On March 16, 2025, a view from a Zeekr Mix electric car in one of the company’s showrooms in Shanghai, China.
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BEIJING – Chinese electric car company Zeekr is releasing advanced driver assistance features to local customers for free as competition heats up.
This technology allows the car to drive almost autonomously from one pre-set destination to another, as long as the driver has his hand on the steering wheel and is approved by the regulatory authority. This is increasingly true in most Chinese cities.
Tesla is the latest Chinese electric vehicle brand to upgrade its driver assistance products as it seeks to attract more buyers of its own version called China’s Full Self Driving.
After initial criticism that the 64,000 yuan ($8,850) software was too expensive, some Chinese social media users said Tesla was offering a free driver assistance system until April 16th, some Chinese social media users said. Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Zeekr version is free, first deployed to a pilot group and then released in April, according to the company.
“I don’t think subscriptions are much meaningful right now during this development period,” the CEO said in an interview Friday.
Given the fierce competition, he said Zeekr needs to fill the gap in driver support with market leaders and become a top player. “So we need to pay some money,” said Zeekr previously only offered more basic driver assistance features such as parking.
Zeekr, listed in the US, is expected to release quarterly revenues on Thursday ahead of the opening of the US market. Stocks have risen about 6% since the start of the year.
nvidia chip
The CEO and Zeekr’s driver assistance system said it uses two Nvidia Orin X chipsets and one Lidar, or a light detection and distance unit that allows the vehicle to navigate the road without relying on sunlight conditions.
He said future versions of the system will use Nvidia’s more advanced Thor Automotive chip, one long-range LIDAR and four short range Lidar units.
“Using LIDAR can increase costs, but this reflects how much you value safety,” he said. He said that the driver assistance system for Zeekr cars sold overseas will not use NVIDIA chips for now given the various regulations and demand in the local market.
Zeekr’s driver assistance system is also used in vehicles known to be EV branded Lynk & Co., as well as vehicles from parent company Geely. Zeekr is Lynk & Co this year. has officially acquired it.
From price wars to driver support competition
Sales of Nvidia’s “autonomous driving platform” helped boost Chipmaker’s revenue to a record $570 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025.
Also, reflecting market demand, Lidar’s leading producer Hesai said this month that Lidar shipments have more than doubled each year for the fourth consecutive year in 2024.
HESAI CFO Andrew Fan told CNBC last week that the company expects significant growth in its advanced driver assistance system this year from last year, and joked the industry that the Chinese electric vehicle market has shifted from a price war to a war over driver assistance.
Over the past two years, the technology has become a selling point for China’s new energy vehicles. These include battery-only hybrid vehicles and hybrid vehicles.
In February, Nev Giant BYD announced that it will deploy driver assist capabilities to more than 20 car models. While the current features focus primarily on parking and highway navigation, the company said that upgrades with point-to-point driver assistance are likely to be issued by the end of 2025.
The most basic version of BYD’s driver assistance system uses the Horizon Robotics chipset along with Nvidia’s Orin, but according to Nomura’s research, the more advanced versions use only other Nvidia chips.
Another Nvidia customer who made advanced driver assistance an early selling point, Chinese EV startup Xpeng has delivered more than 30,000 cars a month since November, thanks to new P7+ cars that require additional subscriptions to driver assistance.
NIO promotes subscriptions for the Driver Assistance feature, but the company says users have not yet charged users.
