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Robo-01 2023.

A few days ago, the Chinese brands Jidu and China Lunar Exploration announced their collaboration, which aims to release a joint product ROBO-01 2023.

The vehicle will be officially unveiled in October this year. It will be the first version of a production model and will be produced in a limited edition of 1,000 units.

Despite the recent publication of some teaser images of the novelty, the full appearance of the car remains a mystery.

However, shortly before the official announcement of the collaboration, «spy» photos of the alleged ROBO-01 were leaked to the Web during tests on public roads in Yizhuang, China.

Despite the fact that the test model is covered with thick camouflage, in terms of appearance, it is very similar to the concept car presented earlier Jidu.

Both cars share the same elegant styling with flowing body curves. Looking at the front of the prototype, it is easy to notice the spectacular design of the through-LED light group.

At the same time, the headlights are made in a retro style. On the side, the most obvious difference between the test car and the concept car is the addition of traditional rear-view mirrors, but the frameless design of the window blocks should remain.

At the rear, the prototype retains the fastback design, including a segmented spoiler and pixel lights on the glass, as well as a through-the-glass light cluster.

As a landmark product, the novelty will be equipped with leading smart features and configurations, including a JET neural network for automotive robots, SOA-based cab control integration and voice control with millisecond-level command response.

Zhijia’s two Orin X chips can support intelligent cabin application services, such as support for dynamic 3D maps, joint human-car control, transformation of original scenarios on a 3D screen, and more.

Baidu unveiled the Robo-01 production crossover.

The Chinese IT giant Baidu is the local equivalent of Google Corporation: it also started out as a search engine, but gradually grew numerous divisions and is now one of the top 50 largest companies in China.

Back in 2013, a project of its own unmanned car, later called Apollo, appeared under the Baidu umbrella. Small-scale production of shuttles has been going on for four years, but they are only suitable for operation in closed areas.

The company did not give up trying to create a full-fledged unmanned car, and here we have its first production version.

At first, Baidu’s main partner from the automobile industry was BMW, then there was a cooperation with BYD, but in the end the project was implemented with a third partner.

The SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) electric vehicle platform was provided by Geely Holding, although it also cooperates with Google in the area of drones.

In March 2021, the Jidu Auto division was created for the automotive sector. And as a result, the first production model is presented under the name Robo-01.

It is a crossover the size of a Range Rover Velar or Changan Uni-K: length — 4853 mm, width — 1990 mm, height — 1611 mm. Wheelbase is 3,000 mm.

There are no external door handles at all: all the doors have a frameless design and are equipped with an electric drive, which is activated by miniature buttons on the roof pillars.

The fifth door has a retractable spoiler. As a result, the Robo-01 has an outstanding Cd of 0.249 for a crossover.

Autopilot is not yet full-fledged: the developers did not specify its capabilities at the initial stage, but promised in the future to bring autonomy to the fourth level.

New features will open as the software is updated, but in terms of «iron» everything you need is already there now: Robo-01 has two lidar (front and rear), 12 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and five millimeter radars.

Two Nvidia Orin X processors are responsible for controlling this hardware with a total performance of 508 tops (trillion operations per second).

Robo-01 has all-wheel drive with two electric motors (one on each axle) with a total power of 544 hp. 100 kWh CATL Traction Battery provides 600 km range.

Acceleration time to a «hundred» is 3.9 seconds. There will be other modifications later, but all of them will be electric: even hybrids are out of the question.

The standard model has a steering wheel instead of a steering wheel, and there are buttons on its upper surface to turn on turns. And the front panel has a single widescreen 35.6-inch screen.

For control of the media system is responsible the latest microchip Qualcomm 8295 (this is the fourth generation). There are no analog buttons on the panel, and even the transmission control is integrated into the screen.

Robo-01 has a five-seater interior and a trunk volume of 555 liters. With the folded back row, the compartment holds 1,528 liters.

The second row has its own seven-inch touch screen to control the climate control and media system. There is a panoramic roof without a sliding section.

The first to hit the market will be the welcoming Robo-01 Lunar Edition, which initially had a run of 1,000 copies, but already on the day of the presentation it was increased to 2,000 cars.

The price is $55,000. Cars will be transferred to customers in the first half of 2023, and then will begin sales of «regular» versions. Next year, Jidu Auto expects to open a hundred dealerships in China.