- NIO's CEO publicly rejected pursuing unmanned robotaxis, framing autonomous driving as a tool to reduce driver fatigue and traffic deaths while preserving driver roles amid AI's physical-world shift.
- NIO reports deployment of its ADAS on over 950,000 vehicles, 9.14 billion kilometers driven, 112 million hours used, and a 38.4% reduction in accident-related safety losses.
- The company targets mass-market ADAS competition with Huawei and XPeng as China moves toward commercialization, but risks include regulatory timelines, user willingness to pay, and scaling technical reliability.
Speaking at the Internet Entrepreneurs Forum of the 2026 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit on November 4, NIO founder, chairman, and CEO William Li addressed key perspectives on autonomous driving.
He stated that the primary significance of autonomous driving lies not in displacing ride-hailing or taxi drivers, but in relieving driver fatigue and reducing traffic accidents.
Li noted that as artificial intelligence rapidly shifts from the digital realm into the physical world, smart electric vehicles have emerged as the largest application industry for AI.
He highlighted that the global automotive sector is vast, encompassing components, vehicle manufacturing, sales, services, and finance, with an overall market scale of approximately RMB 46.7 trillion ($7 trillion) to RMB 60.1 trillion ($9 trillion).
If AI can create an additional 15% in user, industrial, and social value for the automotive sector, the corresponding commercial value will exceed RMB 8 trillion ($1.2 trillion).
However, compared to industry scale and commercial upside, Li emphasized the safety value of autonomous driving. He noted that global road traffic fatalities exceed 1.16 million annually, with driver fatigue and distraction remaining major risks to traffic safety.
Intelligent driving technology can perform designated driving tasks, easing the burden of prolonged operation on drivers and thereby lowering accidents alongside associated human and economic losses.
This is not the first time Li has stated his position on the relationship between autonomous driving and employment.
At NIO IN 2024, he explicitly declared that NIO would not pursue unmanned robotaxis, asserting that autonomous driving should not aim to replace ride-hailing or chauffeured drivers.
At that time, he also noted from a business model perspective that urban roads and vehicle fleet operations face physical constraints, meaning robotaxis lack the near-infinite scalability seen in software or cloud services.
In October this year, at the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference, Li summarized the benchmark for commercializing autonomous driving as verifiable user value, highlighting whether users are willing to pay for relevant features as a key metric.
He contended that if users are unwilling to pay, even the most thorough technical demonstrations fail to prove that a product creates genuine value.
NIO is set to introduce its latest generation of intelligent products soon. NIO IN 2026 has been scheduled for November 25 in Guangzhou.
During the event, NIO will share its strategic insights and operational practices regarding AI-native organization building, while officially launching new intelligent cockpit and advanced driver-assistance products driven by AI technology.
Reflecting Li’s recent statements on autonomous driving value, this event will serve as a crucial milestone for NIO’s next-stage smart technology roadmap.
Current operational data shows that NIO’s intelligent driver-assistance system has been deployed across more than 950,000 smart electric vehicles, accumulating over 9.14 billion kilometers of safe driving distance and 112 million hours of total usage.
According to company data, accident-related safety losses for NIO users declined by 38.4%, with the average safe driving distance under human-machine co-driving reaching eight times that of purely human driving.
China’s autonomous driving industry is currently transitioning from road testing toward large-scale commercialization.
In December last year, the MIIT conditionally approved product access licenses for two Level 3 conditional autonomous driving models, with the second batch of pilot access evaluations currently underway.
Simultaneously, advanced driver-assistance features such as urban NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) and highway NOA from leading vendors—including Huawei Qiankun ADS, NIO, and XPeng—are expanding into broader price segments.
Furthermore, China’s first mandatory national standard for Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving systems was officially approved and published in August this year, with implementation set for July 1, 2027.
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