Chinese car manufacturer BYD will develop self-driving technology in partnership with DeepSeek, as it aims to add driver assistance features to almost all of its vehicles.
BYD said it would incorporate an advanced driver assistance system, known as God’s Eye, into 21 of its models from this week at no additional cost. God’s Eye can monitor road hazards using sensors, radar, and cameras, and will be capable of self-driving on motorways.
God’s Eye “will mark a new era when all customers can access smart driving,” said BYD founder Wang Chuanfu.
“We have been adopting a strategy — fewer words, more deeds — over the past years in our research and development,” said Wang. “BYD has a firm belief in smart driving and has been unswervingly delving into this area.”
The God's Eye program will be included in three of BYD’s low-cost vehicles, such as the Seagull, which is priced from CN¥69,800 (A$15,200).
BYD will integrate artificial intelligence from Chinese company DeepSeek into an advanced version of God’s Eye. DeepSeek found fame with the release of its first free chatbot last month, which briefly sunk AI-related stocks like Nvidia due to DeepSeek’s low cost of development.
Chinese car companies Geely and Great Wall have also said they plan to add DeepSeek’s AI to their vehicles. Dongfeng will add DeepSeek’s models to vehicles made by its joint venture with Nissan.
Competitor Tesla’s shares fell 6% following the news. CEO Elon Musk said last month that while the company plans to add unsupervised self-driving capabilities to its vehicles, its previous-generation Hardware 3 computer cannot support the feature.
BYD’s share price (SEHK: 01211) was HK$351.00 at time of writing, down from its previous close at $352.00. Its market capitalisation is HK$1.07 trillion.
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