Zeekr nudges closer to hands-free autonomy
BY PETER BARNWELL | 24th Mar 2025
ZEEKR has unveiled its new ‘G-Pilot’ autonomous driving system, bringing the Chinese manufacturer closer to delivering hands-off driving capabilities to its electric vehicle range, debuting on the 9X flagship and rolling out across the brand’s range via over-the-air-updates in the second half of this year.
Part of Geely Holding Group alongside brands like Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus, Zeekr will officially debut the technology at the upcoming Shanghai Auto Show on April 23 when it unveils the flagship 9X large luxury SUV.
The 9X will be Zeekr's first L3-ready model, powered by dual Nvidia Drive AGX Thor controllers delivering 1400 tera operations per second of computing power.
Zeekr describes G-Pilot as "intelligent autonomy you can use with door-to-door driving capabilities", the top-tier H9 version supporting Level 3 autonomous driving features in specific conditions.
G-Pilot's Level 3 capabilities enable vehicles to handle most driving tasks autonomously in certain scenarios, though drivers must remain alert and ready to retake control when prompted.
The system will manage steering, acceleration and braking during highway driving or in heavy traffic situations.
Other models in the Zeekr line-up will receive G-Pilot features through future updates and the company says the technology will “continue to evolve throughout the lifespan of the vehicles”.
Among the G-Pilot's features is an automatic evasion system (AES), which enables “continuous evasive manoeuvres for unexpected obstacles”, including at speeds between 80-130km/h.
Zeekr claims this capability is made possible through large artificial intelligence model training, allowing the system to recognise irregular obstacles and improve through continuous learning.
The vehicle-to-parking (V2P) intelligent drive function provides map-free urban navigation and AI ‘smart parking roaming’, which autonomously searches for and drives into nearby available parking spaces.
Unlike fully autonomous Level 5 systems still under development across the industry, Zeekr's L3 technology operates within specific parameters including good weather, clear road markings, and the presence of vehicles ahead.
The system cannot yet handle complex urban environments or adverse weather conditions.
