By LIU Jiaxin

As a company with no intention of making a car, Huawei is cautious about making too much of a splash at the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition (Auto Shanghai). 

So, on the eve of the big event, the tech giant unveiled the Wenjie M5, an electric SUV mounted with ADS 2.0, Huawei’s intelligent driving system, and revolutionary in that it does not rely on high-precision maps. The M5 has a maximum range of 1,425 kilometers. 

The world also got its first serious look at the Aito Wenjie M9 to be released in Q4. This will be one of the first vehicles to be equipped with a large language model. 

YU Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s intelligent automobile unit, lauded the intelligent driving system at the event. The ADS 2.0 makes the new Aito Wenjie M5 almost capable of completing L3 autonomous driving, he said. It can detect environment changes and make informed decisions accordingly. The system can help avoid 90 percent of road traffic accidents caused by complex terrain or poor driving.

The system recognizes traffic lights and road signs without high-precision maps, a feature that Yu says makes it superior to Tesla’s software. 

The extended range M5 will be priced from 279,800 yuan. The ADS 2.0 system is an optional extra for now and doesn’t come cheap at 36,000 yuan.