GAC Motor is among the Chinese car brands that are committed to developing and producing quality vehicles. GAC has shown its intention to do just that through its massive Research & Development (R&D) facility situated in Guangzhou, China.
GAC Motor R&D Center
The GAC R&D Center in Guangzhou covers an area of 500,000 square meters along with a building area of 350,000 sqm. It houses different laboratories that focus on specific developmental areas such as vehicle connectivity, vehicle design, durability testing, impact testing, and wind tunnel testing, among others.
Cameras were not allowed in most areas inside GAC’s facility but among the things we saw firsthand is its virtual testing area for its connected cars. It has a room filled with huge screens that can monitor and see real-time updates of its connected cars while being test-driven on actual roads. This process allows GAC to have actual data on how its connected cars, equipped with autonomous driving technology, perform on the road.
It also has driving simulation rigs, which are similar to the sim racing setup used when playing racing games like Gran Turismo. The rigs are said to have the capability to remotely drive the connected vehicle while it is being tested on actual roads.
GAC also has a software that can virtually simulate traffic and different driving conditions. This allows the car brand to get an idea of how their vehicles perform when it’s raining, snowing, and other driving scenarios. The software uses actual road layouts, which are gathered by GAC through a camera-equipped vehicle. The images from the footage are then integrated into the software to have a close-to-reality driving simulation.
The car brand shared that it is also working on optimizing its multi-sensor fusion technology, which is poised to allow GAC to mass-produce L3 Level autonomous driving tech, which does not require the driver’s hands on the steering wheel while the vehicle is moving.
GAC is also making progress in developing Robotaxis, which is a self-driving taxi or a driverless taxi. Last year, two companies in China were given the clearance to use public roads for their robotaxi units, Baidu and Pony.ai. On the other hand, US car company Tesla plans to put its self-driving robotaxi in mass production by 2024.
GAC R&D Center Vice President Zhang Fan shared during the media roundtable that the car brand is investing heavily in research and development to offer good-quality products that can ensure an excellent ownership experience. He confirmed that GAC is investing 30 billion yuan (around Php 233 billion) over the next five years solely for R&D.
Fan added that GAC has a dedicated team solely for electric vehicle battery development while noting that a “new era is coming … new opportunity.”
GAC has three facilities in China, located in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Xiamen. It also has facilities in Los Angeles in the United States as well as in Milan, Italy.
The car company applied for 15,000 patents, with invention patents accounting for about 40 percent. The R&D Center has also undertaken over 40 national key research projects and participated in 105 national industry standard formulation projects.
The GAC R&D Center has also developed new energy vehicles for joint ventures such as GAC Honda, GAC Toyota, and GAC Hino.
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