Author | Jean
Editor | Pan Tan
On March 31st, Xpeng Motors concluded its 6-day Mission X 2023 XNGP All-Scenario Extreme Challenge Test Drive event, and held an XNGP technology sharing session in Shanghai.
Dr. Wu XinZhou, Vice President of Xpeng’s Autonomous Driving R&D Center, and the XNGP’s core team attended the sharing session, discussing and interpreting Xpeng’s technical strength and strategic thinking in autonomous driving with guests around the XNGP, the first and only mass-produced all-scenario assisted driving system in China.
At the sharing session, Wu XinZhou announced the launch of the new OTA version Xmart OS 4.2.0 on March 31st, officially opening the first stage of XNGP capabilities to Xpeng G9 and P7i Max users.
XNGP Debuts First Stage Capabilities, Supporting Urban NGP in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai
XNGP Intelligent Assisted Driving System is Xpeng’s next-generation intelligent driving system, capable of all-scenario intelligent assisted driving and is the ultimate assisted driving product prior to achieving self-driving.
The complete XNGP system will not rely on high-precision maps and will seamlessly connect highways, cities, underground parking lots, and various other scenarios across cities nationwide. Users will experience uninterrupted assisted driving from start to finish, covering not only daily commuting within cities but also near-zero handovers on highways and urban expressways. In terms of safety, road game abilities, and traffic efficiency, it surpasses most drivers.
Currently, XNGP has achieved its first stage capabilities, covering the G9 Max and P7i Max models. This includes opening Urban NGP in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, three cities with high-precision map coverage, significantly upgrading the intelligent assisted driving capabilities in other regions without such coverage, and introducing the second-generation SR Intelligent Assisted Driving Environment Simulation Display System.Upon the launch of urban NGP, within the areas covered by high-precision maps in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai, vehicles can achieve intelligent navigation-assisted driving from point A to point B within the city. This includes not only accomplishing dynamic driving tasks such as cruising and following in the current lane, overtaking, and bypassing stationary vehicles or objects.
Additionally, it can achieve typical urban traffic behaviors such as traffic light recognition and start-stop, autonomous signaling and lane changes, and yielding to other road users. This significantly enhances commute efficiency in complex urban road environments, providing users with a convenient and comfortable intelligent driving experience.
Worth mentioning is that in addition to the G9 Max and P7i Max models equipped with the XNGP system, the Xiaopeng P5 P series vehicles also simultaneously launched urban NGP in Shanghai.
In areas without high-precision map coverage, the application of LiDAR greatly enhances the performance and use case of LCC lane centering assistance, and substantially increases driver comfort.
The enhanced LCC will have cross-lane bypass capabilities. When there are stationary vehicles or cone obstacles ahead, and the system detects a safe environment and suitable driving conditions, it can automatically initiate a cross-lane bypass.
Moreover, the enhanced LCC will also recognize traffic lights and enable the vehicle to pass through intersections – supporting the identification of current lane directions and matching corresponding traffic signals, achieving red light stops. It supports green light starts in straight lanes, and in non-straight lanes, the system will provide voice prompts.
In the second half of this year, most major cities nationwide will introduce left and right turn capabilities in mapless areas, bringing the user experience closer to that of urban NGP.
With XNet’s stronger perception capabilities, the instrument environment simulation display of XNGP receives a comprehensive upgrade. The new-generation SR reconstructs the perception of the environment through a 3D modeling system, increasing the types and quantities of perceivable target objects, and adding motion animation effects for pedestrians and bicycles. Overall, the SR screen is more detailed, smooth, and realistic.Translate the following Chinese Markdown text into English Markdown text, maintaining the HTML tags within the Markdown in a professional manner, and only output the result:
By illustrating the decision-making, planning, and functional status of the system, not only can the real environmental information of smart driving be highly restored, but it also helps to elaborate the intelligent driving decision-making process, enhancing the safety and trustworthiness during human-machine co-driving.
At the sharing session, Dr. Wu Xinzhou also brought an easter egg: the new generation of high-speed NGP. Based on the new XNGP technology architecture and combined with the R&D experience of the urban NGP, it has made significant improvements in safety, availability, comfort, traffic efficiency, and interaction methods.
Wu Xinzhou revealed that the current R&D progress of the new high-speed NGP is in line with expectations, and it is expected to be released to users with the XNGP system in the next major OTA version.
