China’s Xpeng Motors announced on Wednesday what it called the world’s “first AI-defined vehicle” with the processing power needed to bring Level 3 semiautonomous driving to everyday cars. According to He Xiaopeng, the G7 sports utility vehicle features Xpeng’s in-house designed Turing chip, which is equivalent three older Nvidia model the electric vehicle manufacturer used.
What’s important: According to the management, the G7, which is one of Xpeng’s three strategic models set to launch this year, will be a key sales driver as it is expected to be the most affordable SUV on the Chinese market for this year at a price of RMB 250.000 ($34,825).
- The G7’s success, powered by Xpeng’s custom-made computer, will be crucial for the company’s goal to be one of the first automakers to release L3 autonomous vehicles this year in the second half, once regulatory hurdles have been cleared.
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Detail: Xpeng began accepting refundable deposits of RMB 2,000 for orders of its G7, which went on sale at a price of RMB 235.800 ($32.847) on Wednesday. The company said in Chinese that it received more than 10 000 reservations within an hour of the vehicle’s debut.
- Xpeng Turing chips are used in the top-end G7 version. Xpeng claims that these chips can deliver 2,200 trillion operations every second (TOPS). Xpeng claimed that this would allow them to run a large model of a language with more than 30 trillion parameters locally.
- Like Xpeng’s existing models, the base-version G7 will be equipped with two Nvidia DRIVE Orin processors, which are at the heart of Xpeng’s current assisted driving system (the XNGP). Each Orin delivers 254 TOPS. All G7 variants feature Xpeng’s newest head up display, with input from Huawei.
- This all-electric crossover measures 4.9 meters long and more than 1.6 metres high, making it slightly larger than the Tesla Model Y yet smaller than Xiaomi’s upcoming YU7. The single-motor vehicle can travel 702 kilometers (436 mi) on a single battery charge.
- According to the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) definitions, the L3 conditional autonomy system allows the driver to not monitor the vehicle continuously but to be prepared to take control.
Context Xpeng has delivered 162,578 cars in the first five months this year, almost triple what they did last year. The company will also launch a redesigned P7 in the coming weeks and its first extended-range model later this year.
READ ALSO: China’s Xpeng will use its own autonomous driving chip to compete with Nvidia Thor, reports
Jill Shen works as a technology reporter in Shanghai. She covers Chinese mobility and autonomous vehicles. Connect with her via e-mail: jill.shen@technode.com or Twitter: @jill_shen_sh More by Jill Shen
