XPeng Restructures Its Autonomous Driving Department

According to a report by China’s “Daily Economic News”, XPeng Motors has recently restructured its organization in response to changes in its intelligent driving technology roadmap. The company has disassembled and reassembled its organizational structure, focusing on an end-to-end model.

The main focus of XPeng‘s adjustment is the Technology Development Department, which is responsible for algorithm research and development, covering perception, planning, control, and positioning. After the adjustment, the Technology Development Department has been split into three departments: AI End-to-End, AI Application, and AI Efficiency.

The AI End-to-End department is responsible for the research and development of end-to-end models, while the AI Application department is responsible for delivery. This adjustment essentially splits the algorithm team into two, with one part working on models and the other on delivery.

In response, XPeng Motors stated, “The company has made corresponding organizational adjustments to the autonomous driving department, setting up three major functional areas – AI Model Development, AI Application Development, and AI Efficiency Development – with the aim of accelerating AI capability evolution and organizational AI transformation.”

In the eyes of He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng Motors, in the AI era, if car companies continue to focus on integrated research and development as before, the development of intelligent driving technology will become increasingly difficult. Car companies must conduct full self-research, from hardware to software.

On the level of work methods, according to Li Liyun, the person in charge of XPeng‘s intelligent driving, the company’s work method has shifted from stacking manpower, scenarios, and rules to solving problems with a high-quality data flywheel system. “Embracing AI is already reflected in XPeng‘s entire workflow. Our first teacher when writing code is AI,” said Li Liyun.

It is understood that XPeng Motors completed its first end-to-end large model mass production on-car in May. “In July of this year, based on China’s first mass-produced on-car end-to-end AI large model, XPeng Motors has taken the lead in pushing the ‘usable nationwide’ intelligent assisted driving XNGP to all cities nationwide,” XPeng revealed.

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