Xpeng’s First Robotaxi Ride in Closed Beta: He Xiaopeng Tests It Himself

It gave me a sense of reassurance. I feel very safe. It's different from the rides I've had before. Robotaxi, I feel the ride experience is fantastic. Haha, it's so comfortable. We've been driving for a few minutes. I think it's very smooth. My position here allows me to watch the safety officer in front. Yes, he never moved a muscle from start to finish. But I was watching him, whether he would take over, how he manages safety. I think he did an excellent job. The car drives like a seasoned driver, making me very comfortable. For our car, as soon as you get in, it has already started L4 autonomous driving. But due to government regulations and requirements, we need to go through a phase of manned passenger testing before going unmanned. If you look at the screen, the golden circle and golden guide line indicate that we are currently operating L4 robotaxi. On our car, including QQ Music and NetEase Music, we have full copyright and membership functions. So any user sitting in our car can interact with Xiao P to choose their favorite songs, regardless of weather or time of day. They can call up any song they want to listen to at any time.

For example, you open iQiyi or Youku. Then you say, 'Hello Xiao P, rear passenger, please play The Legend of 1900.' Sure.

Because I haven't logged into my membership account here. But if our users log into their membership account, they can watch whatever movies they want. Also, considering user privacy, after they get out of the car, we will automatically log them out of their account to ensure their privacy is protected.

Because we also have a function in the car that allows us to change the destination, and to take the way back. This is to prevent users from thinking, 'I don't want to go there, I want to go somewhere else.' I think this is a very common demand. Adding destinations, modifying destinations, I am free. After that, we can also add waypoints.

Yes, yes. Also, these two cars were illegally parked here, blocking us, but we still recognized it and left. I think when I experienced robotaxis many times in Silicon Valley, similar situations were mostly controlled by the cloud. Especially for the previous generation robotaxi represented by Waymo, basically once stuck, the cloud safety officer took a series of actions. But now we can still complete all trips with higher onboard capability.

I think the three most important things are safety, comfort, and efficiency. From a comfort perspective, it includes the air environment, the smoothness of the ride, and no jerkiness. I think these are very important points.

Our robotaxi is different from others. There is also a sense of exclusive space. For example, Xiao P, turn on the fragrance, it can turn on the fragrance inside, open the windows, and this series makes the space more exclusive.

Yes, yes. It's a two-lane road with construction and signs. That shows one is reassuring and one is very confident. This road has been under construction all the time. So some competitor robotaxi companies dare not open such small roads. But our robotaxi, from the first day, can pass through such difficult small roads.

I think for the future, I still hope to continuously find ways to improve the experience to perfection within our internal testing, and to do better in things that can scale up. Different perspectives are different. In fact, it's operations, it's extreme attention to detail. In the future, when internal employees come, there will be many elderly and children. How will they get in and out of the car, fasten seatbelts, wait?

Yes, yes, this is fully considered. Because now we have a separate visual recognition sensor in the trunk. If there is something in the trunk, it will wait for you to take it out before the car moves. Then we can interact on the screen. Now we also have a separate button to open the trunk in our mini program. Because everyone knows, Xiaopeng makes cars and the best assisted driving. Today, we combine these two capabilities into our robotaxi. We make it the best toolbox and sell it to our partners. So our partners are responsible for local operations. On this basis, we also need to consider how partners can have good safety, good experience, and good profits.

All robotaxi companies have invested a lot of manpower in pick-up and drop-off points. But unlike others, we don't rely on piling up rules; we use the power of models to choose more reasonable pick-up and drop-off points. This can also be globalized. Although we have a safety chip, it can run many unique models.

Yes, yes.

You see, today we are the first internal test. I am very happy to experience it. I hope that our internal users, public users in Guangzhou, and all friends traveling to Guangzhou will experience our robotaxi. I hope within this year, safety first, then optimize the experience, and continuously expand the scope. People will think it is the best product. And one more thing: in the future, when it is truly unmanned, it will actually be a luxurious private car with a sense of privacy. Big power creates miracles. The best robotaxi.