Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xpeng announced plans to launch its first robotaxis next year, marking a major step beyond the traditional car industry and into the field of autonomous mobility, according to CNBC and News.ro.
During its “AI Day” event, the company unveiled three robotaxi models powered by four in-house Turing AI chips, delivering a combined processing power of 3,000 TOPS — the highest computing capacity of any vehicle currently on the market.
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These chips run the company’s proprietary “vision-language-action” (VLA) AI system, now in its second generation, capable of interpreting both visual cues and natural language — crucial technologies for fully autonomous driving.
Xpeng will partner with Alibaba’s AutoNavi (Amaps) to integrate its robotaxis into the ride-hailing platform, with testing set to begin in 2026 in Guangzhou and other major Chinese cities.
“Technology is advancing faster than we anticipated. Progress in AI and exponential computing power give us confidence that we’re approaching a tipping point,” said Brian Gu, Xpeng’s co-president.
The company’s strategy includes two product lines: one for commercial autonomous transport services and another for fully autonomous personal vehicles.
Xpeng also revealed its second-generation humanoid robot, “Iron”, equipped with three Turing chips and a solid-state battery. Mass production is scheduled for 2026, with initial uses as guides, sales assistants, and receptionists.
“In some areas, like flying cars and humanoid robots, we started development even before Tesla,” added Brian Gu, noting that Xpeng aims to sell more robots than electric cars within the next decade.
Photo: The New Money
