Zeekr gets approval to test Level 3 autonomous vehicles in China

Chinese electric vehicle maker Zeekr said on Wednesday it has obtained a license to test its Level 3 partially autonomous driving system from the government of the eastern city of Hangzhou, two months after getting a similar permit in Shanghai. This would allow Zeekr test vehicles to legally cruise down high-speed roads in two of China’s biggest economic powerhouses on their own, facilitating the company’s efforts to refine its Navigation Zeekr Pilot (NZP) advanced driver assistance system, Its equivalent to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software.

The Hangzhou-headquartered and Geely-affiliated firm also announced it will integrate NVIDIA’s next-generation centralized car computer “Thor” into its first hybrid model, a flagship sports utility vehicle, scheduled for launch in the second half of 2025. The other two new models, the 7X crossover and the Mix van, will go on sale later this year and feature Zeekr’s in-house assisted driving tech, powered by two NVIDIA DRIVE Orin chips that offers a combined 508 trillion operations per second (or TOPS).

Meanwhile, Zeekr is strengthening its partnership with Intel’s Mobileye, whose advanced driver assistance solution is relatively more affordable and allow the firm to more easily comply with data security and privacy requirements in overseas markets, chief executive Andy An said during an earnings call. Shares of the New York-listed EV maker rose 10.7% on Wednesday after posting a record high revenue of RMB 20 billion ($2.8 billion) and a narrowed net loss of RMB 70 million in the quarter ended June 30.

Earlier, rivals BYD and NIO have been allowed to test their EVs with L3 self-driving functionality in Shenzhen and Shanghai, respectively, TechNode has reported. Drivers should be able to put their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road during certain conditions if their cars meet the L3 requirements, according to definitions set by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Most countries including China have not legislated their use, however. [TechNode reporting, Zeekr release, in Chinese]