On April 7, GAC Aian and Didi Autonomous Driving announced that their joint venture, Guangzhou Andi Technology Co., Ltd., had been approved for industrial and commercial license. This is the first joint venture established in China between an L4 autonomous driving company and a car company to build Robotaxi mass-produced vehicles. The first model has completed product definition and is undergoing a joint review of design and styling, with plans to achieve mass production next year.

Andy Technology is headquartered in Huangpu, Guangzhou, and GAC Aion and Didi Autonomous Driving each hold 50% of the shares. The chairman of the board is Zhang Xiong, deputy general manager of GAC Aian, and the general manager is Meng Xing, COO of Didi Autonomous Driving. Based on the advantages of both parties, Andi Technology will deeply integrate mature experience in new energy vehicle manufacturing and leading autonomous driving technology, and launch the first commercial L4 model in 2025.

The first autonomous vehicle jointly developed by the two parties is positioned as a cross-border SUV. It is built based on GAC Aion's AEP3.0 high-end pure electric exclusive platform and Xingling's high-end electronic and electrical architecture. It is also equipped with Didi Autonomous Driving's full set of fully autonomous driving software and hardware technology solutions. , safety redundancy system and the latest generation of cabin entertainment system for unmanned travel services. The vehicle is based on the needs of passengers for travel services. The performance indicators refer to the exclusive characteristics of shared travel vehicles. The configuration design deeply considers all core links of the entire operation process. It is equipped with a rear multi-modal interactive system, and is directionally enhanced for rear seating space and passive safety.

Zhang Xiong (right), deputy general manager of GAC Aian and chairman of Andi Technology, and Meng Xing (left), COO of Didi Autonomous Driving and general manager of Andi Technology, conduct a styling review

(Communicate with engineers during the styling review process)

The first batch of mass-produced models will be fully adapted to Didi’s self-driving and unmanned intelligent operation system Huiju Port. In the future, 10,000 vehicles will be released in an orderly manner in batches, and will be connected to Didi’s travel network in the form of mixed dispatch to provide users with Safe, comfortable and cost-effective driverless travel services.

GAC Aian has large-scale production and manufacturing capabilities and a profound accumulation of smart driving technology, while Didi Autonomous Driving has leading autonomous driving technology capabilities and a wide range of shared travel scenarios. This time the two parties cooperated to build a self-driving mass-produced vehicle, which not only has leading unmanned technology, but also has ultimate cost control, reliability and mass production capabilities.

Zhang Xiong, deputy general manager of GAC Aion, said that driven by industry trends and national policies, the new energy vehicle industry is about to enter the era of high-end smart driving. GAC Aion has been actively promoting the innovation and application of autonomous driving technology. With the approval of the license for its autonomous driving joint venture with Didi, it not only takes the lead in exploring the L4 commercialization route in the industry, but also builds the world's leading "technology + intelligent manufacturing + "Operation" L4 business ecological closed loop, while also further reducing related technology costs through L4 large-scale mass production, paving the way for the promotion and application of high-end intelligent driving technology.

Didi Autonomous Driving COO Meng Xing said that driverless technology is leading the transformation of the automobile transportation industry. Didi Autonomous Driving has always been committed to developing leading L4 autonomous driving technology solutions. By combining the autonomous vehicle network and the driver network, relying on The automated intelligent operation system Huiju Port continues to ensure the safe and efficient operation of vehicles and accelerates the popularization of driverless commercial services. The approval of the joint venture and the positive progress of the first mass-produced vehicle mark that the autonomous driving industry has entered a new stage of productization. The two parties will work closely to actively promote the large-scale and commercialization of autonomous driving.

About GAC Aian:

GAC Aian is the strategic core carrier of GAC Group’s development of intelligent connected new energy vehicles. Since its establishment, it has adhered to the innovative leadership of "EV (pure electric) + ICV (intelligent connectivity)" and built the first domestic new energy pure electric exclusive factory, with a dual-brand matrix of "AION" and "Hyper". After six years of development, GAC Aian’s production and sales have firmly ranked among the top three in the industry, and it has become a leading global new energy vehicle company.

As one of the first domestic automobile companies to enter the field of autonomous driving research, GAC Aian’s unique AEP 3.0 pure electric platform integrates electric vehicle platforms, open wired control platforms, electronically controlled steering, and redundant braking, and is recognized by the industry. A vehicle platform with high interface openness, platform stability and safety. In terms of smart driving technology, GAC Aion has laid out three technical routes: multi-sensor fusion technology, pure visual algorithm technology, and high-precision maps. Among them, pure visual algorithm technology has repeatedly won the "Pure Vision Ranking" in the international nuScenes autonomous driving test competition. Ranked first in the world in "Single Track", and also ranked first in the world in the "Motion Trajectory Prediction List" in the Argoverse 2 Sports Prediction Challenge. In November 2023, GAC Aian was the first to obtain the first batch of L3 test licenses. The multi-sensor fusion technology independently developed by GAC Aian is expected to be applied to the first mass-produced L3 level autonomous driving models this year. Facing the future, GAC Aian is committed to becoming the world's leading and socially trusted green smart mobility value creator, providing users with world-class mobile smart new energy products and services.

About Didi autonomous driving:

Didi Autonomous Driving is one of the first domestic technology companies to enter the L4 autonomous driving field. Relying on the world's outstanding travel platform, Didi Autonomous Driving focuses on the research and development, product application and related business expansion of L4 autonomous driving technology in shared travel scenarios, forming leading technology and operational capabilities.

Didi Autonomous Driving has achieved independent controllability of the entire stack of core technologies. Its "urban generalization engine" technology can perform directional optimization for complex traffic flow and long-tail scenarios encountered during domain expansion, greatly improving robustness and strengthening Generalizability of technology. In addition, Didi Autonomous Driving also launched China's first 2K image-level high-precision lidar and mass-produced three-domain fusion computing platform. The former is designed for L4 autonomous driving operation scenarios and has ultra-high performance and ultra-high adaptability; the latter The products have been greatly improved in terms of integration, cost reduction, and assembly timeliness.

Didi Autonomous Driving currently has more than 200 autonomous vehicles in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities. Since taking the lead in launching manned test services to the public in Shanghai in June 2020, it has been operating safely for more than 1,300 consecutive days, achieving mixed dispatch within the operation areas of Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Facing large-scale unmanned operation scenarios, Didi Autonomous Driving has created Huiju Port, the first 24-hour automated intelligent operation system, with the entire process automation rate reaching 90%. Currently, Didi Autonomous Driving is actively working with industry partners to promote the large-scale and commercial application of autonomous driving, provide users with safe, economical, and comfortable travel services, and create greater value for society.

Source: Ian