Horizon Journey 6 (Journey 6)

Product Overview

The Journey 6 (Journey 6 / J6) is Horizon Robotics' fourth-generation automotive-grade intelligent computing solution series, first officially announced at the Guangzhou auto show in November 2023, officially released in April 2024, with the first batch of mass-production models delivered in Q4 2024, and large-scale mass production announced on February 8, 2025. It is the industry's first solution series to cover the full range of needs from basic active safety to full-scenario urban assisted driving with a unified BPU Nash compute architecture.

The Journey 6 series is tiered by compute into 6B / 6L / 6E / 6M / 6H / 6P: the 6B (10+ TOPS, entry active safety, cost-focused, for 100,000–200,000 RMB vehicles), the 6E (about 80 TOPS) and 6M (128 TOPS, accessible urban NOA), the 6H (about 420 TOPS), and the flagship 6P (560 TOPS, full-scenario flagship). The 6E/6M meet the AEC-Q104 standard.

The flagship Journey 6P uses the TSMC 7nm process, integrating 37 billion transistors, an 18-core Arm Cortex-A78AE (410k DMIPS), and a 4-core BPU Nash architecture, with AI compute of 560 TOPS (INT8), power of 65W, energy efficiency of 8.6 TOPS/W, and memory of 192-bit LPDDR5x-8533 at 204 GB/s bandwidth. Its ISP supports 24 channels of 4K (5.3 GP/s), accepting front-view cameras up to 18 megapixels, plus millimeter-wave radar and LiDAR. The 6P achieves "four chips in one" of CPU + BPU + GPU + MCU: the integrated MCU delivers more than 3.5× the compute of mainstream ASIL-D MCUs in smart driving scenarios; image processing bandwidth is about 3× mainstream competitors with 80% lower latency. Through integration with BlackBerry QNX SDP 8.0, the solution is certified by TÜV Rheinland and meets ISO 26262 ASIL-D; system end-to-end latency is below 160ms, supporting a true one-stage end-to-end architecture.

The Nash architecture is designed for large-parameter Transformers and large-scale interactive gaming: by third-party evaluation, the Journey 6P improves FPS several-fold on CNN-class algorithms such as ResNet-18 and about 10× on Transformer-class algorithms such as Swin Base (versus mainstream competitors); official research-report figures cite about 17× FPS improvement on Transformer models versus competitors, and FPS per dollar at about 4–12× that of competitors. Hardware utilization is about 90%.

Market adoption: The Journey 6P debuted in Horizon's HSD urban assisted driving system, world-premiering in the Chery Exlantix ET5 (in mass production from September 2025); HSD comes in three tiers: HSD 300 (dual 6M) / HSD 600 (single 6P) / HSD 1200 (dual 6P). The mid/low-tier 6E/6M/6B already power over 100 models such as the Changan Qiyuan Q05 and the BYD Qin PLUS smart driving edition; BYD's "God's Eye C" (DiPilot 100) uses the Journey 6M. As of August 2025, the Journey series has shipped over 10 million units cumulatively; in Q1 2025 the Journey family led China's smart driving computing solutions with a 33.97% market share. Bosch's fourth-generation multifunction camera platform based on the Journey 6B is scheduled for production in 2026.

Core Specifications

The table below reflects the flagship Journey 6P; other series models are covered in the "Series Models" section.

Parameter	Value
Architecture	Horizon BPU Nash (fourth-generation BPU), 4-core BPU; four-in-one CPU+BPU+GPU+MCU SoC
Process Node	TSMC 7nm; 37 billion transistors
CPU	18 × Arm Cortex-A78AE, 410k DMIPS
FP16 / BF16 Compute	Not disclosed (officially only INT8 equivalent compute is published)
INT8 Compute	560 TOPS (Journey 6P)
FP32 Compute	Not disclosed
Memory Capacity	Not disclosed (configured with the domain controller solution)
Memory Type	LPDDR5x-8533, 192-bit
Memory Bandwidth	204 GB/s
TDP	65 W (Journey 6P); energy efficiency 8.6 TOPS/W
Interconnect	Multi-chip solution cascading (HSD 1200 uses dual 6P); inter-chip interconnect details undisclosed
Interface	SoC onboard (smart driving / cockpit-driving domain controller); integrated ASIL-D MCU
ISP	24 channels of 4K, 5.3 GP/s; supports front-view cameras up to 18MP, millimeter-wave radar, and LiDAR
Functional Safety	ISO 26262 ASIL-D (with QNX SDP 8.0, TÜV Rheinland certified); AEC-Q100 Grade 2
System Latency	< 160 ms (one-stage end-to-end)
Hardware Utilization	About 90%
Launch	2024-04 (officially announced at the Guangzhou auto show, 2023-11)
Mass Production/Availability	First series deliveries 2024-Q4, large-scale mass production 2025-02; Journey 6P in mass production 2025-Q3 (around 2025-09), debuting in the Chery Exlantix ET5

