On January 26, 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile carried out an in-depth OTA upgrade. The official name of the upgrade is "NGP Automatic Navigation Assisted Driving". So how good is this NGP upgrade? What problems have been solved? Go to the expressway and try it yourself.

Before the experience, give a brief description of Xiaopeng's NGP: At present, Xiaopeng cars realize high-speed NGP, which means that most expressways and some urban expressways covered by high-precision maps can realize NGP functions. The current applicable model is Xiaopeng P7 Smart Edition with XPILOT 3.0 system. The main capabilities of NGP this time are: automatic overtaking, automatic speed limit adjustment, optimal lane selection, automatic highway switching, automatic ramp up and down, automatic lane change and automatic emergency avoidance.

        What is the high-speed car following capability of NGP?

The route of this test drive was in Huadu, Guangzhou. The traffic flow on the expressway was not particularly large, and the difficulty was ordinary.

There is no need to worry about the current straight lane capacity of this NGP. It basically keeps chasing the car in the middle of the lane all the way, and there is no difficulty in maintaining the lane at high speed.

The biggest test occurred on the down ramp. One of the ramps we experienced this time was extremely curved, almost drawing a circle. However, Xiaopeng P7 is still able to drive steadily in its own lane. This lane keeping ability can be said to be the only one in the automatic driving system I have experienced.

        What is the timing of high-speed lane change for NGP?

Lane keeping is just an appetizer. The most important update of NGP this time is automatic lane change, which is described in several ways below.

1. There is little traffic, and there is a slow train ahead. This situation is very simple. Xiaopeng P7 will detect the speed of the vehicle ahead in advance and find that it is slower than the high-speed speed limit. Leave enough safety distance, and he will overtake the vehicle on the parallel line. The speed will continue to increase at the same time of the parallel line, rising directly to 119km/h and cruising at this speed until he hits another slow train.

2. The traffic flow is high, and there is a slow train ahead. When we encountered a slow car ahead during the test drive, the traffic flow in the left lane was also very large. At this time, Xiaopeng P7 will continue to calculate while keeping a safe distance from the car in front. I am not particularly clear about its logic, but basically it is to ensure that the car behind does not need to brake to avoid when merging. A total of five left lane express cars were allowed for this merging. The sixth car had a long following distance, so P7 quickly changed the line and accelerated to overtake. Because I always follow the car in front, the parallel direction angle will be larger at this time, and I can clearly feel the parallel action of the car body.

The experience also found that Xiaopeng P7 would not overtake in the right lane, and would accelerate decisively when overtaking. Slightly different from many old drivers, Xiaopeng P7 has a longer safety distance and will not exceed the speed limit for a short time in order to overtake.

After experiencing my experience, my conclusion is that the whole overtaking action of Xiaopeng P7 is the self-cultivation of an old high-speed driver, and 100% of them will not exceed the speed limit, and will use up the speed limit of the high-speed and never drive slowly.

        What is the timing of NGP's high-speed development?

If you drive the NGP to cruise, you will probably miss it if you want to drive on your own. Since mutual trust has been established, the car owner probably doesn't pay much attention to the route, so the NGP of Xiaopeng P7 decides to drive on its own.

According to the actual measurement, Xiaopeng P7 will start from the left lane and merge to exit the expressway about 3km before the exit of the expressway. Similarly, Xiaopeng P7 will strictly abide by the ramp speed limit regulations and drive as many as he writes.

We encountered a large number of vehicles interspersed on an ramp (some cars merged into the expressway and some cars left the expressway). It was found that Xiao Peng P7 had no problem with the timing of merging and could safely get off the expressway.

But is it all right? Neither. When we left the expressway for the second time, the exit was very complicated. When we were ready to merge into the rightmost lane, P7 took the initiative to turn back to avoid. At this time, we could not get off the expressway and had to intervene manually.

At that time, the distance behind the car was still safe. I guess it was because of safety considerations that the merging could not be completed 100% when leaving the expressway.

Therefore, the high-speed endurance of this NGP can be completely assured, but the situation is complicated when going down the ramp, so people should remain focused and ready to take over at all times.

        Can we deal with sudden road construction and other emergencies?

During this test drive, we encountered two common road repair situations on the expressway. One is that the emergency lane maintenance has directly built a wall, and the other is that the pile barrel has temporarily enclosed some roads, changing from three lanes to a single lane.

For one lane directly built into a wall, Xiaopeng P7 can normally drive in the middle, but it is really too close to the wall, which is totally different from the driving habits of ordinary car owners. Normally, I must stay away from the wall and run along the lane on the left. However, as soon as the NGP turns to the side of the wall, it must drive in the middle, and the same is true when it encounters a large truck in the lane next to it. The handling of this situation cannot be said to be problematic, but it can only be said that the consideration is still too mechanized.

The lane closure is NGP's biggest rival. After we met the road closure this time, Xiaopeng P7 jumped out to warn the owner to take over.

The final conclusion is very clear. Xiaopeng's NGP is indeed very powerful. Combined with Gaode's high-precision map, high-speed driving has become very intelligent, not much different from old drivers. Therefore, this system can help car owners a lot on high-speed. If we review the doubts and difficulties when we first came into contact with automatic driving, now this NGP is really surprising enough. Of course, there are still some emergencies that can't be handled, but these problems are not the end, but only the problems that need to be solved in the subsequent OTA. To be honest, I can't wait to see what kind of surprises can be brought by the next OTA of automatic Xiaopeng.