BYD debuts China’s most advanced EV chip in smart-driving push

BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, unveiled a series of technology advances, including what it calls China’s first automotive-grade four-nanometre (nm) chip for self-driving cars.

The semiconductor breakthrough approaches the lead of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, which currently makes chips with a geometry of seven nanometres but has pledged to debut 1.4nm chips by 2031. It’s designed to allow BYD’s computer-assisted driving to stand out from a crowded Chinese EV market that includes rivals such as Xpeng and Xiaomi.

Facing eight months in a row of falling sales and intense competition for more advanced charging and intelligent driving technologies, BYD is looking to spark more demand for its vehicles.

BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu announced the Xuanji A3 chip at an event on Thursday (May 28) at its Shenzhen headquarters, saying it has the best energy efficiency in the industry and uses 20 per cent less power than similar semiconductors.

The most advanced chip globally is the 2nm N2 node made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The nanometre measure is used to indicate the size of transistors on a chip. The smaller a transistor becomes, the more can be fitted on a chip, which in turn will become more powerful.

The Xuanji A3 is the centrepiece of BYD’s new laptop-sized central computing platform. The company said that the unified software suite speeds up three previously separate domains within an EV: its smart cockpit of dashboard controls, an advanced driver-assistance feature and the core electric propulsion.

BYD is waiting for China to formalise legislation allowing more consumer-facing deployment of self-driving vehicles, which the company expects to happen as soon as 2027. The carmaker is prepared to roll out products at that level of autonomy when the time comes, according to Yang Dongsheng, a senior vice-president.

While it does not offer that fully driverless technology yet, BYD plans to expand its partially automated driver-assist system across all models in China. It will deploy that feature with laser-mapping sensors known as LiDAR to mass-market EVs such as its compact hatchback Seagull, which starts at 69,800 yuan (S$13,139).

The technology, which automakers usually reserve for premium vehicles, will be available at a standard price of 12,000 yuan. Offering the upgraded driver assistance as a paid-for add-on gives the company a new revenue stream amid a fierce price war in China that has crunched earnings.

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“Even the affordable Seagull or Dolphin models can be equipped with the smart driving experience that usually goes with luxury cars,” Wang said. “Our add-on package is the most sincere in the industry, priced only at cost.”

‘God’s Eye’ insurance

Wang said that his company is providing one-year of insurance that fully covers any damages that might result from accidents when a BYD car has engaged the latest version of its assisted-driving technology, which it markets under the name God’s Eye.

BYD made God’s Eye a standard feature last year on most of its vehicles. However, that initial phase relied on a tiered structure with more affordable models receiving only basic highway cruise control, while advanced urban navigation was limited to more pricey vehicles. The system has also attracted a litany of complaints that it does not work as promised.

To accelerate software development, BYD is capitalising on its massive market share to build a real-world data collection loop. The company says that it has more than 3.2 million vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance hardware on the roads, generating roughly 200 million kilometres (124 million miles) of driving data every day.

Some industry analysts caution that deployment scale does not automatically equate to system maturity, noting that BYD’s automation performance has historically trailed pioneers such as Tesla. However, the Chinese automaker expressed confidence in the software’s trajectory.

Tesla is pursuing a competing technological path, relying on a vision-only approach that uses standard cameras and neural networks instead of radar or LiDAR. The US carmaker is currently working to clear regulatory hurdles to launch its so-called advanced Full Self-Driving (FSD) system in China, which still requires active human intervention and will be marketed under a different name due to tight scrutiny by Chinese transportation authorities. BLOOMBERG