XPeng Unveils “Game-Changer” P5 Sedan With Automotive-grade Lidar

Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng on Wednesday premiered its third production model, the XPeng P5 smart sedan, which is set to boost the startup’s position in the world’s largest auto market.

Describing the vehicle as a “new breed,” the four-door fastback P5 will be the world’s first mass-produced smart EV with automotive-grade lidar technology, XPeng said in a press briefing in Guangzhou. The P5 is the firm’s second sedan after the P7.

The P5 will be powered by XPeng’s in-house developed autonomous driving system XPILOT 3.5, which will extend its Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) capabilities to city roads, the company said. Previously, XPeng’s NGP — benchmarked against Tesla’s Navigate On Autopilot — was designed for highways.

Overall, the new XPILOT 3.5 architecture comprises 32 perception sensors — which includes two lidar units, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 5 millimeter-wave radars and 13 high-resolution cameras, as well as one high-precision positioning unit that will enable the vehicle to handle challenging and complex road conditions.

The P5’s double-prism lidar units can help the vehicle distinguish pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, obstacles and road works in daylight, night time and inside tunnels, XPeng said. Lidar sensors, or Light Detection and Ranging technology, use lasers to help autonomous vehicles gain a three-dimensional view of the road and are a key technology in autonomous vehicles.

With its NGP function enabled on city roads, the P5 will be able to handle situations such as sudden cut-ins, automatic follow and speed limit optimization on busy streets.

Following an autonomous driving expedition two weeks ago, XPeng concluded that the average frequency of human driver intervention was as low as 0.71 times per hundred kilometers with its NGP function. This means that the car would have been traveling in autonomous mode for 140 kilometers on average before a driver was forced to intervene.

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At the press launch, the company also announced an upgrade to its proprietary intelligent in-car operating system, Xmart OS, in the P5. The latest Xmart OS 3.0 platform supports “full-scenario all-voice interaction” in its smart cockpit, which also features a 15.6-inch touch screen at the center console.