What’s new: Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) startup Li Auto Inc. has announced it plans to roll out its assisted-driving system on urban roads in Beijing and Shanghai in June.
The EV-maker will begin with a beta test of its NOA system — Navigation on Advanced Driver Assistance Systems — with a small group of users in the two cities, it said at an event on Saturday.
In the second half of the year, Li Auto also plans to introduce a commute feature which will allow select urban drivers nationwide to use the assisted-driving system on a specific route before the NOA feature is launched in their cities, the firm said.
The company aims to have the NOA system in 100 cities across the country by the end of the year, founder and CEO Li Xiang said during an earnings call last month.
The background: Li Auto’s announcement comes as automakers in China are focusing on commercializing existing assisted-driving systems as they struggle to fulfill the promise of fully self-driving vehicles in the face of safety, cost and technological barriers.
Currently, intelligent driving technology is mainly being used for parking, highway navigation assistance, and urban navigation assistance. Smart driving in cities is the hardest to master due to the complex traffic conditions.
Rival EV-maker XPeng Inc. said last week that its assisted driving feature was available in inner Beijing after the city’s regulators recently expanded the scope of its permit for the advanced feature.
Related: In Depth: Chinese Smart-Car Makers Get Into Tesla’s Lane
Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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