XPeng Completes First Robotaxi Trial Ahead of Pilot Operations

On July 9, XPeng Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng announced the completion of the company’s first internal Robotaxi test ride.

The demonstration covered the entire ride-hailing process, from placing an order through the app and autonomous vehicle dispatch to completing the trip.

This marks XPeng’s first successful end-to-end Robotaxi workflow from booking to passenger drop-off.

He said XPeng officially unveiled its Robotaxi program in November last year, began regular road testing in January, completed production of its mass-produced Robotaxi vehicle in May, and achieved the end-to-end internal trial in approximately eight months, exceeding the company’s original development timeline.

XPeng also emphasized that large-scale Robotaxi commercialization will still require a longer development cycle.

The current priority remains improving safety, handling complex driving scenarios and enhancing real-world operational performance.

XPeng’s Robotaxi is based on the XPeng GX and is among China’s first factory-built mass-production Robotaxi models developed using a pure vision autonomous driving architecture.

The vehicle is powered by four in-house Turing AI chips, delivering 3,000 TOPS of onboard computing power.

It runs the same second-generation Vision-Language-Action (VLA) autonomous driving foundation model used in XPeng’s production vehicles.

Unlike conventional Robotaxi systems that rely on lidar and high-definition maps, XPeng is pursuing an L4 autonomous driving solution based on camera-only perception combined with AI foundation models for decision-making.

The company aims to reduce hardware costs by leveraging its mass-production vehicle platform while improving adaptability across different cities and road environments through large-scale model training.

To advance the program, XPeng obtained Guangzhou’s intelligent connected vehicle road testing permit in January, officially entering the L4 public road testing phase.

In March, the company established a dedicated Robotaxi business unit responsible for product development, testing and future commercial operations, further accelerating the program.

According to its roadmap, XPeng plans to initiate pilot Robotaxi operations in the second half of this year to validate technical viability, user acceptance, and the complete business model. 

This automaker sets a goal of introducing fully driverless commercial operations without onboard safety operators in early 2027.

Robotaxi technology is increasingly becoming one of the industry’s key battlegrounds in the next phase of intelligent mobility competition.

According to data from TrendForce, China’s Robotaxi market is projected to reach $44.5 billion by 2035.

Meanwhile, overseas markets, particularly the Middle East, are emerging as new expansion opportunities for autonomous driving companies, with leading Chinese players accelerating their presence in the region.