According to a post from a German NIO enthusiast on Reddit, the ES8 Model was seen on the road in a city near Berlin, the German Capital. The vehicle had a German License plate, more precisely from the city of Munich but was seen in Lower Saxony, Braunschweig which is approximately 550km from north of Munich. On German License Plates, the first(s) letter(s) indicates the city or district from the vehicle.
From what we can see, the vehicle appears to be a Mobile Eye Car. In late 2019, NIO announced a collaboration with Mobileye, the global leader in the development of vision technology for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving, and an Intel company, on the development of highly automated and autonomous vehicles (AV) for consumer markets in China and other major territories.
As part of the planned cooperation, NIO will engineer and manufacture a self-driving system designed by Mobileye, building on its Level 4 (L4) AV kit. This self-driving system is the first of its kind, targeting consumer autonomy and engineered for automotive qualification standards, quality, cost and scale.
Intel’s self-driving subsidiary Mobileye plans to test an autonomous ride-hailing service in Munich, Germany, starting this year. Intel announced the service in a mobility event, displaying a test model of a Nio ES8 equipped with Mobileye’s self-driving system. Intel will run the service with Sixt, a German car rental company, and Moovit, an Israeli public transit app maker acquired by Intel.
A recently enacted autonomous vehicle (AV) law permits driverless vehicles on German roads, allowing Mobileye robotaxis to begin early-rider testing on Munich streets in 2022. The fleet will thereafter move from test to commercial operations upon regulatory approval. “Germany has shown global leadership toward a future of autonomous mobility by expediting crucial AV legislation,” Gelsinger said. “Our ability to begin robotaxi operations in Munich next year would not be possible without this new law.”