- Xpeng CEO said L3 autonomous driving will drive AI cars into the "iPhone 4 era".
- He mentioned DeepSeek, saying that AI is bringing huge opportunities to all industries.
Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) is continuing to bet on smart driving technology and expects to see big new developments in a few months.
In the second half of this year, Xpeng will be the first to realize L3 full-scenario autonomous driving, giving users an unprecedented driving experience, the electric vehicle (EV) maker's chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said in an internal letter today.
“I believe that L3 autonomous driving will drive AI cars into the 'iPhone 4 era,'” Mr. He said, according to the internal letter, which was obtained by CnEVPost.
Chinese car companies currently refer to their smart driving systems as L2, with some using expressions such as L2.9 for marketing purposes. L3 is more of a legal concept, involving how much responsibility a car company assumes in the event of a potential accident.
China just wrapped up its week-long New Year holiday, and today is the first working day of the Year of the Snake.
More car owners returned their hometowns during the Chinese New Year holiday with the help of Xpeng's smart driving software, and people's perception of smart driving is being refreshed, Mr. He said in the internal letter.
“I believe large model-based AI will accelerate autonomous driving to a higher level,” he said.
In 2024, the penetration rate of high-level smart driving systems in China surpassed 10 percent, and smart driving is the top reason why many owners bought the Xpeng P7+ sedan, Mr. He said.
“Currently, global autonomous driving is ushering in a new inflection point. For this reason, we have made cutting-edge layouts in hardware, chips, software, large models, and products,” he said.
Mr. He mentioned DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company that became a trending topic during the holiday break, to his staff, saying that AI is bringing great opportunities to all industries.
DeepSeek has rocked the global tech scene, enabling a product experience that rivals OpenAI's large models and compressing costs to extremely low levels, the Xpeng CEO said.
“In the next decade, I believe AI will drive a huge change in automobiles and a huge change in hardware and software globally,” Mr. He said.
He also touched on Xpeng's overseas business, saying the company aims to make its models available in more than 60 countries and regions in 2025 and become the top export seller among China's new energy vehicle (NEV) brands.
“However, we also see a lot of problems, such as globalized NPS not performing well and so on, which we have to take seriously and do well from 2025,” he told employees.
NPS refers to Net Promoter Score, a metric used to measure consumer satisfaction.
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