Dongfeng Motor Co has been promoting the development of the next generation of autos, with its unmanned minibus dubbed Dongfeng Sharing-VAN 1.0 plus starting mass production, according to the official WeChat account of Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone (WHDZ).
Dongfeng Motor is based in the zone and officials from the WHDZ – located in Wuhan city in Central China's Hubei province – said the minibus has reached the highest level of autonomous driving currently available, Level 4.
This is highly autonomous driving, leading up to fully autonomous Level 5 driving.
WHDZ officials said the customized high-tech vehicle has no steering wheel, throttle and brakes and the interior resembles a living room.
Its 13 functions include dynamic speed limits, dynamic obstacle avoidance, automatic parking, remote controls and dispatch monitoring.
Since the launch of the minibus, the project team has won many awards at home and abroad including the German IF Product Design Award, the World Industrial Design Original Design Award and China's Design Intelligence Award.
Moving forwards, the project team will among other things look at creating a Sharing-X mobile travel service technology platform and explore new models of next-generation public mobile travel services.
