On 12 May 2023 XPENG announced that the G9 had obtained a permit for passenger tests with intelligent connected vehicles in Guangzhou. The permit covered all of the city’s general test roads.
The company planned to open a robotaxi service to all users in the Huangpu district in the second half of 2023. Passengers were to hail a G9 through a WeChat mini-program.
The production car’s hardware and adapted software
According to XPENG the G9 test cars in China used the same hardware as the series-production G9s, including sensors, chips and the systems that control the car. The robotaxi functions had been added through software upgrades.
In November 2022 XPENG had announced a permit for road tests with the G9. The company stressed that using existing hardware reduced the cost of adapting the car for robotaxi operation, from development and production to maintenance.
Data from the test fleet
The test cars used XNet, a perception system that assembled the surroundings in a bird’s-eye view. According to XPENG it registered road users, signs, lane markings and drivable area all around the car in real time.
XPENG expected the further development of XNet to make the system less dependent on areas with high-definition maps. Data from both the robotaxis and customer cars was to widen the training base with more varied situations.
In July 2026 XPENG announced internal testing of robotaxis. The later development is described on the XPENG Robotaxi page.
Images: XPENG
Sources
XPENG: the G9 obtains a passenger test permit in Guangzhou · 12 May 2023