The solution offers automakers a solution better suited to China's road scenarios and is expected to reach mass production levels by mid-2023, QCraft said.

(Image credit: QCraft)

Chinese autonomous driving startup QCraft has unveiled an ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) solution based on a local chip, after it already had a similar solution based on chips from US maker Nvidia.

QCraft announced on December 12 the launch of its NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) assisted driving solution based on Horizon Robotics' Journey 5 chip, becoming the first provider to offer NOA capabilities based on the chip covering highways and urban areas, according to press releases from the companies on Monday.

The solution leverages QCraft's software algorithms and the computing power of the Journey 5 chip to support point-to-point assisted driving in a variety of road conditions, including urban multi-scenarios, highways and expressways.

It also provides automakers with a solution that is better suited to China's road scenarios and has greater potential for mass production, QCraft said, adding that the solution is expected to reach mass production levels by mid-2023.

Below is a video shared by QCraft demonstrating the solution's assisted driving capabilities.

The solution, called QCraft Chengfeng, can handle a wide range of complex urban traffic scenarios with higher-level assisted driving capabilities including unprotected left turns, pedestrian and vehicle avoidance, automatic lane changes, automatic turning, traffic light recognition, narrow road and congested roadway passing, and automatic yielding to obstacles, according to the releases.

Founded in 2019, QCraft was created by people who have worked at self-driving pioneers such as Waymo, Tesla and Uber, with backers including Chinese tech giant ByteDance and venture capitalists including YF Capital and Genesis Capital.

Horizon Robotics, founded in 2015, released its Journey 2 chip in 2019, the first automotive-grade AI chip in China. Its Journey 3 chip was previously used by Li Auto in the 2021 Li ONE.

On July 29, 2021, Horizon Robotics launched the Journey 5 chip and plans to launch the Journey 6 chip in 2023.

In November, Horizon Robotics CEO Yu Kai said in a presentation that the company had entered into a partnership with Nio, which will use its products in one of the latter's new brand models.

Yu did not provide more details on the partnership, though the new Nio brand, likely a sub-brand of the electric vehicle maker codenamed ALPS, will likely use Horizon Robotics' Journey 5 self-driving chip.

Back to QCraft, the company already had an Nvidia chip-based solution.

On September 21, QCraft announced that its fleet of Nvidia DRIVE Orin system-on-chips (SoCs)-equipped robotaxi began operating in the eastern city of Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

QCraft's robotaxis are powered by the company's in-house developed Driven-By-QCraft self-driving solution, using two DRIVE Orin SoCs per vehicle.

The solution is capable of handling a wide range of complex road conditions on urban open roads, with pedestrian and vehicle avoidance, automatic lane changing, automatic steering and traffic light recognition, as well as over 100,000 complex urban traffic scenarios, the company said at the time.