Autonomous driving and the technology behind it played a significant part at this year's Shanghai motor show.

For over a decade, the industry has believed that there won’t be a sudden leap from conventional cars to fully automated self-driving cars.

Instead, it has expected ADAS features to gradually increase in sophistication until they become capable of taking over control of the car.

Currently, the focus for car makers and suppliers is the transition from level two to level three, as laid down by the SAE’s six levels of driving automation.

Up to level two (like the latest adaptive cruise control with steering input and lane-keeping), the driver is always ‘driving’ when assistance features are engaged. But at level three, the car is doing the driving unless it asks the driver to take back control.

In reality, the lines are blurred and the industry is talking about level two-plus and level two-plus-plus, which are creeping rather than leaping to level three.

According to Volkswagen, which showed its latest AI-powered ADAS features in Shanghai, level two-plus is expected to be in over 80% of Chinese vehicles by 2030 and level two-plus-plus, which handles urban as well as highway driving, in 75% of new vehicles.

Volkswagen is bringing level two-plus to the road this year and level two-plus-plus with Urban Navigate on Autopilot (NoA) will be launched next year.

ZF has developed several ‘transitional’ level-two features as well. For example, its level-twoplus coDrive has 360deg camera perception to enable hands- and feet-free driving as well as automated lane-changing.

It has already lined up a product called coPilot, which covers level two-plus to level four and includes automated overtaking, all-round sensing of the environment, garage parking and route learning.

Continental showed two solutions, called Luna and Astra. Luna is an entry-level system with ADAS features and parking functions. Astra supports more advanced level two-plus-plus driving functions and can cope with a wide range of scenarios.

It also has NoA, which, says Continental, can cope with China’s complex urban road environment and covers narrow road detour avoidance and left and right turns where there are no traffic lights.

It can also deal with on/off ramps. Behind the tech are its intelligent driving sensors, including sixth-generation radar and cameras. It has a single-radar autonomous emergency braking solution that meets China’s standards and it’s introducing an AI-powered night-vision camera.

Given the popularity of autonomous driving in China, the scale of the market should help speed its development. China sold more new cars in March this year (1.97 million) than the UK did in all of 2024.