HD map-free NOA does not rely on information including HD maps, and is available on roads where navigation is available, Li Auto said.

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) today began rolling out the latest OTA 6.0 software update to its vehicles, bringing the NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) feature that does not rely on high-definition maps to eligible vehicles.

In OTA 6.0, all Li Auto vehicles with the AD Max intelligent driving system will get the NOA without HD maps feature, the company said today.

HD map-free NOA does not rely on a priori information, including HD maps, and the feature is available nationwide on roads where navigation is available, Li Auto said.

Upon completion of the update, vehicles can follow a navigated path in the city to perform tasks including changing lanes automatically, overtaking autonomously, navigating around obstacles, and passing through traffic light intersections automatically, the company said.

Li Auto is the latest company to claim to have implemented the feature in regular pessenger car after Huawei, which started bringing similar capabilities to some of Aito's vehicles on January 31 this year.

Notably, AD Max is the smart driving system that comes with Li Auto's higher trim variants, featuring 2 Nvidia Orin X chips with a combined computing power of 508 Tops to support pilot assisted driving on highways and in urban areas.

The assisted driving system in its lower-trim variants is AD Pro, powered by a Journey 5 from local chipmaker Horizon Robotics with 128 Tops of computing power.

The AD Pro's pilot assisted driving capability is only available on highways, not city roads, although the feature provides some driver assistance in urban areas as well.

In the OTA 6.0 update, the AD Pro system received an upgrade to the urban LCC (Lane Centering Control) feature, which allows the vehicle to recognize traffic lights and pass through intersections autonomously, according to the company.

Li Auto's local counterparts Nio (NYSE: NIO) and Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) are also both actively moving forward with their assisted-driving systems, though they seem to be focusing more on offering the feature after they've completed road validation.

So far, Xpeng's XNGP (Xpeng Navigation Guided Pilot) and Nio's NOP+ (Navigate on Pilot Plus) features are both available in almost every city in China.

In the autonomous driving space, there is an industry consensus to move away from high-definition maps, mainly because they are expensive and time-consuming to produce.

Autonomous driving solution providers, including DeepRoute, have also announced HD map-free solutions in the past two years.

Nio starts rolling out NOP+ driver assist feature to all NT 2.0 cars