Chinese automaker Xpeng has set a target of rolling out Level 4 autonomous driving to its vehicle fleet by next year, as it approaches the launch of a new software-defined vehicle sub-brand next month.
The company is bullish about the potentially rapid development and streamlining of its XNGP ADAS software, which management says is aided by the firm's incorporation of large language model training of its software. Level 4 autonomy is the point at which a driver will never be required to take over driving the vehicle in any circumstance. In theory, vehicles may be built without any human controls like pedals or a steering wheel, although Xpeng is not planning any such radical form factor changes.
"We hope to achieve the ability of L4 by next year. However, we know that to be able to actually implement that, we need to have the hardware as well as the rules and regulations catch up, " Xpeng president Fengying Wang told analysts on the company's Q1 results call.
The automaker's XNGP system is aimed at urban mobility and only works within specified urban areas. Xpeng is currently planning to increase the number of qualified areas to 200 cities across China.
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The automaker also announced that the first vehicle under its new software-defined vehicle Mona sub-brand will launch in June. Although the company expects AD to be rolled out to all its cars in China before the end of 2024, the Mona brand will spearhead the firm's push towards autonomy.
"With the Mona series we are looking at building a car that is the most beautiful and aesthetic on the exterior [...] and it will also cover various grades of intelligent autonomous driving," Wang says.
Affordable autonomy
Executive chairman Brian Gu told analysts that "the development is not going to make an material increase to our overall R&D" due to the increased incorporation of large language models into Xpeng's training of its XNGP software. As such, Xpeng believes it is uniquely positioned to bring the technologically advanced BEVs that are so prized in the Chinese market to the nation's consumers at a market leading low price.
"In the past autonomous driving was mainly for the cars in the price range of above RMB200,000 ($27,600). But with the Mona series we hope to bring the autonomous driving to the price range of cars within RMB200,000," Wang says.
And as Xpeng continues its flurry of launches in overseas markets, the firm is banking on overseas consumers being no less keen on its ADAS products, although Gu cautions he expects regulatory stumbling blocks.
"This year we are accelerating our pace of international development. We are targeting to roll out to more than 2o countries without industry-leading technologically advanced EVs," Gu says. "We are actively now testing a number of overseas markets and also working with a number of regulatory bodies to make sure that [XNGP] complies with developing regulations in these markets."
Ciaran has written about finance, politics and culture. He is passionate about e-mobility and what it means for our way of life.
Ciaran has a Masters in Ancient Philosophy from Oxford University.
