Latest news with #God'sEye
CNBC
a day ago
- Automotive
- CNBC
Morgan Stanley upgrades an under-the-radar China robotics play, sees big upside
Investors seeking to ride the robotics wave should consider buying Hesai Group, according to Morgan Stanley. The bank upgraded the U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese tech company to an overweight rating from equal weight. Hesai supplies LiDAR products such as sensors, which are then used in the robotics industry. Shares of Hesai have surged 54% this year. Analyst Tim Hsiao's new price target of $26 per share, up from $23, implies a further upside ahead of 22%. HSAI YTD mountain HSAI YTD chart "We raise our 2026-27 volume forecasts as Hesai continues to gain share amid growing LiDAR adoption in China," Hsiao wrote. "More overseas projects could enhance ASP/margin, while project wins from robo-players could also fuel a second revenue growth driver and lead to potential re-rating." In the Sunday note, Hsiao specified that one reason he was raising his volume forecasts was due to continuous domestic volume share gain. Hesai's volume share continued to rise among suppliers, reaching 37% in May 2025 versus 22% in May 2024. "Despite intensifying competition among Chinese EV players amid a challenging macro environment, LiDAR adoption continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, as more than 1 in 5 NEVs sold in China in May were equipped with LiDAR," Hsiao added. "With near-term headwinds — Li Auto's 2Q volume guidance cut, BYD's sluggish God's Eye model sales — largely reflected in Hesai's share price, we see further volume upside from Xiaomi, Leap Motor, as well as wallet share gain in BYD." The analyst also expects LiDAR adoption to rise as the adoption of L2+ smart driving rises overseas, with Hsiao predicting penetration to reach 15% to 20% in ex-China regions by 2030. Like the existing China market, Hsiao expects that by 2030, it could become a standard safety specification in any vehicles priced above $30,000. Another catalyst also comes in the form of a growing robotics business, he wrote. Potential products that could fit in this category include lawnmowers and humanoids. "We expect robotaxis and smart home robotic appliances to serve as Hesai's second revenue growth driver from 2026 onwards," he added. "In fact, we expect much higher ASP/margin profile from robotaxi players (given more LiDAR units per car), and a TAM of US$5bn for the humanoid/smart home robotics market."
Arabian Post
12-07-2025
- Automotive
- Arabian Post
Bold Move: BYD Takes Car-Crash Liability for Level‑4 Parking
China's BYD has pledged to assume full legal and financial responsibility for any accidents involving its new Level‑4 autonomous parking system, marking a decisive shift in automaker liability practices. The commitment, limited to parking scenarios using its 'God's Eye' system, allows drivers to bypass insurance claims entirely: damages will be handled directly through BYD after-sales services. BYD's announcement follows confirmation that its God's Eye system has reached Level‑4 autonomy in smart parking settings, enabling vehicles to handle parking tasks fully independently under defined conditions. Drivers can remove their hands, eyes and minds from the process during use. By assuming liability—a first for Level‑4 parking technology—the company reflects strong confidence in its product, citing its extensive smart‑vehicle cloud infrastructure, the largest R&D team in the sector, and over one million vehicles now equipped. Unlike traditional insurance frameworks where drivers often face premium hikes after an accident, BYD's approach aims to protect users from financial penalty: repairs, third‑party property damage and personal injury compensation incurred through algorithm malfunctions or sensor errors will be covered by the automaker. Legal liability will be determined by whether the system was at fault, not by the vehicle owner. This hands‑off model emphasises convenience, trust and reduced risk for customers. ADVERTISEMENT BYD is not alone in developing Level‑4 parking capabilities: Mercedes‑Benz has demonstrated similar technology within a designated automated garage at Stuttgart Airport. However, Mercedes only offers placement in limited areas; BYD seeks broader deployment across its domestic fleet. While Tesla and others pioneer driver‑assist innovations—Tesla's Autopark remains at Level‑2—BYD's insurance guarantee sets it apart as an industry trailblazer. The liability pledge comes alongside the launch of BYD's most significant over‑the‑air software update to date. The enhancement extends to all God's Eye B and C variants, promising improved parking scenarios, a 'three‑speed parking' feature, as well as safety and driving performance upgrades. The system now supports complex manoeuvres like offset and front‑in parking, automatic mirror folding, and better detection of overhead obstacles. Analysts say this strategic move addresses ongoing regulatory scrutiny and consumer concerns about who is liable when an autonomous system errs. China's evolving