NIO Rolls Out New Smart Driving System: Free Upgrade for 700,000 Owners, Stable Navigation Without HD Maps

On June 18, NIO officially rolled out its new intelligent driving system to over 700,000 vehicle owners, offering the upgrade free of charge—including to users who purchased their vehicles as early as four years ago. This version runs simultaneously on both NVIDIA’s Orin-X and NIO’s self-developed Shengji NX9031 chip platforms, enabling unified over-the-air updates across vehicles with different hardware configurations without requiring individual calibration. NIO employs a unified sensor architecture that allows its intelligent driving models to be shared across vehicle models without retraining for each specific model. On the software side, the company’s proprietary AI compiler shortens the model development and deployment cycle, while a dedicated data validation system enables parallel road testing across multiple platforms—achieving 2.4 times the validation efficiency compared to platform-specific testing. This update introduces a three-tier model training framework, adding a supervised fine-tuning stage on top of the existing reinforcement learning approach. Leveraging real-world driving data, the system optimizes vehicle control logic to balance driving stability, human-like maneuvering, and compliance with traffic regulations. It also implements China’s first end-to-end direct-control solution, directly outputting steering wheel and acceleration/braking pedal control signals—eliminating the intermediate trajectory generation step to reduce command latency and enhance control precision. Even without reliance on high-definition maps, the new system maintains stable route selection and now features enhanced recognition capabilities for tidal lanes and overhead signage of variable lanes, allowing it to autonomously adapt to dynamic lane rule changes. Additionally, the system improves long-sequence traffic scenario prediction, proactively planning routes at intersections and in complex mixed-traffic environments involving non-motorized vehicles. This reduces unnecessary braking and excessive intervention, significantly enhancing both the practicality and ride comfort of the assisted driving experience.