Autonomous

BYD has once again made a move to one-up its international rival Tesla by offering full liability coverage for its ‘God’s Eye’ advanced driver assistance system (ADAS).The brand announced at its ‘Intelligence Strategy Launch Event’ that it would cover “all resulting economic losses” from an accident resulting from use of BYD’s Urban Navigate on Autopilot (NOA) function, part of its God’s Eye ADAS suite.The move comes as part of a commitment to spend A$20.5 billion on investment into ADAS and self-driving, alongside revealing what it claims is China’s first mass-produced 4-nanometer (4nm) autonomous driving chip.BYD has also announced that its entire line-up can be equipped with the top-spec LiDAR version of God’s Eye, enabling level 3 and 4 self-driving.In China, BYD customers are able to purchase a one-year plan to cover use of God’s Eye 5.0.BYD says the policy states “if a legally-liable accident occurs while a user is operating the Urban NOA function in compliance with regulations, BYD will directly cover all resulting economic losses”.BYD cites the reason for this confidence as being down to its “3.15 million Intelligent Driving Assistance vehicles on the road” resulting in around 200 million kilometres logged every day, plus the brand’s huge R&D team of 5000 engineers, which it claims is the largest in China’s automotive industry.God’s Eye has also received an AI-based “hyper‑realistic digital assistant” for use by the driver in the cabin, which BYD claims results in a “continuously evolving in-car experience”.The tech and God’s Eye damage coverage is currently only available in China, while Tesla’s ‘Full Self Driving (FSD) Supervised’ is available in equipped models in Australia, though Tesla won’t take any of the blame for accidents that occur during its use.

Tesla has been forced into an embarrassing backdown over a trial of its Full Self-Driving tech in China, with owners of Tesla vehicles reportedly accruing fines for disregarding certain road rules, before the much-hyped – but misleadingly titled – technology was rebranded as Intelligent Assisted Driving.

For the first time ever in Japan, Nissan has successfully tested a fully autonomous, driverless vehicle on public roads, beating electric car giant Tesla to the feat in the process.

When Tesla CEO Elon Musk called 2025 the “biggest year in Tesla history” at a recent investors meeting, he was right, though not for the reason of becoming the world’s biggest company as he might think.

Before you go believing whatever your carmaker said about the self-driving capabilities of your vehicle, stop and remember just what a monumental mess occurred on the track for the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League’s inaugural race this year.

Reports out of the US are claiming Tesla will unveil its long-awaited self-driving Robotaxi next month at the Warner Brothers Studio movie lot in Burbank, California.

At its second quarter investor conference, Tesla confirmed its commitment to launching a Robotaxi this year followed by an affordable model in the first half of 2025. 

Self-driving taxis are under attack by angry mobs in the United States. Will we behave the same way when Waymo and Cruise arrive in Australia?

Self-driving cars have become one of the most hot-button topics in the car industry in the past decade. Everyone from General Motors to Google is involved in trying to remove the human being from the driving process.

Volvo's global chief has said that full autonomous driving would not happen for a long time to come, despite him confirming that his company has the technology to roll it out now.