At the turning point of intelligence, the industry accelerates change. Quality and quantity soar together, marking Horizon’s development. The Journey family surpasses ten million units in production. The next-generation urban driving assistance solution, HSD, receives a significant upgrade. From September 22 to 25, Horizon hosts the “HSD Pioneer Experience Day” in Beijing. This follows large-scale media experiences in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shantou, and Chengdu. The event showcases the Xpeng ET5, featuring the world’s first Horizon HSD and Journey® 6P. Media attendees show great interest. In busy Beijing, the new HSD version, based on a “one-stage end-to-end + reinforcement learning” architecture, enhances urban driving assistance capabilities. It delivers a smooth, human-like, and reliable all-scenario driving experience.
Traditional mixed architectures, like the two-stage end-to-end and one-stage end-to-end with rule-based post-processing, face issues. These include increased response delays, information loss, and lack of coordination. Horizon HSD creates a true one-stage end-to-end system. It offers strong defensive driving capabilities and mimics professional drivers closely. This innovation marks a turning point for a more human-like driving experience in assisted driving, according to Lu Peng, Vice President of Horizon and head of Strategic and Intelligent Driving Product Planning and Marketing. The leading architecture of “one-stage end-to-end + reinforcement learning” stands out in this HSD upgrade. Thanks to the true one-stage end-to-end design, HSD achieves smooth operation from photon input to trajectory output. It ensures ultra-low latency, defensive driving, and seamless integration. This significantly enhances the safety, efficiency, and comfort of assisted driving. Additionally, the introduction of a reinforcement learning mechanism allows the HSD system to self-explore and interact within the world model. It improves scene understanding and reasoning capabilities, showcasing an “intelligent emergence” effect comparable to DeepSeek-R1.
HSD upgrades rely on the powerful foundation of the Horizon Journey 6P computing solution with 560 TOPS. The self-developed BPU® architecture has evolved through three generations. It surpasses Moore’s Law, achieving over a 1000-fold increase in computing performance over ten years. This advancement helps the Journey 6P become a “hexagonal warrior,” featuring high integration, high computing power, high efficiency, high processing capacity, high access capability, and high security. The synergy between hardware and software enhances HSD, making it a top-tier product for user-friendly and trustworthy assisted driving. Experience innovation: low latency, strong defense, smooth longitudinal and lateral coupling, and smarter self-evolution. In real-world driving, HSD demonstrates low system latency, strong defensive driving capabilities, seamless control, and continuous self-evolution. It truly delivers quick and accurate solutions, significantly enhancing the user driving experience.
The system features ultra-sensitive, low-latency performance. It leverages system-level advantages to achieve strong scene understanding and processing capabilities. This results in rapid, superhuman responses. For example, when encountering temporary construction zones, it generates solutions quickly without stopping. It decisively chooses intelligent detours for impassable areas like dead vehicles. In sudden situations like ghosting or extreme cut-ins, the system reacts swiftly. It responds to traffic lights in milliseconds. It navigates complex diverging islands accurately, confidently selects routes, and executes quickly. The system employs a highly reassuring defensive driving strategy. It mimics human thinking to anticipate risks. In visual blind spots like right-angle intersections, consecutive right-angle intersections, S-shaped narrow roads, and T-junctions, it slows down proactively. This approach aligns with human drivers who observe before proceeding. In dynamic interaction scenarios like narrow roads and congested intersections, it intelligently adjusts speed to avoid obstacles in time.
Ultra-smooth control integrates horizontal and vertical movements. It breaks through the limitations of traditional mixed architectures. This brings a smooth start-stop experience, seamless interactions, and agile maneuvering. At misaligned intersections, the system selects the correct path effortlessly. In complex traffic scenarios, it maintains stable direction control without shaking. Even in static situations like roundabouts or U-turns, or in dynamic scenarios like navigating around obstacles or construction zones, it ensures a fluid driving experience. Recently, HSD showcased impressive self-evolution during nationwide experiences. It uses reinforcement learning for self-exploration and interaction within a world model. This enhances scene understanding and reasoning. The system can better handle extreme situations. For instance, when a variable lane suddenly changes from straight to U-turn, the system quickly adapts and enters the correct lane. On construction sites with no clear boundaries, it independently identifies roads and obstacles, determining passable areas for smooth travel. Horizon leads with a high standard product philosophy, prioritizing safety. The company aims to make assisted driving not just usable, but enjoyable. Founder and CEO Dr. Yu Kai states, “High standards are the core competitive edge. This reflects in HMI design, algorithm innovation, and solid engineering fundamentals.” HSD employs a simple, unified end-to-end design, eliminating unnecessary complexity. It ensures users receive a consistent driving experience across different cities and scenarios.
Horizon adheres to a consistent safety philosophy. It follows a restraint principle of “no showboating, no exaggeration.” The company builds the largest active safety testing scenario database in the industry. This database covers over 30,000 scenario datasets. It has completed over 10 million kilometers of mileage feedback. Horizon also earned the world’s first and only ISO 8800 AI functional safety certification. This certification provides a “safety trust passport” for global markets. So far, Horizon has supported over 6 million families in safe travel. It has safeguarded over 10 billion kilometers, strengthening user trust. Production accelerates: The Xingtu ET5 debuts with HSD, starting a new journey for mass production. The Xingtu ET5 will officially launch in November 2025. It is the first vehicle to feature Horizon’s Journey 6P and HSD urban driving assistance system. This model integrates Horizon’s latest urban driving assistance technology. It showcases the Xingtu brand’s leadership in high-end vehicle intelligence.
After a major upgrade, Horizon HSD completed real-world testing in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shantou, and Sichuan. It faced diverse city road networks and distinct traffic conditions. HSD delivered a consistent, smooth, human-like experience. Test riders praised it highly. They called it “the leading tier in assisted driving,” “like an experienced driver,” and “the DeepSeek-R1 of smart driving.” Over a hundred media representatives and user experience officers gave Horizon HSD high marks. As the Xingtu ET5 approaches market launch, Horizon HSD accelerates its commercialization. It will enter large-scale production by the end of this year. Additionally, HSD has formed partnerships with over ten global car brands. In the next 3-5 years, HSD aims for mass production of ten million units. It seeks to make assisted driving accessible to all, providing users with safe, comfortable, and efficient experiences across all scenarios.