Series Models

Model	AI Compute (INT8)	CPU Performance	Process	Positioning
Journey 6B	10+ TOPS	20k+ DMIPS	Not disclosed	Entry active-safety ADAS, 100,000–200,000 RMB vehicles
Journey 6L	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	Entry assisted driving
Journey 6E	About 80 TOPS	About 100k DMIPS	7nm	Extreme highway NOA (high cost-effectiveness)
Journey 6M	128 TOPS	About 137k DMIPS	7nm	Accessible urban NOA (single J6M urban solution)
Journey 6H	About 420 TOPS	Not disclosed	7nm	Mid-to-high full-scenario
Journey 6P	560 TOPS	410k DMIPS	7nm	Full-scenario flagship, advanced urban NOA / cockpit-driving integration

⚠️ Specification uncertainty: Within the Journey 6 series, only the 6P's full hardware parameters (transistor count, CPU cores, memory width/bandwidth, ISP channels) have relatively detailed third-party disclosures; the process, memory, and power of the 6B/6L/6E/6M/6H are mostly not published individually by the vendor. The compute and DMIPS figures for the 6E/6M/6H in the table come from third-party spec aggregations (AlfaWiki) and broker research, pending official confirmation. Horizon publishes "equivalent compute / INT8 compute" and has not disclosed FP16/BF16/FP32 floating-point compute. Memory capacity is selected by domain controller vendors per solution; the chip only defines the interface.

Key Features

BPU Nash architecture: designed for large-parameter Transformers and large-scale interactive gaming, with Transformer-class algorithm FPS improved by roughly an order of magnitude (about 10×) versus mainstream competitors
Four chips in one (CPU + BPU + GPU + MCU): a single SoC completes perception, planning and decision-making, control, and cockpit perception full-stack computing, reducing BOM and deployment difficulty
Greatly strengthened CPU compute: 18-core Cortex-A78AE / 410k DMIPS, directly answering the Journey 5 era's lesson of "underestimated CPU compute"
7nm + 37 billion transistors: a benchmark of advanced process and integration among Chinese automotive smart driving chips
One-stage end-to-end support: system latency <160ms, supporting a single model spanning scenario processing (the HSD solution uses an end-to-end architecture)
ASIL-D functional safety: integrated MCU + QNX SDP 8.0, TÜV Rheinland certified
Full-range coverage: from the 10+ TOPS 6B to the 560 TOPS 6P with a unified architecture and toolchain, letting automakers reuse software assets platform-wide
High image processing capability: 24-channel 4K ISP with about 3× competitors' bandwidth and 80% lower latency
Cost competitiveness: FPS per dollar about 4–12× mainstream competitors (official/research-report figures)
Scaled ecosystem: Journey series shipments exceeded 10 million units cumulatively; over 40 automaker brands and over 100 models; Tier 1 partnerships including Bosch, Denso, Zhuoyu, QCraft, and Carizon

Vendor Information

Item	Details
Company	Beijing Horizon Robotics Technology Co., Ltd. / Horizon Robotics (HKEX 9660.HK)
Headquarters	Beijing, China
Founded	2015
Founder / CEO	Yu Kai
Co-founder / CTO	Huang Chang
BPU Architecture Generations	Gauss → Bernoulli → Bayesian → Nash → Riemann (Journey 7 planned)
Key Customers	BYD, Li Auto, Volkswagen, Chery, SAIC, Changan, GAC, BAIC, Geely, Leapmotor, Dongfeng, and 40+ other brands
Tier 1 Partners	Bosch, Denso, Continental, Valeo, ZF, Luxshare, Huaqin, Tianzhun, Zhuoyu, QCraft
Website	https://www.horizon.auto

Use Cases

✅ Urban NOA / advanced urban assisted driving (single-chip 6P, accessible 6M solution)
✅ One-stage end-to-end / BEV + Transformer / VLA-class large model edge deployment
✅ Cockpit-driving integration and cross-domain fusion central computing (four chips in one)
✅ L3 assisted driving R&D and mass production (dual 6P HSD 1200)
✅ Entry active-safety ADAS (6B, for 100,000–200,000 RMB and even sub-100,000 RMB vehicles)
✅ Highway NOA + smart parking (APA / HPA)
✅ Vehicle smart driving platforms with ASIL-D functional safety requirements
❌ Data center large model training (an automotive edge inference SoC, not a training chip)
❌ Scenarios requiring high-precision FP32/FP64 scientific computing
❌ General cloud AI inference services (no PCIe card form factor, no multi-card cluster interconnect ecosystem)

Horizon Journey 5 — Same vendor's previous-generation flagship, 128 TOPS Bayesian architecture, the direct predecessor of the 6P
Horizon Journey 3 — Same vendor's previous mid/low-tier generation, now succeeded by the 6B/6L
Horizon Journey 2 — Same vendor's first automotive-grade mass-production chip
Black Sesame Huashan A2000 — Direct Chinese competitor, 7nm Jiushao NPU, up to 1000 TOPS
Black Sesame Huashan A1000 — Previous-generation Chinese automotive competitor, 58 TOPS
NVIDIA DRIVE Thor — International flagship automotive platform, the main international benchmark for the Journey 6P
Moore Threads MTT S5000 — Chinese data center GPU, a compute contrast between training-side and in-vehicle inference-side

Product Overview​

Core Specifications​

Series Models​

Key Features​

Vendor Information​

Use Cases​

Related Cards​

References​