CHANGAN Group has officially unveiled SDA Pilot, an intelligent driver assistance system structured across Pro, Max and Ultra tiers, alongside plans for an even more advanced package in the future. The platform integrates assisted navigation, automated parking and active safety functions, with the flagship Ultra edition currently providing the most extensive suite of capabilities in the lineup.
The CHANGAN NEVO Q06 will serve as the debut production model equipped with SDA Pilot Ultra. Showcasing the new technology firsthand, the vehicle formally opened for customer pre-orders during the launch event.
Ultra combines assisted driving, parking and safety functions
SDA Pilot Ultra delivers navigation-assisted driving across both motorways and urban routes, supported by intelligent parking assistance capable of handling more than 400 practical scenarios. Alongside these assisted driving manoeuvres, CHANGAN incorporates 31 active safety features directly into the system. Operating at the core of this hardware architecture is a high-performance computing chip rated at 560 TOPS, equivalent to 560 trillion operations per second. This processing unit works in tandem with a 256-line LiDAR sensor that emits rapid laser pulses to map the vehicle’s surroundings, a configuration CHANGAN states will achieve millisecond-level response times.
For hazard detection, the system continuously pairs LiDAR perception with artificial intelligence that assesses road conditions 10 times every second. CHANGAN reports that this rapid evaluation allows SDA Pilot to recognise emerging hazards earlier than human motorists, maintaining reliable performance under challenging conditions such as low light, blinding glare, rain and heavy fog.
The underlying driving model has been trained on upwards of 20 million segments of real-world driving data, an extensive foundation intended to produce smoother and more natural on-road behaviour. In addition, SDA Pilot incorporates an AI model that unifies visual inputs and voice information for seamless navigation. Motorists can control functions through natural-language voice prompts, while an integrated memory capability allows the system to learn and retain familiar driving behaviour over time.
CHANGAN expands simulation and testing
System validation takes place at the round-the-clock CHANGAN SDA Lab, a specialised facility running continuous digital simulations across more than 400,000 distinct virtual scenarios. Every single day, the laboratory generates the equivalent of 3.3 million kilometres of simulated driving while recreating environmental and climate conditions found across 224 regions worldwide. Through this intensive digital regime, the company aims to identify and resolve hazardous edge cases before vehicles encounter similar situations in physical traffic.
This simulation capacity builds on a development programme that CHANGAN initiated back in 2009. The manufacturer produced its earliest prototypes for forward collision warning and lane departure warning in 2011, paving the way for commercial rollout through the mass production of its Level 2 Integrated Adaptive Cruise Control system in 2018. Demonstrating the progress of this long-term strategy, the firm secured China’s first official licence plate for Level 3 conditional autonomous driving on 20 December 2025.
This technological momentum has been accompanied by a major commitment of human and financial resources. CHANGAN Chairman Zhu Huarong reported that the group’s intelligent driving division now numbers more than 7,500 specialists, sustained by cumulative research and development expenditure exceeding €7.7 billion. Affirming the overarching corporate direction during the announcement, Zhu noted, “CHANGAN’s intelligent driving team has grown from a handful of engineers to more than 7,500 people, backed by cumulative R&D investment of more than EUR 7.7 billion. We will continue to pursue our strategy for intelligent transformation and to build our core technologies in-house,” said Zhu Huarong, chairman of CHANGAN Group.
NEVO Q06 becomes the first SDA Pilot Ultra model
The NEVO Q06 will be the first production vehicle to hit the road equipped with SDA Pilot Ultra. In this premiere application, the model unites the platform’s 560 TOPS computing chip and LiDAR sensing with full navigation assistance, parking support and active safety functions.
While customers can choose between Pro, Max and Ultra grades at launch, CHANGAN is already preparing for the next phase of its intelligent vehicle roadmap. The manufacturer has officially confirmed plans for an even more advanced tier positioned above Ultra, although it has yet to disclose specific technical details or future capabilities.
