Xpeng AI Day 57
Chinese automaker Xpeng made several announcements during its AI Day this week, including a new robotaxi, plans for its flying car business, and showing a new robot, but the highlight was the debut of an upgraded version of its semi-autonomous driving system. The new platform, called VLA 2.0, is set to roll out across China and eventually to global markets. Xpeng plans to make the system available for use by other automakers, with Volkswagen being the first to partner with Xpeng and adopt VLA 2.0, which aims to beat Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology.
Xpeng’s current vehicles already feature a capable semi-autonomous driving system, but VLA 2.0 takes things further. The upgraded system is designed to handle complex situations independently using AI that makes decisions based on data from previous real-world driving scenarios. According to Xpeng, the AI behind VLA 2.0 was trained on nearly 100 million video clips from real-life driving, equivalent to about 65,000 years of experience for an average driver.
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In real-world conditions, Xpeng says vehicles equipped with VLA 2.0 will be able to navigate narrow streets and maneuver around obstacles such as vehicles blocking a lane. Xpeng Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng explained that the system can even recognize human gestures. For example, if a construction worker signals the car to stop with a hand gesture, the vehicle will halt automatically and resume driving once the worker waves it through.
The new system, expected to launch in the first quarter of 2026, will continue to rely on external cameras and sensors, just like Xpeng’s current vehicles. The major hardware upgrade is a new in-house–developed chip called Turing, which is said to deliver three times the processing power of Nvidia’s Orin chips currently used in Xpeng models.
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Volkswagen’s involvement was announced by founder Xiaopeng He during a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Guangzhou, China, and Xpeng hopes to bring additional manufacturers on board in the future. It remains unclear whether Volkswagen plans to use the system exclusively in China or expand it to other markets. Chinese-made chips are prohibited from being used in vehicles operating on U.S. roads, so a major revamp would be required to offer the system here.
While Tesla offers its FSD system in China, the version available there is older than the one used in the United States. The EV maker has faced challenges obtaining full regulatory approval from the Chinese government to deploy its most advanced technology. Xpeng’s current semi-autonomous system is already a strong competitor to Tesla’s FSD, and during the press conference, Xiaopeng said that VLA 2.0 required five times fewer driver interventions in early testing compared with Tesla’s FSD version 13.2.9, the latest available in China. In the U.S., Tesla’s most recent version is FSD 14.0, which is significantly more advanced.
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Like Tesla, Xpeng has been steadily rolling out updates to its semi-autonomous technology. Its current vehicles can already drive partially on their own on highways and city streets. A recent update even allows them to travel from one parking spot to another, although drivers must always remain attentive. Similarly, VLA 2.0 will require the driver to stay alert and ready to take control whenever the system is active.
Unlike Tesla’s FSD, which costs an additional $8,000, Xpeng includes its driver-assistance technology at no extra charge.
