XPeng Chairman Says China Poised to Leapfrog to Fully Driverless Cars
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He Xiaopeng, chairman of Chinese electric-car maker XPeng Inc., is urging policymakers to scrap interim rules for autonomous driving and fast-track a legal framework for fully driverless vehicles.
In a proposal submitted to the National People’s Congress during the annual “Two Sessions,” He, a deputy to the legislature, said the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence has rendered China’s incremental regulatory approach outdated. Instead of progressing step by step, regulators should allow a direct leap from advanced driver-assistance systems to high-level autonomous driving, he argued.
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- XPeng chairman He Xiaopeng urges China to expedite regulations for Level 4 fully driverless vehicles and bypass Level 3 systems.
- He argues AI advances make incremental rules outdated; industry leaders view Level 3 as unnecessary, with many shifting to direct Level 4 development.
- He proposes nationwide access and pilot programs for consumer-oriented autonomous services, alongside differentiated rules for "machine" versus "human" driving.
- XPeng Inc.
- XPeng Inc., a Chinese electric-car maker, is advocating for the fast-tracking of a legal framework for fully driverless vehicles in China. Chairman He Xiaopeng proposes a direct leap from advanced driver-assistance systems to high-level autonomous driving, bypassing the current incremental approach. He believes this would allow China to lead in the fully driverless era. XPeng, like other companies, is moving towards data-driven development that sidesteps Level 3 requirements.
- Tesla Inc.
- Tesla Inc. is one of the companies, along with XPeng, DeepRoute.ai, and Horizon Robotics, that has shifted towards data-driven development approaches for autonomous driving since 2024. These companies are sidestepping the rule-based coding typically associated with Level 3 handover requirements, indicating a move directly towards higher levels of autonomy.
- DeepRoute.ai
- DeepRoute.ai is one of the companies, along with Tesla and XPeng, that have moved towards data-driven development approaches for autonomous driving. DeepRoute.ai's CEO, Zhou Guang, believes that Level 3 autonomous driving adds little to the broader goal of general autonomous driving.
- Horizon Robotics
- Horizon Robotics is a company that, along with Tesla Inc., XPeng, and DeepRoute.ai, has shifted towards data-driven development approaches for autonomous driving since 2024. Su Qing, chief architect at Horizon Robotics, anticipates a rapid expansion of Level 4 autonomous applications once Level 2 systems achieve saturation.
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