rules now require clarity on technical capabilities, driver monitoring and safety, particularly after high‑profile incidents involving other emerging autonomous systems. BYD's guarantee may fortify consumer trust while differentiating it from Tesla, whose Full Self‑Driving feature remains under investigation in multiple jurisdictions. Consumers will benefit directly: if a parked BYD vehicle is at fault in an incident using God's Eye, users simply contact BYD after‑sales support. The repair is handled with zero involvement of insurers and without impact on insurance premiums. By shifting risk back to the manufacturer, BYD may spur competitors to rethink liability models—especially as automated systems become more commonplace. BYD's God's Eye suite varies across three tiers: C on budget models like the Seagull; B adds LiDAR to mid‑range vehicles; A integrates three LiDAR sensors for premium brands such as Yangwang. Importantly, the Level‑4 parking functionality is not limited to high‑end models—it is being rolled out across all tiers via the OTA update. This accelerated democratisation of autonomous parking is part of BYD's broader ambition to embed intelligent driving across its lineup at accessible price points. Regulators, insurers and rival manufacturers will watch closely as BYD's system is tested at scale. The company's coverage promise may shift industry norms, particularly in countries where liability regimes for autonomous systems remain unsettled. If successful, this strategy could evolve into a competitive masterstroke—offering state‑of‑the‑art tech while guarding consumer interests.
Fast Company
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- Fast Company
BYD's cars can now fully park themselves. Game over, Tesla
Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD claims it has delivered what Elon Musk has promised forever but has failed to deliver again and again: a car that can park itself with full Level 4 (L4) autonomy. That means that the car can navigate a parking lot, find a spot, and park completely unattended. Some cars have assisted parking, including brands like BMW, Nissan, and Tesla, but none offers total autonomy except Mercedes-Benz. The latter is only a very limited L4 parking test confined to a single airport parking lot in Stuttgart, Germany, with special equipment installed. BYD's system operates outside dedicated structures and is not restricted to pre-mapped locations. The company is so confident in the technology that it announced that it will cover any damages to your car or any other vehicle if things go wrong. This means if anything happens, the owner won't have to file a claim and have their premiums go up. The breakthrough comes with the latest over-the-air update of BYD's 'God's Eye' intelligent driving system, which now numbers more than 1 million cars across China. There's no word when it will come to other markets. The eye that sees it all BYD's confidence stems from a sophisticated sensor architecture. The God's Eye system deploys multiple sensing technologies working in concert, unlike Tesla's problematic camera-only approach. Even the entry-level God's Eye C variant —one of three autonomous driving levels included in most affordable models—includes 12 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors with 1-centimeter accuracy. The mid-tier God's Eye B adds a lidar sensor, while the premium God's Eye A variant features three lidar sensors for maximum precision. The system's parking accuracy allows the car to get within 0.8 inches of other objects, enabled by multiple redundant sensors that create a three-dimensional map. This allows the vehicle a deep understanding of its environment. This multi-sensor approach allows the system to detect obstacles. It can even recognize hanging objects over the roof line of the car. The company reports that more than 1 million vehicles now carry the God's Eye system, an impressive deployment scale that starts with the most inexpensive models, like the $9,550 BYD Seagull, and go all the way to the $236,000 BYD Yangwang U9, a hypercar that can detect potholes on the road and jump over them. Yes. If the God's Eye detects an obstacle on the road, it will literally jump over it. Mercedes-Benz is the only company that approaches BYD's new ability, and it only does so by cheating. Working with German hardware maker Bosch, it achieved L4 parking certification in 2022. But the automaker's system operates exclusively in the P6 parking garage at Stuttgart Airport, requiring specific infrastructure and limiting availability to select S-Class and EQS models. Drivers must book parking spaces through the Mercedes Me app and drop off vehicles in designated zones, making the system more of a controlled experiment than practical technology. Even if Mercedes could extend the idea to other parking lots throughout the world—which seem impractical—this approach lacks the flexibility and scalability of BYD's vehicle-centric solution. BMW and other premium automakers offer advanced parking assistance but remain stuck at Level 2 automation. BMW's