The launch of the Robocar 01 autonomous guidea is a real event: the car from the Chinese company JiYue reaches the level 4 of autonomygetting one step closer to the much desired level 5. But what can it do?
Source: zgh.com
The Robocar 01 with level 4 autonomous driving
The Robocar 01 it is the first car launched by JiYue, born from the partnership between the technology company Baidu and Geely, a car giant that owns brands such as Volvo, Polestar and Lotus. The alliance between Baidu and Geely, previously Jidu, has recently been renewed and has gained new momentum thanks to the Robocar 01.
It is, in fact, the first car in the world with level 4 autonomous driving. This is made possible by the integration of the Apollo suite, a technological interface equipped with artificial intelligence that Baidu has been working on since 2021.
The Apollo suite that mounts the Self-driving Robocar 01is based on the Nvidia Drive Orin chip, to which 11 HD cameras and 12 radars are connected, divided between ultrasonic radars and 5 millimeter wave radars.
A prodigy of technology applied to the world of cars, which opens up new and interesting possibilities.
Yes but what the self-driving Robocar 01 can do?
For the moment, the Chinese company says that the Robocar 01 he’s able to drive independently on 90% of Chinese highways and in three cities: Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. The improvements are still under development, so much so that it has already been announced that the car will be able to move autonomously in around 200 cities by 2024.
Another novelty from autonomous driving it’s the ability to park yourself. To do this, simply launch the command via the voice assistant and the vehicle will begin to maneuver to park in the selected place within a radius of 2 km from where you got off.
For the moment, the Self-driving Robocar 01 it is only available in China, but there are many car manufacturers that are also looking at this goal in Europe, starting with Volkswagen.
How much autonomy with the electric Robocar 01?
The Self-driving Robocar 01 it is still an electric car. Geely, in fact, is a giant known for its interest in electric vehicles of the future. Therefore, based on the SEA platform developed by Geely, it will be available with 2 battery variants.
The first battery is 71.4 kWh with aautonomy of 550 kmwhile the second 100 kWh has aautonomy of 720 km.
The car will be available in two versions a one or two electric motors, to reach a power of 272 or 544 horsepower. The price has not yet been announced Self-driving Robocar 01.
Source: zgh.com
The levels of autonomous driving
As we said, the Robocar 01 reaches one level 4 autonomous driving. But what does the level of autonomous driving and what changes?
Meanwhile, the Robocar 01 could not circulate even if it were sold in Europe. European directives, in fact, allow the circulation of cars on the road autonomous driving up to level 2. We will have to wait a little longer, therefore, to be able to see level 4 cars on our roads.
What are the differences? There autonomous driving is divided into five levels: starting from level 1, the one with the least autonomy of the vehicle, to reach level 5, which reaches the full autonomous driving and for now it has only been theorized. In general, these are the distinctions of the levels:
- Level 1: already present on vehicles such as Golf or Passat, the technical requirements of level 1 are relatively low. These are functions mainly linked to cruise control with automatic distance adjustment, maintenance of the set speed and emergency braking.
- Level 2: more advanced, corresponds to semi-autonomous driving. In this case the systems perform different functions, supporting acceleration, steering movements and braking. The car performs partial functions, but the driver always retains responsibility for driving.
- Level 3: on a technical level it marks the transition to highly automated driving. Here the driver can take care of other things while the vehicle is able to carry out overtaking and steering maneuvers independently, as well as accelerate and brake.
- Level 4: fully automated driving is achieved, that of Robocar 01. At this level, the vehicle is able to permanently take control in predominantly closed contexts, such as highways.
- Level 5: we arrive at the end autonomous driving real, in which the vehicle is capable of performing any type of maneuver and the driver’s responsibility is almost non-existent. For now, there are no Level 5 car prototypes yet.