By David Kirton
GUANGZHOU, China, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Chinese automaker
Robots and cars are the core of physical artificial intelligence and share a wide range of sensor technology and other existing hardware. Car manufacturers, for example, are creating robots to automate warehouse and factory tasks. He Xiaopeng, founder and CEO of the company, one of the best-selling electric vehicle startups in China and a partner of Volkswagen, said on Thursday that as automakers face intense competition, AI capabilities integrated with XPeng’s in-house “Turing” AI chip will give it an advantage. “XPeng definitely does not want to become a car company that just sells cheap hardware,” he said at an event in Guangzhou. “We want to become a global technology company, a company with strong differentiation. The effort to reposition echoes similar efforts by Elon Musk’s Tesla to expand into manufacturing humanoid robots and robotaxis as part of a sharp rise in the use of AI globally. Underscoring growing interest in physical AI, chip technology company Arm Holdings told Reuters this week it had reorganized to create a physical AI unit to expand its presence in the robotics market. Another Chinese automaker, Li Auto in 2023 unveiled a repositioning toward AI, with founder Li Xiang saying he had invested more than 6 billion yuan ($859.1 million) annually in AI models, computing power and infrastructure.
Xpeng’s move also comes as China’s auto market, the world’s largest, has been embroiled in a years-long price war that has hurt profits. Xpeng’s He unveiled four facelifted car models at the Guangzhou event, emphasizing new software features including 3D navigation systems, advanced hazard alerts beyond the immediate line of sight and improvements to autonomous driving systems. He said Xpeng has also been hiring and investing in the development of autonomous driving and humanoid robots focused on its internal AI capabilities. The company will begin mass production of humanoid robots in the second half of 2026 and will begin street trials of robotaxis “very soon,” he said. Xpeng posted a net loss of 380 million yuan in the third quarter and previously said it expected to break even by “the end of 2025.”
(Reporting by David Kirton in Guangzhou, Additional reporting by Zhang Yan in Shanghai; Editing by Brenda Goh and Thomas Derpinghaus)