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Last month, BYD announced full damage guarantee for “Urban NOA,” or city driving, on LiDAR equipped cars that have been delivered with their latest 5.0 software or have received the OTA update. This comes in addition to fully covering “intelligent parking” using the advanced ADAS system.
BYD indicated that their “God’s Eye” self-parking usage increased from 21% to 93% after announcing a guarantee last year. In addition, the over 3 million BYD cars equipped with God’s Eye intelligent driving now have a 50.91% usage rate, meaning their cars are driving themselves more than people are driving them. However, much of that was highway driving and parking. With the city driving guarantee, BYD is changing that.
In the days following the city driving guarantee announcement, city usage increased by 50%. In other words, cars equipped with LiDAR-based God’s Eye A and B are now primarily driving themselves in the city. Having experienced rush hour traffic in China, I can see the appeal. Traffic can move very slowly, but constant attention is needed to take advantage of openings and avoid the scooters and e-bikes swerving in and out of your blind spots. For a large vehicle like the upcoming Datang, I would likely prefer to have the car drive in dense traffic.
