Inside an XPENG P7 driving itself in China. Photo by Larry Evans.
Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.
XPENG has been developing self-driving tech in a very similar way as Tesla for several years. In fact, while pretty much everyone else has decided radar and/or lidar sensors are needed in addition to cameras, XPENG has stuck with Elon Musk’s argument that cameras are the only sensors needed.
Our own Larry Evans, who has ridden in Tesla vehicles with V14 FSD as well as XPENG vehicles with their latest self-driving tech, thinks XPENG’s self-driving system is more human-like and better than Tesla’s. He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO, meanwhile, wants his company’s self-driving capabilities to outperform Tesla’s in China by August (next month). It’s certainly a hard thing to quantify, and you are sure to find people arguing both sides, but I think one thing that’s clear is they are very similar in their design and their capabilities.
But XPENG wants to compete not just in China. Like several other Chinese EV makers, XPENG has been focusing on growing its sales in Europe. More than half of the company’s sales outside of China were in Europe last year, and the Guangzhou-headquartered automaker surely wants that number to be much higher in 2026. To help stimulate sales, the company intends to release its self-driving tech, Vision Language Action (VLA) 2.0, in Europe in the second half of the year. This tech is supposed to eventually offer “minds-off” Level 4 autonomous driving. The company does believe it will be able to compete well against Tesla despite its much longer and broader presence in Europe.
