The BYD News Is Cool, But Not What Headlines Are Claiming — But …
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Update: I have corrections to make on some statements here. See: “BYD God’s Eye More Advanced Than Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD)?“
The media is ablaze with a big announcement from BYD. The company is going to be putting a new ADAS (advanced driver assist system), “God’s Eye,” into every single one of its new models by default. That means even the low-cost BYD Seagull (~$9,600) will have advanced driver-assist capabilities.
“We’re entering an era where autonomous driving is for everyone,” BYD founder, CEO, and chairman Wang Chuanfu noted.
This is amazing. Don’t get me wrong. Lane keeping and smart cruise control on highways will go a long way in preventing accidents and increasing roadway safety. Similar to how Volvo let other automakers implement seatbelts without charging them a penny in order to help the masses with important safety solutions, BYD is bringing important safety tech to people of all classes and types.
However, some headlines are claiming this is Tesla-like tech and that this is going to make all of BYD’s cars self-driving capable. As far as I understand it, this is not close to Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” (FSD) tech. Not that Tesla’s tech is fully self driving either…. As already stated, these “God’s Eye” features are ADAS — features like automatic braking and adaptive cruise control that all major brands have, just normally on their higher-end, luxury vehicles. BYD’s fleet is not going to turn into a giant fleet of robotaxis.
That said … there may be more than meets the eye going on here. (No pun intended.) Along with other Chinese automakers — Geely, Great Wall Motor, and Leapmotor — BYD announced on Monday that it would start using hot Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s AI in its cars. That could be something relatively minor, like improving voice commands. However, it could be something much deeper. (Pun intended this time.) Perhaps DeepSeek will be collecting data from all of these cars and building a fully self-driving system that they will later include in their cars. That would make “we’re entering an era where autonomous driving is for everyone” a more significant statement, too.
With a fleet of millions upon millions of Chinese EVs driving around with key technology in them, could DeepSeek do whatever Tesla is going to be able to do with FSD? Maybe. Though, for the time being, it’s likely Tesla tech would remain in the US and Chinese tech would remain in China. Tesla has been trying to get approval to deploy FSD in China, but it seems that is not going well with the potential for government spying, and especially with Elon Musk being a shadow president to China-hating Trump.
There are already other companies commercially operating robotaxis in China — ones collecting money from passengers and not including a human driver at all. The tech is moving quickly, and especially in China. Maybe Wang Chuanfu is right and sees the future coming much sooner than most. Maybe he sees that self-driving capability is going to be widespread, and wants BYD to make it widespread first. Notably, BYD has a team of more than 110,000 R&D engineers. No one else compares. Its God’s Eye package was built in-house, not bought from Mobileye or Baidu or such. Perhaps the Seagull will fly on its own before long.
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