Overview
- At the Beijing forum on Saturday, Arcfox set April 22 for V9 MPV presales, Horizon Robotics slated an April 22 debut for a single chip that fuses cockpit and driving compute, and JD said it will name a new automaker partner on April 13 while opening 100 delivery centers this year.
- Huawei’s Jin Yuzhi said Level 3 is a necessary step toward full autonomy and called 2026 a possible inflection year, while Zhuoyue’s Shen Shaojie argued for skipping Level 3 to target Level 4 to avoid murky hand‑off liability and to align with large AI model capabilities.
- GAC said its R2 robotaxi, co‑developed with Didi, has been delivered for rollout, its GOVY AirCab flying car holds nearly 2,000 intent orders with certification and mass delivery targeted this year, and its embodied robots are moving into small‑batch production.
- NIO’s Li Bin said the company will not pursue robotaxis and will focus on driver‑assist features that cut crashes, while Didi’s Zhang Bo said the firm has autonomous Level 4 tech in hand and began all‑day, fully driverless tests in parts of Guangzhou and Beijing in late 2025.
- Lantu’s Lu Fang warned that further jumps in battery, chip, and memory costs would likely push car prices higher, and Changan’s Zhao Fei said selling vehicles alone no longer sustains profits as carmakers shift toward software, services, and broader ecosystems.