Changan has launched its own advanced driver-assistance system, SDA Pilot, at the 28th Chongqing International Auto Exhibition, putting safety technology at the front of its latest product push.
The system will first reach buyers through the Changan Nevo Q06, which is due to go on sale in China in the second half of 2026. Changan said SDA Pilot will be fitted as standard across all Q06 trim levels.
ADAS is moving quickly from high-end flagships into more mainstream models in China, and Changan is trying to make the point that driver-assistance features should be wider in reach, not reserved for the most expensive cars.
Changan chairman Zhu Huarong said the company would work with partners and users worldwide to make ADAS more practical and more accessible.
The company also gave the usual but necessary reminder: driver assistance is not autonomous driving. The driver must still monitor the road and be ready to take over.
SDA Pilot will be offered in three levels. The entry SDA Pilot Pro comes with LiDAR and is claimed to detect obstacles in low-light conditions, such as tunnels and night driving, faster than the human eye. Changan said its SDA central network architecture also shortens system response time by 150 milliseconds.
SDA Pilot Max adds training from more than 20 million real-world driving data segments, aimed at busier commuting situations.
The top SDA Pilot Ultra brings in a vision language model, giving the system a wider understanding of its surroundings and enabling more interactive driver-assistance functions.
Changan also said an active driver incapacitation protection function will be added later. This is meant to help if the driver becomes unable to respond while the vehicle is moving.
The company is leaning heavily on its long-running in-house development work. Changan said it set up its intelligent vehicle R&D team in 2009 and now runs CHANGAN SDA LAB, which supports testing across more than 400,000 virtual simulation scenarios.
More than 2,000 engineers have also completed over 5 million km of road testing in the past five years, much of it in Chongqing’s demanding traffic and road conditions.
For Changan, SDA Pilot is also part of a broader global push covering intelligent mobility, electrification, ecosystem development and overseas expansion.
The group said it now has 22 overseas manufacturing bases, 1,124 overseas sales outlets and coverage across 118 countries and regions.
