International autonomous driving technology company DeepRoute.ai introduced a robotaxi fleet equipped with a L4 autonomous driving solution, Driver 2.0. Composed of 30 SAIC Motor MARVEL R SUVs and engineered for mass production and adoption by automakers, the robotaxi fleet will deploy in Shenzhen, China, in the coming months, according to a statement.

DeepRoute.ai is collaborating with automakers to achieve series production of L4 autonomous driving vehicles and expects to further reduce the current $10,000 cost of the solution by approximately 70%. The customizable Driver 2.0 sensor configurations are equipped with two to five solid-state LiDARs and eight cameras. Its computing platform and inference engine combined with NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoCs will allow the company to meet automotive-grade standards for series production more quickly. DeepRoute.ai’s camera-based redundancy perception system guarantees autonomous capabilities should other sensors malfunction, in addition to 5G remote control and network safety redundancy fused into the safety-critical systems.

DeepRoute.ai projects that mass production of L4 autonomous driving vehicles equipped with Driver 2.0 will begin in 2024 and be available for consumer purchase afterward. L4 self-driving can first be achieved in areas supported by rich data, while copious L4 consumer vehicles on the road operating in a hybrid model will continuously gather additional data, laying the foundation for the scalability of L4 autonomous driving in other cities. DeepRoute.ai is committed to accelerating L4 commercialization through technology iterations in data collection and analysis, algorithm improvement, simulation, and road testing. 

“We aspire to be the top facilitator of smart transportation, bringing high-performance, advanced autonomous driving capabilities to the market at an accessible price," said Maxwell Zhou, CEO of DeepRoute.ai in the statement. "The debut of this groundbreaking robotaxi fleet offers the industry a vivid sneak peek into the future of L4 robotaxis and what is possible for the consumer vehicle. As our technology advances, our path to commercialization accelerates.”