Gasgoo Munich-DiDi Autonomous Driving's Robotaxi R2 has officially launched unmanned passenger testing services. The vehicle features a combination of RoboSense's EM4 "thousand-line" digital main LiDAR and the E1 all-solid-state blind-spot digital LiDAR. Ride-hailing services are now available in designated demonstration zones in Beijing and Guangzhou.
Developed jointly by DiDi Autonomous Driving and GAC Aion, the R2 utilizes DiDi's L4 full-stack hardware and software solution. It carries 33 sensors—including 10 digital LiDAR units—enabling omnidirectional perception capabilities that combine "long-range precision recognition with near-field blind spot elimination."
Image Source: DiDi Autonomous Driving
The deployment configuration—comprising four main thousand-line radars and six all-solid-state blind-spot radars—relies on RoboSense's proprietary SPAD-SoC chip. This setup represents a mainstream approach to high-redundancy design in current Robotaxi perception systems.
Unveiled by RoboSense in early 2025, the EM4 is the world's first "thousand-line" ultra-long-range LiDAR. It fuses several advanced technologies, including a digital architecture, crosstalk elimination, full-condition optoelectronic signal processing, and lossless data compression, achieving a detection range of up to 600 meters. Furthermore, with a maximum angular resolution of 0.050°×0.025°, the EM4 can effectively detect tires from 170 meters away, as well as rocks, cardboard boxes, or small animals crossing the road from 250 meters.
The E1, meanwhile, boasts an ultra-wide field of view of 120°×90° and is primarily tasked with eliminating near-field blind spots.
Beyond the DiDi Autonomous Driving Robotaxi R2, WeRide's newly upgraded Robotaxi GXR also features a "main radar plus blind-spot radar" combination consisting of the thousand-line EM4 and the E1.
According to previously released data from RoboSense, the company sold a total of 719,200 LiDAR units in the first half of this year, a 169.6% increase from the previous year. Of that total, sales of LiDAR products for ADAS, and for robotics and other applications, reached approximately 436,600 and 282,600 units respectively, marking year-on-year growth of 98.0% and 510.4%.
