XPeng’s City NGP expands reach in China, launching as the first ADAS on urban roads of Beijing

XPeng Motors’ City NGP Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is now available in the China’s capital city of Beijing – the first automaker to make the technology available. With today’s expansion, City NGP is already available in four of China’s largest cities as the EV automaker looks to cover dozens of additional territories later this year.

In September of 2022, XPeng Motors announced the launch of a pilot program for its City Navigation Pilot (NGP) ADAS. With its debut, XPeng claimed to be the first Chinese company to deliver such an “high-level” driver assistance for complex urban driving – a clear public challenge Tesla’s Full-Self-Driving (FSD) technology, although the American automaker’s tech is not currently available in the China. That may soon change, however.

The “Highway” version of XPeng’s NGP was originally launched in China back Q1 of 2021 on the premium trim of its P7 sedan, functioning without LiDAR, but with limited potential is limited – it allows for assisted driving on highways and expressways, but not for city-level driving. That EV has since seen a refresh to the P7i, which comes equipped with LiDAR to support XNGP.

XPeng first teased its City NGP in a video 2021, showcasing a beta version of the software navigating busy urban streets in China without human interference. By July 2022, XPeng had shared even more comprehensive footage of City NGP in action, and it was quite impressive.

City NGP has been enabling XPeng drivers to navigate congested areas in Guangzhou for nearly a year and has since enabled driver assistance in the cities of Shenzen and Shanghai. Now, the ADAS technology has become the first to roll out in China’s capital city of Beijing.

XPeng the first to offer urban ADAS in China’s capital

According to the automaker, a beta version of City NGP is rolling out to drivers of the G9 Max and P7i Max EVs in Beijing via over-the-air (OTA) software update. XPeng’s P5 P version is also receiving an OTA upgraded to Xmart OS 3.5.0, which will enable the ADAS function in China’s capital. Per the release:

Under XPENG’s next-generation ADAS, XNGP, the City NGP is set to improve its handling of lane changing, bypassing and following other vehicles etc. The function has been enhancing driving expertise equivalent to one year of human driver experience every quarter. Its goal is to elevate driving efficiency, comfort, and human-machine interaction, ultimately providing a seamless driving experience comparable to that of an experienced driver.

With the addition of Beijing, City NGP is now operational in four major cities of China, but XPeng says it’s just getting started. The automaker shared plans to expand City NGP to “dozens of cities” in China this year. That should begin in the second half of 2023, when the automaker intends to gradually release ADAS functions for urban areas without HD map coverage in addition to customized NGP capabilities for daily commuting nationwide.

While not all XPeng drivers in China may be able to take advantage of City NGP just yet, the automaker is working to “cater to a wider range of driving scenarios and provide enhanced intelligent driving experiences for users in various environments.”

XPeng says it will lean heavily on its XNet deep learning neural network to accelerate the expansion of ADAS coverage in new cities around China.