GUANGZHOU, China – WeRide, a global leading L4 autonomous driving technology company, announces the breakthrough of reaching 10 million kilometers of autonomous driving on public roads, among which 2.5 million kilometers are in fully driverless mode.
WeRide has accumulated a massive number of high-quality scenarios through 10 million kilometers, combining testing and operations with more than 300 AD vehicles over the past four years. WeRide’s fleets comprise Robotaxi, Robobus, and Robovan, running in cities such as Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Anqing in China and San Jose in the US. They are tested and operated day and night, traveling from CBDs to urban villages, tunnels to highways, under the sun, rain and snow, all contributing to generate an abundance of valuable AD data.
The accumulated valuable AD data are collected and fed into WeRide’s self-developed simulation platform. Through recreating multiple variations of real driving scenarios on the platform, WeRide has attained over 8 billion kilometers in simulations, a number equivalent to the mileage of 300 AD vehicles driving on the public road for 50 years.
The achievement of the 10 million kilometers of autonomous driving on public road and the 8 billion kilometers in simulations means that WeRide is fully capable in raising efficiency on the test and enabling its AD system to operate under complex traffic conditions in a more stable and reliable way. WeRide will continue to develop through optimizing the data models and algorithms.
Real-world road tests pose great challenges on the perception ability and stability of the AD hardware. WeRide’s sensor suite is now completed with an even more integrated, efficient, and stable hardware solutions throughout the 5 times upgrade based on the massive tests results and data received. Released in November 2021, the latest WeRide Sensor Suite 4.0 is the first small and lightweight suite for the L4 AD. A major step towards mass production of autonomous vehicles, the Suite 4.0 can be widely used in different passenger vehicles.
Since November 2019, WeRide has launched Robotaxi service to the public in China. The mileage accumulated through the operations since then plays an important role in WeRide’s 10 million kilometers achievement. In addition to the safety and stability in autonomous driving, ride experience and transport efficiency are especially important, serving as the indicator to examine WeRide’s AD system for operation. The abundant AD data from the 10 million kilometers has given the engineering team a great deal of samples to examine and improve the performance of Robotaxi, paving the way for large-scale operation and commercialization in the future.
The achievement of 10 million kilometers of autonomous driving mileage is a new climax, yet another starting point for WeRide. With the upcoming commercialization of fully driverless operation, WeRide will keep going and ensure that every kilometer ahead will be safe and sound as always.