Sustaining Leadership in Intelligent Driving Field with Technical Strength and System Advantages
Behind the leading user-perceivable functional experience is the solid technical strength and system advantages accumulated by XPeng Motors over the years, adhering to their full-stack R&D approach.
Wu Xinzhou stated that the perception capability is the first step in achieving navigation-assisted driving in map-free areas. The XNet deep vision neural network is the first and only BEV perception produced in China.
With its powerful environmental perception capability, XNet can perform multi-frame temporal pre-fusion of data collected from multiple cameras, outputting 4D information of dynamic targets and 3D information of static targets, greatly enhancing the intelligent driving assistance, especially when facing complex urban scenarios, in terms of perception, prediction, decision-making, and execution efficiency. Compared with the first-generation visual perception architecture, XNet has replaced complex handwritten post-processing logic with neural networks, achieving end-to-end data-driven algorithm iteration.
In the future, users will no longer be restricted by the coverage of high-precision maps and can enjoy a faster, safer, and more efficient travel experience brought by high-level intelligent driving assistance in more cities and scenes.
If superior perception allows Xpeng to lead the intelligent driving field, then strong systemic capability and efficiency are the core advantages and moats that help it maintain this lead.
Xpeng Motors has developed a fully automated annotation system, increasing annotation efficiency up to 45,000 times that of manual annotation, and built China’s largest autonomous driving computation center in Ulanqab, boosting AI model training efficiency by 602 times.
Furthermore, the extreme engineering capabilities accumulated from the city NGP research and development allow the 122% Orin-X computing power needed for the Dynamic XNet to be optimized to only 9%.
This supreme engineering deployment ability is crucial for XNet’s launch, as well as for future continuous iterations.
Intelligent Evolution Continues: Xpeng G9 Welcomes its Second Whole-Vehicle OTA
The Xmart OS 4.2.0, the second whole-vehicle OTA version for Xpeng G9 since its launch, began full-release on March 31st, with batched push. This OTA will bring 27 new features, 52 experience optimizations, and over 40 basic experience enhancements, covering multiple areas, such as intelligent driving, smart voice, cockpit experience, and hardware functionality.
In addition to the XNGP intelligent assisted driving system upgrade for the G9 Max model, this OTA also brings experience renewal in intelligent driving for G9 Pro and G9 Plus models.
After the upgrade, the instrument environmental simulation display system further increases the types and quantities of perceivable target objects. A new LCC pending recovery state has been added: when the driver takes over the vehicle by turning the steering wheel during the Lane Centering Assist (LCA) status, the LCC will enter a pending recovery state; when the operating conditions are met, the system will automatically resume LCC, making the handover between humans and machines smoother and more seamless.Not only is the driving experience smoother, but VPA memory parking and APA intelligent parking also receive multiple enhancements such as tire trajectory guide lines, assisting users in effortlessly parking their vehicles.
In the smart cockpit domain, utilizing the fusion of visual and auditory perception, the all-scenario voice 2.0 skills further evolve.
After the upgrade, the main driver simply needs to look at the central control screen and speak the content shown, and Little P will execute the command, further enhancing the main driver’s freedom in voice interaction. Combined with the previously launched “wake-free” function, the majority of the main driver’s daily voice interaction needs can be met without having to “wake up” first, achieving highly anthropomorphic human-machine interaction.
Moreover, this OTA responds to user needs, significantly optimizing the 360-degree panoramic image function and adding transparent chassis and body switches, providing users with more comprehensive and clearer environmental information.
To help novice car owners better understand the health of their vehicles, the G9 also adds a vehicle condition fault warning function through this upgrade and supports one-click appointment of remote technical experts, assisting users in quickly locating and resolving issues.
Apart from continually delivering new intelligent experiences for users, the advantages of Xpeng’s entire vehicle OTA also lie in its ability to rejuvenate hardware capabilities through upgrades.
With this update, the G9 will possess an intelligent charging port cover opening function, and seat, steering wheel, and air suspension hardware features have also undergone varying levels of experience optimizations.
As an explorer of future transportation, Xpeng Motors will continue to deepen its exploration and creation in the areas of intelligence and electrification, constantly strengthen its technological competitive edge, and promote the mass production, application, and iterative upgrading of cutting-edge technologies through practical actions, creating a more convenient and enjoyable travel life for users.
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.