- Xpeng's CEO has expressed strong confidence in its VLA 2.0, welcoming global competitors to come to China and experience the system.
- Xpeng plans to officially roll out the system later this month and expects L4 autonomous driving to become widespread within the next one to three years.
Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV, HKG: 9868) chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng expressed strong confidence in the company's latest smart driving software, publicly inviting competitors including Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk to experience the system.
The statement marks a further elevation of the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker's ambitions in the autonomous driving sector and highlights its confidence in the new technology.
Mr. He made the remarks during an interview with local media on Saturday on the sidelines of the ongoing 2026 Two Sessions, the annual parliamentary meetings, in China.
He highlighted his strong confidence in the company's second-generation Vision-Language-Action (VLA 2.0) model and hinted that all industry peers are welcome to test drive it.
Xpeng plans to conduct a broader internal beta test of VLA 2.0 among users in mid-March, while the first-generation version of the system is expected to be officially rolled out to the market in late March.
In the interview, Mr. He said that if the upper limit of past advanced driver assistance systems was 100 points, today's new system can reach 10,000 or even tens of thousands of points.
Powered by new large language models and proprietary computing power, Xpeng's autonomous driving R&D speed has significantly accelerated. The progress made in four weeks now is equivalent to a full year's workload in the past, he said.
Mr. He expects that true Level 4 autonomous driving software capabilities will be implemented soon. With the advancement of regulations and technology, L4 smart driving is expected to become widespread within one to three years.
He even predicted that Level 5 fully autonomous driving could truly materialize within five years, which would drastically reduce the frequency of human intervention and completely transform people's daily commuting.
Competitors have shown strong interest in Xpeng's technological progress. Currently, the cost of renting an Xpeng vehicle equipped with the VLA system for testing has reached 8,000 yuan ($1,160), according to Mr. He.
He expects that after the system is officially released this year, more domestic and foreign peers will come to test it. Next year, the system will also gradually expand to select overseas markets.
Wall Street has given positive reviews to Xpeng's technological breakthrough. Morgan Stanley called VLA 2.0 a "bold leap forward" in a research note on March 2.
The progressive development of VLA and physical AI will help convince investors that Xpeng is more than just a car company, according to a team of analysts led by Tim Hsiao.
Xpeng has always viewed Tesla as an important benchmark. Mr. He experienced Tesla's FSD system again in Silicon Valley in late 2025 and commented that it had entered a reassuring experience stage of quasi-L4.
To motivate the team, Xpeng has set a goal for VLA's domestic performance to catch up with Tesla's FSD by the end of August 2026, highlighting its determination to participate in global competition.
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