The Luxeed S7 joins a growing list of cars that has a high degree of self-driving ability in Chinese cities. In an upgrade via OTA the car will gain five core functions and 15+ experience optimizations.
Luxeed is a car brand jointly made by Chery and Huawei with the S7 going on sale last year. Sales have so far been underwhelming with February being it’s best month yet with 794 retail sales after it initially went on sale in November. The brand uses the Huawei store network for sales.
Key item to the upgrade is what’s referred to as Urban NCA (Navigation Cruise Assist). This Tesla FSD-like driving software is available as part of the Huawei ADS Package. The system is not dependent on high-precision mapping and supports highways, elevated, and expressway roads across the country, urban roads in large and small cities and towns, national roads, county roads, township roads, and other public roads, with up to 99% of the available road sections. A toll station function means it will slow the car down somewhere between 500 m and 1 km away from a toll station to avoid collision risks.
NCA drives the vehicle autonomously according to the selected navigation route and can change lanes, turn left and right, react to traffic lights, give way to pedestrians when encountering zebra crossings, and avoid obstacles. While the system is meant to have a high-degree of self-driving ability it is not hands free and is meant to be an assistant to the driver. Therefore it uses two levels of hands free detection reminders. Under the stricter the system after 15 seconds will remind the driver to place hands on the steering wheel with the reminders becoming more and more frequent. In the comfort mode the reminders do not start until 40 seconds.
NCA automatically matches the speed of the car to the speed limit of the road. There is also an LCC Plus system for when a destination is not programed into the navigation. Lane Cruise Assist (LCC) allows the car to obey traffic lights by slowing down in advance and starting when the light is green. It is possible to switch to LCC while using navigation and switch between the two systems.
Usefully the car has a smart frequently visited function in the navigation system. Based on your travel times and habits it recommends ‘old places’ you may want to go to. If this is indeed where you want to go you just need to click on it and the navigation will drive you there.
Also introduced as part or the upgrade is Valet Park Assist (AVP). Under the system you train the car the route to your parking space in either a single-story or multi-story car park and after that the car can then drive itself to your space. To use it the ADS high-level function package must have been activated and upgraded to V4.1.2.5, you also need to have completed the valet parking assistance test on the HarmonyOS App, and the Huawei Smart Driving App needs to be open and full-screen before entering the garage.
Other features of the OTA include upgrades to the ADS active safety capabilities including new lateral anti-collision assistance. In terms of smart-cockpit operability, upgrades include a 3D car control screen and new seating modes, and upgrades to the Xiaoyi digital assistant.
Sensors on the car include one lidar, three millimeter wavelength radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 11 high-definition cameras, which all provide input for the Huawei ADS 2.0 (Autonomous Driving System 2.0). Prices of the Luxeed S7 range from 249,800 yuan to 349,800 yuan (34,600 to 48,450 USD).
Editor’s note:
Huawei are one of the leaders in the self-driving area along with XPeng, Nio and Li Auto. All these brands currently on paper have a similar level of capability. Where Huawei differ is that the company offer it as an off the peg solution to various OEMs.
Source: Autohome
