Didi Autonomous Driving Releases World's First 5-Hour Driverless Road Test Video

On April 8, Didi Autonomous Driving released the world's first continuous 5-hour autonomous driving video without any human intervention. The test vehicle traveled through Shanghai's Jiading District, passing through areas such as the bustling Jiatinghui commercial zone, factory zones, office districts, and residential neighborhoods. Throughout the journey, Didi's autonomous vehicle demonstrated stable performance in all key aspects, including environmental perception, behavioral decision-making, motion planning, and vehicle control.

It is reported that the video was recently filmed, starting in the afternoon and capturing scenes throughout the day, into dusk, and finally into the night. The test vehicle traveled through Shanghai's Jiading District, passing through areas such as the bustling Jiatinghui commercial zone, industrial zones, office districts, and residential neighborhoods. The open-road testing featured a diverse range of scenarios, with pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, and even large vehicles frequently crossing or moving alongside the vehicle during the drive. Over the course of the 5-hour test, Didi's autonomous vehicle demonstrated stable performance in critical areas like environmental perception, behavioral decision-making, motion planning, and vehicle control.

This test scenario not only covers complex situations such as overtaking on narrow road segments, unprotected left turns, and U-turns at large intersections, but also includes continuous driving against the sun—a challenge that heavily tests environmental perception technology. In strong-light conditions, human drivers typically need to wear sunglasses or adjust their visors, whereas Didi Autonomous Driving relies on a multi-sensor fusion approach combined with data augmentation techniques specifically tailored to lighting conditions, ensuring reliable perception across varying brightness levels. This allows the system to accurately detect and safely avoid pedestrians, vehicles, and other objects—even under severe backlighting scenarios. Currently, Didi’s autonomous vehicles also activate "Safety Mode" in certain situations, such as near kindergartens, adopting a more cautious driving approach to enhance passenger and pedestrian safety.
Didi stated that, in addition to conducting technology research and development based on test vehicle data, the R&D team leveraged machine learning algorithms during this version's development. They analyzed and utilized extensive datasets from human-driven vehicles operating in the same area, aiming to enhance the accuracy of predicting the behaviors of traffic participants. This, in turn, helps improve the autonomous driving system's ability to handle interactive scenarios such as yielding at intersections.
Publicly available information shows that Didi Autonomous Driving began assembling its team in 2016. In August 2019, the team was upgraded into a company. Today, the team has grown to more than 500 members. It is reported that Didi Autonomous Driving has already obtained autonomous driving road test licenses in multiple locations, including Shanghai, Beijing, and California, USA. Additionally, last June, the company launched manned testing services open to the public in Shanghai.
Written by Wen Jing, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily
Editor/Tianye

Translated from Sina News

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