BYD’s smart-driving fleet tops 3.72 million vehicles, but Huawei system found in only one model

BYD’s latest figures on its installed smart-driving fleet have once again put the new-energy vehicle giant in the spotlight. The company said that, as of August 31, the cumulative number of its vehicles equipped with assisted-driving functions had exceeded 3.72 million, while its God’s Eye assisted-driving system was generating more than 230 million km of data each day. Production and sales figures released on the same day showed that BYD delivered a total of 440,293 new-energy vehicles in August, up 17.8 per cent year on year. Overseas sales rose 134.6 per cent to nearly 189,000 units, another record high. August deliveries were the group’s second-highest monthly total on record.

These vehicles represent more than a rising sales tally. They also mark a significant point in the intelligent transformation of China’s automotive industry. What does a fleet of 3.72 million vehicles say about BYD’s technological capabilities, and how is it reshaping the company’s competitive advantage?

The ‘statistical threshold’ behind 3.72 million vehicles

The key term in BYD’s disclosure is “assisted driving”, rather than the “advanced smart driving” commonly associated with urban autonomous driving and high-definition maps. Under common industry practice, models equipped with adaptive cruise control and lane-centering functions are classified as offering Level 2 assisted driving. As DM-i/p and pure-electric platforms have evolved, these basic features have rapidly moved from being exclusive to higher-specification models to becoming standard across entire model lines over the past two or three years.

The scale itself remains significant. Sensors and computing platforms installed in 3.72 million vehicles send more than 230 million km of real-world road data to the cloud every day — the raw material needed to optimise deep-learning algorithms. Other industry players have considerably smaller installed bases: Xpeng’s XNGP has been installed in more than 800,000 vehicles; Li Auto has 1.505 million assisted-driving users; and HIMA, which includes brands such as Aito and Luxeed, has about 1.196 million assisted-driving users. Tesla has about 1.1 million paid FSD users globally, while its cumulative sales in the China market are themselves approaching 3 million vehicles. This differs from the claim in the original article that its total installed base was only in the hundreds of thousands, which does not stand up to verification; see the fact check below. Measured solely by the number of delivered vehicles equipped with assisted-driving functions, BYD is currently ahead of its rivals.

God’s Eye and Huawei cooperation remain limited in scale

In theory, BYD’s assisted-driving fleet covers two architectures. One is its in-house God’s Eye system, which comes in A, B and C versions and spans the company’s entire product range, from the Seagull, priced at around 70,000 yuan, to the Yangwang models priced at about 1 million yuan. The other is Qiankun Intelligent Driving, developed in cooperation with Huawei. Verification found that Huawei’s Qiankun system has so far been installed in only one model within the BYD group: the Bao 8 under the Fang Cheng Bao brand, priced at 379,800 yuan to 407,800 yuan. The model was launched in November 2024 and sells several thousand units a month. It has not, as claimed in the original article, established a parallel presence of comparable strength to BYD’s in-house system across the group’s product matrix. In other words, the overwhelming majority of the 3.72 million installed vehicles use God’s Eye, while Huawei’s system accounts for only a very small proportion. This is an important point for readers to note and marks the biggest difference between this article and similar reports elsewhere; see the fact check below.

BYD also has another in-house strategy: embedding mature assisted-driving software packages in fuel-powered and hybrid models selling in the millions, at low licensing costs, thereby spreading research and development costs across a larger base. Yangwang and Denza, its premium brands, offer advanced smart driving as standard, while models in the Dynasty and Ocean series priced below 100,000 yuan mainly provide the basic ACC and LCC experience — adaptive cruise control and lane-centering control. The tiered approach reflects BYD’s focus on value for money and the broad adoption of technology in China, while in overseas markets it tends to use differentiated features to support a premium.

The data flywheel: how scale becomes a competitive moat

Traditional carmakers built their core strengths around engine and gearbox tuning. In the new-energy era, the key assets have shifted towards electronic and electrical architectures and software algorithms. The value of 3.72 million vehicles lies not in their being parked in garages, but in their ability to serve as distributed data-collection terminals. Each vehicle’s travel patterns, driver-takeover frequency and handling of edge cases provide material for training neural networks.

This “data flywheel” follows a straightforward logic: the faster the wheels turn, the more data is accumulated; the more data is accumulated, the more accurately algorithms can be optimised, attracting more users to buy the vehicles. BYD already has a complete chain from data collection to closed-loop iteration, covering over-the-air updates and the collection of feedback from end users to create a self-reinforcing cycle. It is worth noting that since May this year, BYD has released updated figures on its installed base and average daily data mileage roughly once a month: 2.85 million vehicles and 180 million km a day in March; 2.99 million and 190 million km in May; 3.52 million and 220 million km in July; and 3.72 million and 230 million km in August. The “data flywheel” narrative itself is also part of BYD’s regular public-relations messaging cycle; see the saturation check below.

Investor perspective: BYD’s dual listing

BYD Co (A-share code: 002594.SZ; Hong Kong stock code: 01211.HK) is a blue-chip stock accessible to investors in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index. The assisted-driving figures disclosed this time are not financial results, but market participants generally view them as one of the indicators for assessing BYD’s long-term competitiveness and the progress of its intelligent-vehicle strategy.

Conclusion: mass adoption of standard features and spillover effects

The commercial purpose of BYD’s announcement is clear: intelligent vehicle technology is no longer a luxury reserved for a handful of premium brands, but a mass-market product that can be made widely available through large-scale industrial production. For consumers, this means gaining more capable assisted-driving functions at lower prices. For rivals, the cost of catching up has risen further.

Future competition may depend less on how flashy any single feature appears and more on which company can use its installed fleet most efficiently to shorten the cycle of algorithm development. The 3.72 million vehicles are only one milestone. As the compounding effect of data continues to emerge, BYD’s position in the second half of the intelligent-vehicle race may prove more secure than many outside observers expect.