Parking Assistant Professional can perform parallel and perpendicular parking, but requires constant driver supervision and cannot achieve true autonomous operation. The system includes features like remote control parking and recorded path memory, but falls short of the true hands-off capability that defines L4 autonomy, which BYD is claiming with its new God's Eye update. Chinese manufacturers are heavily investing in AI capabilities for their cars. BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu claims that it has 5,000 AI engineers working exclusively on solving full L4 autonomy. Companies like Baidu (whose open-source autonomous driving system Apollo is used by Volvo), Xiaomi, and Xpeng, are on similar paths. Chuanfu believes that God's Eyes will provide full L4 in the next two to three years. Tesla's falling way behind But perhaps the technology gap is more obvious when you compare it to Tesla which has been claiming full autonomous driving 'next year' for the last seven years. While BYD and the other Chinese manufacturers deploy multiple sensor types for redundancy and accuracy, Musk decided that Tesla should abandon ultrasonic sensors in favor of cameras alone, creating dangerous blind spots and unreliable distance measurements. There have been multiple reports of Tesla autonomous driving problems. Like BMW and Mercedes, Tesla has a basic parking assist feature, too. Its owners report persistent errors, particularly in rain, snow, or low-light conditions where cameras lose effectiveness. The system's unreliability has become so notorious that Tesla forums overflow with complaints about parking functionality that worked better in older vehicles with dedicated sensors. Musk's dismissal of lidar as 'a crutch' and 'loser's technology' has clearly left Tesla technologically behind competitors who have embraced multi-sensor approaches. BYD's L4 parking achievement and its financial guarantee shows who the real loser is here. Not only Musk, but the entire Western automobile industry. As Ford's CEO Jim Farley told the audience at the Aspen Ideas Summit last month talking about his last visit to China: 'It's the most humbling thing I've ever seen . . . their cost, their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West. We are in a global competition with China, and it's not just EVs. And if we lose this, we do not have a future at Ford.' Ford and everyone else, I'm afraid.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
BYD makes safety pledge for cars with proprietary assisted driving in China
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD on Wednesday announced that it will take full responsibility for any damages caused to vehicles using its 'God's Eye' assisted driving system during smart parking scenarios within China. The move marks a significant commitment to consumer confidence as automakers push the envelope with increasingly autonomous vehicle features. In an official statement, BYD revealed that its smart parking technology has reached the equivalent of Level 4 autonomy. This means the system is capable of operating the vehicle without human intervention under specific conditions — allowing drivers to remove their hands from the wheel, eyes from the road, and minds from the driving task altogether. With this level of autonomy, the onus of accountability in the event of a malfunction or accident shifts from the driver to the manufacturer. To reassure customers, BYD stated that in the event of any damage resulting from the God's Eye smart parking system, users will not need to navigate the traditional insurance claims process. Instead, affected owners can directly contact BYD's after-sales service team to resolve the issue. This customer-centric approach not only simplifies the response to incidents but also signals BYD's confidence in the reliability and safety of its technology. The God's Eye system is part of BYD's broader strategy to establish leadership in the intelligent EV space. As smart driving technologies gain traction in China — the world's largest EV market — manufacturers are under pressure to demonstrate both innovation and accountability. BYD's move could set a precedent for how advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are backed in terms of manufacturer responsibility and customer support.
Business Recorder
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- Business Recorder
BYD makes safety pledge for cars with proprietary assisted driving in China
BEIJING: Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD on Wednesday promised to take responsibility for losses to cars with its God's Eye assisted driving systems in smart parking scenarios in China. BYD has achieved smart parking equivalent to level 4, meaning drivers can take their hands, eyes and minds off the driving task under certain conditions, with automakers held liable for accidents, it said in a statement. For losses to cars using God's Eye smart driving, users do not need to go through the insurance process but instead reach out to BYD after-sales staff for handling, it added.
