BYD autonomous vehicles are coming. BYD held a launch ceremony in Feb 2025. Its latest “God’s Eye” driving assistance system enables BYD to compete globally with other leading contenders including Tesla and Waymo. They say this allows every BYD car to be equipped with high-end intelligent driving technology. From the low cost Seagull hatchback with a price tag of 69,800 yuan ($9,550 USD) to the luxury models.
Previously, BYD vehicles were criticized in China for their intelligent driving system as they lagged behind some advanced startups. The launce of the “God’s Eye” intelligent driving system is available in three core variants. Additionally, BYD’s Xuanji architecture will be connected to the Deepseek R1 large model. They expect that to improve the AI capabilities of the vehicle and the cloud.
Gods Eye A
God’s Eye A is the the top tier autopilot system. It has 3 LiDAR powered by the DiPilot 600 system with the computing power of 600 TOPS. It is level 3 highway and city autonomy. With regulatory approval is could offer Level 4.
This system powers vehicles under BYD’s luxury brand Yangwang.
Gods Eye B
God’s Eye B is Level 3 for the highway (adds LiDAR). BYD has been conducting on-road testing for over a year. Test vehicles have driven across China on a Denza with no human intervention. It will be installed in vehicles with a similar price point to Tesla.
Gods Eye C
BYD will install BYD’s God’s Eye C on all vehicles. Technically, it is SAE Level 2+ ADAS. BYD claims it averages over 1000 km of autonomous driving between human interventions. It can also valet park without a driver. Models include the BYD Seagull, Qin Plus DM-i, and Seal 05 DM-i models. Most of these cars are cheaper than 100,000 yuan ($13,690 USD). It means every BYD car with the new driving assistance system will have Level 3 ADAS.
These vehicles are a fraction of the cost of a Tesla.
Both A and B systems have a Navigation on Autopilot function in cities and highways. The C version does not, but there is talk of rolling it out over the air..
Technology for BYD Autonomous Vehicles
The sensors used are more extensive, even on the base “C” system with “12 cameras, 5 mm-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars. Those 12 cameras consist of 3 front-view cameras, 5 panoramic cameras, and 4 surround-view cameras. Five mm-wave radars provide 360-degree non-dead angle perception, the front radar has a detection distance of 300 meters. The accuracy of the 12 ultrasonic radar sensors is 1 cm, and the parking accuracy is 2 cm.
Xuanji is their name for the computer system. Described as architecture with ‘one brain, two ends, three networks, and four chains’. It has a central processor, cloud AI, vehicle-side AI, Internet of Vehicles, 5G network, satellite network, sensors chain, control chain, data chain, and mechanical chain.
The Xuanji architecture will be connected to the Deepseek R1 large model. That will improve the AI capabilities of the vehicle and the cloud.
Lidar
BYD was able to figure out how to have lidar and radar play nicely with cameras for maximum safety. Tesla claimed it was better off never using lidar and ditching radar. BYD is able to accomplish more with lidar and radar involved (level 3 is better than level 2). It’s also easy to understand how integrating lidar, radar, and cameras would end up with better performance if you’re able to train them well to use the best sensors for the situation. Again, it appears that BYD (like Waymo) has been able to do that.
Note that BYD is already better than what Tesla claims on their “FSD Supervised.” This system is also technically SAE Level 2 ADAS. It still needs human supervision (as the name suggests) but Tesla is planning to update to unsupervised in the rollout in 2025.
References on BYD Autonomous Vehicles
[1] BYD released the new “God’s Eye” driving assistance system 2025 https://carnewschina.com/2025/02/10/byd-released-the-new-gods-eye-driving-assistance-system/
[2] BYD God’s Eye More Advanced Than Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD)? 2025 https://cleantechnica.com/2025/02/12/byd-gods-eye-more-advanced-than-tesla-full-self-driving-fsd/
