In Shanghai, NOP+ is now available on 99 percent of the city's main roads, while the coverage of all urban roads in the city, including main roads and all side roads, reached 78.4 percent.
(Image credit: Nio)
Nio (NYSE: NIO) said it met its increased year-end mileage target for NOP+ (Navigate on Pilot Plus) coverage of urban roads ahead of schedule, as smart driving capabilities increasingly become a factor in car purchases in China.
To date, NOP+ has covered 319,821 kilometers of urban mileage in China, ahead of the company's increased target of 250,000 kilometers announced 15 days ago, Nio's vice president of smart driving research and development, Ren Shaoqing, announced today.
These additional kilometers expand NOP+ available cities to 208, Ren said.
NOP+ is Nio's ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), which was initially available only on highways.
At the first Nio IN 2023 Innovation Day event on September 21, Nio announced that NOP+ coverage has officially expanded from highways to urban roads, providing users with a full-scenario, point-to-point smart driving experience.
Ren said at the September event that Nio aims to get NOP+ urban pilot-assisted driving coverage to 60,000 kilometers in the fourth quarter, ramping up to 200,000 kilometers in the first quarter of 2024 and 400,000 kilometers by the second quarter.
On December 12, Ren announced that the company had significantly increased its original plan of covering 60,000 kilometers by the end of the year to 250,000 kilometers and maintained its goal of reaching 400,000 kilometers by the second quarter of 2024.
As the number of city miles and cities covered by NOP+ increases, the availability of the feature in cities also improves, according to Ren.
Fifteen days ago, Nio's criteria for NOP+ to achieve coverage of a city was for the feature to be available on 85 percent of the main roads, whereas now the criteria has been raised to 90 percent, Ren said today.
The reason why the increased annual target was reached ahead of schedule is that the generalized capabilities and group intelligence have been improved much faster than expected, thus allowing more scenarios to be covered and bringing about a rapid increase in validation mileage, Ren said.
In Shanghai, for example, the mileage of urban areas covered by NOP+ grew from 10,284 kilometers to 19,031 kilometers in 15 days, an 85 percent increase, Ren said. Shanghai is home to Nio's global headquarters.
NOP+ coverage of Shanghai's urban main roads increased from 92 percent to over 99 percent, and coverage of all urban roads, including main roads and all side roads, increased from 42.4 percent to 78.4 percent, Ren said.
