The first unmanned minibus Sharing-VAN -- which was developed by Dongfeng Motor and incorporates 5G long-distance driving technology -- has no steering wheel, throttle and brakes and the interior looks like a living room. [Photo/WeChat account of WHDZ]
Wuhan city-based Dongfeng Motor Corporation has increased its investment in intelligentization, network connections, going lightweight electrification and sharing -- and has achieved top results in many fields in recent years, according to the official WeChat account of the Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ).
Earlier in March, a special unmanned minibus developed by Dongfeng Motor -- which incorporates 5G long-distance driving technology -- went into operation to perform disinfections in the streets of the WHDZ.
The customized high-tech vehicle has no steering wheel, throttle and brakes and the interior resembles a living room.
It has reached the highest level of autonomous driving currently available -- Level 4 -- which is a highly autonomous driving, leading up to fully autonomous Level 5 driving.
The vehicle is based on the Dongfeng Sharing-X driverless sightseeing vehicle and comes equipped with a 16 liter large-capacity fully automatic disinfection sprayer.
It can sterilize 1.1 kilometers of road in a single pass and can cover an area of about 10,000 square meters in only 15 minutes, which is far more efficient than manual labor.
At the core of electric vehicles, the development of electric drive assemblies is crucial to the development of complete vehicles.
At present, Dongfeng Technology Center is developing its third-generation electric drive assembly-BD90 project. Compared with similar foreign products, the power density has been increased by 20 percent and the efficiency has been increased by 2 percent.
A company spokesman said this electric drive will be installed in Dongfeng’s new car models, which will enhance the competitiveness of the entire vehicle.
