Jin Yuzhi believes that while ADAS fees may seem like a one-time charge, companies must continuously iterate, provide OTA updates, and invest throughout the vehicle’s entire lifecycle.
According to Chinese media reports, as Huawei’s ADS 4 platform nears large-scale deployment, Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU CEO Jin Yuzhi has made it clear that the company will not pursue the currently hyped VLA (Vision-Language-Action) approach favored by leading automakers like Xpeng and Li Auto. Instead, he believes that WA (World Action) represents the ultimate path to achieving true autonomous driving.
Over the past decade, Huawei has steadily increased its R&D investment in intelligent driving, achieving notable milestones along the way.
As of July 2025, vehicles equipped with Huawei’s ADS system have reached a cumulative total of 1 million units, with Huawei’s LiDAR shipments surpassing 1 million units and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) mileage exceeding 4 billion kilometers.
By the end of August, 28 models had partnered with Huawei, covering the five Huawei-backed lineups—Shangjie, AITO, LUXEED, STELATO, and MAEXTRO—as well as brands including AVATR, Deepal, Voyah, M-Hero, Trumpchi, Formula Leopard, and Audi.
In contrast, VLA, which has become an industry focus this year, relies on converting video into language tokens, feeding them into a language model for reasoning, and finally outputting vehicle control actions.
Jin argues that while this method may appear clever, it does not lead directly to full autonomous driving. Huawei’s WA approach eliminates the “language” step, instead feeding visual, auditory, and tactile information directly into the model to control the vehicle.
Based on the WA architecture, Huawei has developed WEWA (World Engine, World Action model), which will be implemented in the ADS 4.0 platform.
On the business model front, Jin is candid that ADAS is not “free.” Claims of free services either come bundled in vehicle pricing, offered as limited-time promotions, or provide insufficient functionality, effectively using users as test subjects.
Huawei’s chosen path is full lifecycle management: continuous iteration and OTA updates ensure vehicles improve throughout their service life. Although this approach may appear more expensive initially, Jin emphasizes that it delivers superior long-term safety and user experience.
He illustrates that additional LiDAR units are installed not for pricing leverage but for safety. In parking scenarios, cameras and ultrasonic sensors may fail to capture accurate depth information, whereas solid-state LiDAR provides centimeter-level precision, preventing collisions or missteps. These configurations reflect real user needs, not mere component stacking.
Looking ahead, Huawei aims to advance its technology progressively: by 2026, ADAS will support highway L3 and urban L4 pilot capabilities; by 2027, trials for unmanned long-haul logistics and large-scale urban L4 deployment will begin; by 2028, large-scale unmanned long-haul logistics is the target.
Meanwhile, Huawei is ensuring full-stack integration between the HarmonyOS cockpit and Huawei ADS, avoiding the user experience degradation and maintenance difficulties that arise from decoupling.
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