Horizon Robotics, a provider of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving solutions, has announced its mass production plan for its SuperDrive AD solution.
The plan is intended to address the automotive industry’s increased adoption of Navigation on Autopilot (NOA) for highways, while urban NOA remains in the nascent stages.
The system is designed to provide “smooth and human-like” autonomous driving across urban, highway and parking scenarios, and address industry challenges such as high latency, extensive rule sets and heavy perception architecture loads.
The company plans to collaborate with several automotive brands and Tier 1 suppliers in the second quarter of 2024. Horizon aims to have a mass-production-ready version by the fourth quarter of the year, with the first SuperDrive-powered vehicle expected to be produced by the third quarter of 2025.
Horizon SuperDrive aims to replicate the objective physical world accurately and advance the commercialization of smart driving systems, facilitating widespread, cost-effective adoption and mass production.
The SuperDrive system leverages Horizon’s software and hardware co-optimization capabilities to achieve autonomous driving; it is designed to handle complex traffic and road environments with smooth driving dynamics and human-like interactions.
For instance, at a busy intersection with vehicles, scooters and pedestrians, SuperDrive-enabled vehicles can “observe” the environment, choose the optimal moment to make a left turn, and navigate safely around oncoming traffic while yielding to pedestrians and non-motor vehicles.
In scenarios involving road accidents, the system ensures a safe and comfortable journey by gently slowing down, assessing the situation and adjusting speed or changing lanes as necessary.
“Our integrated software and hardware strategy focusing on autonomous driving has fueled our business growth and garnered widespread industry recognition, allowing us to accumulate extensive experience in mass production engineering,” said Dr Yu Kai, founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics.
“Leveraging Horizon SuperDrive and our collaborative efforts with industry partners, our goal is to accelerate the deployment of ADAS and AD solutions, steering the industry toward a future in which smart driving is accessible to all.”
The company says it is actively collaborating with industry partners with the aim to deliver a safer and more comfortable driving experiences.