
As I didn’t purchase the NGP software package, I only tested a part of XPILOT 2.5, which includes the following:
LCC Steering Performance:
Steering performance was tested in two scenarios: low-speed turns (devilishly sharp curves) and high-speed turns.
I chose the exit ramp of Yanggao North Road on Wuzhou Avenue for the devilishly sharp curve test. The conclusion is that the ability to pass through this curve has indeed been improved, as the previous version of the system always exited in the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the curve. After the update, it was tested and found to be able to complete the whole curve; however, the process of passing through was not very smooth. The speed of the vehicle entering the curve was about 50 mph during the test. The vehicle automatically slowed down at the beginning of the curve, for about 3 seconds. The vehicle then recognized the risk of running off the curve, so it further slowed down. The vehicle maintained a speed of 36 mph throughout the remaining part of the curve, by which time the vehicle in front has gone a long way and there were other vehicles behind me. I would like to express gratitude to the driver behind me who didn’t honk at me. I could drive through the curve at about 45-50 mph when I drove by myself. It is evident that a speed of 36 mph is slower than what it should be for a single-lane ramp, which may cause dissatisfaction of the following vehicles.
I chose multiple curves with different curvatures for the high-speed test, and the speed of tested human drivers ranged from 70 to 85 mph. The test result greatly surprised me. Except for the curve with the smallest curvature, all other high-speed curves experienced various degrees of slowing down. The maximum curvature ramp even slowed down to below 50 mph, which is much lower than the speed limit of 80 mph on that road. Such a decrease in speed significantly increases the chance of being rear-ended, and it has never occurred in the previous OTA version. Therefore, is this OTA upgrade a regression? Strangely, if the driver manually accelerated at this time, the vehicle could still pass through the curve in the lane. This is quite puzzling. What is Xpeng’s reason for slowing down on curves where it has the ability to pass through at high speed? Even from a safety perspective, high speed is safer than low speed on such a road segment.
Conclusion: The ability to handle high-curvature curves has been improved, but it is still not excellent, just reaching the usable range, so it is not recommended to use the LCC function on high-curvature curves. The ability to handle high-speed curves has declined compared to the previous version, but one can pass through the curve by manually accelerating. The overall ability to handle curves and the benchmark set by Tesla is still significantly different.
LCC Braking Performance:Here are some scenarios that I frequently use. Firstly, in the first gear following distance, the braking feels a bit more aggressive than the previous version, instead of being gentle. There is a slight feeling of nodding. Perhaps XPeng has recalibrated the brakes at the first gear following distance, and it now feels more like a true first gear following distance. Moreover, the problem that has been bothering me for a long time has finally been solved. Even when a car with a higher speed inserts into the lane in front of you, the vehicle can still recognize that the other party’s speed is faster, and it will not brake and avoid actively, even if the distance is only 1-2 car lengths. In the past, no matter how fast the other party’s speed was, the vehicle would always brake and avoid actively, resulting in a too large distance from the front car and more vehicles inserting, falling into a vicious circle.
The previous solution was only to accelerate actively, but this problem has now been solved, making me feel that this version’s ADAS has been greatly optimized. When I switch to the second gear following distance, the gentle braking returns, but the problem of being constantly cut in while decelerating also comes back. Taking everything into account, it is best to use the first gear following distance when driving at 80 mph or below.
In addition, the speed at which the vehicle starts from a standstill has significantly increased, and it is no longer as easy to be cut in by the neighboring lane as in the previous version. However, when following a car at a low speed, if the front car accelerates, the vehicle’s acceleration is obviously not fast enough. I have to intervene manually. This problem did not exist in the previous version.
Lane-changing with turn signal:
The previous lane-changing function was relatively conservative, requiring a considerable distance between the front and rear vehicles in the target lane to successfully change lanes. The overall lane-changing speed was slow, success rate was low, and it would directly stop working in harsh weather such as heavy rain.
After this update, the lane-changing speed has significantly increased, reportedly close to that of P5. Compared with Tesla, it is still a bit slower, but Tesla’s lane-changing has a noticeable dragging feeling. P7 has achieved a more balanced state in my opinion. However, there are still two problems. First, the acceleration of lane-changing is slow when encountering the front car’s speed pressure. When you want to change lanes by turning on the turn signal and get to a smoother lane, the vehicle does not speed up during the lane-changing process. Instead, it continues to slow down by several miles per hour, and even after completing the lane change and with no car in front, it does not quickly increase the speed to the set cruise speed but slowly accelerates, which is very dangerous for the entire lane-changing process. This is a major issue that XPeng needs to fix as soon as possible. Second, although the lane-changing speed has increased, the recognition speed for lane-changing is still slow. There have been many times when the vehicle did not start to change the lane even after the turn signal was turned on for nearly 2 seconds. At this time, I had to shake the steering wheel in the lane-changing direction to initiate the lane-changing. I do not know if the vehicle needs my confirmation for lane-changing, but I have not received any prompt, which is clearly unreasonable.
Other features:# Translation
Here are some new features in the update. Firstly, the intelligent speed limit feature that was previously only available in NGP mode has been added to LCC mode, but poor design means that vehicles will slow down to 40 mph when passing exit ramps, even if the driver is not intending to exit, potentially causing accidents. Additionally, the ice cream bucket recognition feature is only currently displaying the buckets on the dashboard and does not provide routing, and the model’s resolution could be improved. There is also an issue with the construction zone recognition system mistaking watering holes between merge lanes and main roads for construction areas.
Lastly, the car’s hands-off detection has been moved to the left-hand display, which can prevent dangerous situations caused by sudden steering movement, with practical implications.
Maps and Navigation
There are new reports available in map navigation, such as whether or not a vehicle can drive on bus lanes, and the ability to filter by free charging stations, which makes searching for charging stations much easier. The new voice control feature for lowering roadblocks is convenient, as saying “lower roadblock” will display the nearest charging station roadblocks automatically, and further stating the number of the required charging station will activate it. But beware: this feature only lowers the roadblocks shown on the current page, so there is room for optimization.
Miscellaneous Upgrades
The voice control feature for adjusting air conditioning works well, but when adjusting the volume, it can be challenging to achieve the desired level, sometimes leading to frustration. The regular speakers have a slight increase in volume after updating, but the sound quality remains unchanged. The car consumes more power after the sentry mode update, from 2-3 km per night to more than 20 km per night, so it is not advisable to leave it on all the time.
Conclusion
Overall, this 5-month update for the P7 does not meet all expectations, and while some features have been optimized, there remain a number of unforeseen bugs resulting in less efficient or less safe driving. Additionally, design and functionality issues in certain features still need further refinement.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.