We Rode in Xpeng’s Semi-Autonomous EVs. Tesla Should Be Worried

MotorTrend

Chinese automaker Xpeng’s semi-autonomous technology is inching close to Tesla’s FSD. We travelled to Guangzhou

Transcript

00:00Hey everybody Miguel Cortina here with MotorTrend in Guangzhou, China

00:04I'm here with Xpeng, a Chinese car company that recently has been really pushing

00:08their semi-autonomous technology here in China and now they want to go around the world with it

00:14so I am here in our hotel in Guangzhou we're gonna head over to their headquarters

00:19that's about a 25 minute drive away from here we're gonna go through freeways intersections

00:24and all of that with a driver slightly touching the wheel no pedals at all and the whole system

00:31basically taking over the car very similar to Tesla's FSE they really want to compete against

00:36Tesla in this regard so we're here to check it out and let's go find out how it does

00:41so right now we have it on active and it turned on its own turning signal we're gonna make a right

00:55here at this busy intersection it's just everything's off yes it's driving on its own right now is it

01:02using LiDAR sensors or cameras camera we have 11 cameras at us 11 yeah okay yes and no no LiDAR just camera yeah okay

01:18oh it's close yes oh here we go it's completely on and you know there shouldn't be any kind of inputs

01:26from the driver from here on to our destination you can see all the cameras working

01:32here there's 11 cameras around the car that work with the ADA system here it's changing lanes

01:39on its own and doing everything on its own it's not very clear on the camera but there is a blue light

01:48on the turning signal and that indicates to people outside that the car is driving autonomously

01:53and it's making lanes in this attic I'm here we're gonna be joining a freeway the front is the bus

02:03the speed is low so normally there will be high speed maybe yes 14 or 15 yeah from the passenger seat

02:12you really wouldn't have known that the car was driving itself the ride was honestly very smooth and

02:17gentle and braking was just like any human would do it at one point during a lane change yes we did

02:23get honked at but you know that was very normal we did squeeze between two cars but we were told that

02:29these kinds of maneuvers are very common in china and so the system was trained for that so you can see

02:36here how the car moves on to the next lane over automatically and it tells you exactly where it's

02:42moving so it gives you a little more communication than a tesla fsc tesla fsc you know they does lane

02:50changes on its own but there's no really telling the driver what what is going to be doing next here

02:55there's a little bit more of that communication of what is actually happening what the vehicle is going

03:00to be doing and it's a little bit more clear tesla rolled out fsv 14 right as i was heading into

03:06china so i didn't get a chance to compare that with xpeng system but i know that tesla can now do full

03:12door-to-door driving and even park itself so that's pretty cool and something to notice but one of

03:18the biggest differences between tesla system and xpeng is in the price tesla charges an eight thousand

03:24dollar one-time fee for fsd here in the us while xpeng includes all of its technology for free in all

03:30of the cars that it sells in china and again here the car keeps driving itself right like you're just

03:36slight touch on the wheel to sense that you're at the wheel if you if you let go of the wheel

03:43completely will it alert you yeah yeah they'll show the sign okay to remind you and then you can

03:50recognize this door and let's go and then we go okay yeah okay so here it's record it's notice that

03:58the gate yes i recognize it and now here we go entering a parking lot that that's amazing here

04:07we are entering a parking structure again it's noticing recognizing the two cars that are coming

04:14out here three cars so the steering wheel is all of this is completely doing it by itself

04:27it's very tight i have to say so you have selected a parking spot specifically in this previously mapped

04:41parking structure so now we're going to go to it this car has scanned all the

04:45on every level yeah when you uh when you pass by every every space they will scan all the parts

04:54all the packing notes their memories and this when you go this this here again they will know where

05:03its car is so this is not something that that you guys uh input it into the system it's it's something

05:09that the car did by itself when you go past there they will memorize we don't need to uh special to

05:15memory i see things okay when you go past that they will memory this disease i see so all it takes

05:22is you driving here once or twice yes only once only once yes this is at the point where tesla struggles

05:29uh like the point where uh you're gonna be dropped off or you know where the driver's supposed to take over

05:34the driver's supposed to take over that's where fsc struggles i love them here with uh hbank it's

05:41all of it is doing it impressively well and again there's no driver input by any means

05:51so i just stopped there but uh you know just checking things around and then continuing over

06:10and then here is very tight and so i just you just stop here i don't think we can make it through

06:17here but we'll see it had a parking space by itself and we're gonna we're backing up automatically we

06:36did not have to press a button or anything like that it just recognized that there was an open parking

06:41space and so we're backing into it that's telling the driver where where it's parking and doing all of

06:51the movements by itself so all right we just stopped uh i think it's kind of like recognizing whether

07:03you can fit or not but what did it tell you right there there's a barrier maybe that'll hurry to close

07:17i see and then it's select okay and then the next piece again here we go perfectly parking

07:27in a spot here and

07:28all right we made it to xpeng's headquarters here in guangchu and you know something that i think

07:38there was most remarkable to me about this experience is the point of arrival so basically

07:44when we got to our destination you know the car just didn't drop us off at the entrance it went all

07:50the way down to the second or third level in the parking structure and parked itself in a designated

07:55parking spot that to me is something remarkable i know that's something that tesla is working on to

08:00see it here in guangchu in xpeng's headquarters was really remarkable and it did everything pretty

08:07smoothly there were a few points in the process where we got very close to the wall where uh you know

08:13it made a turn that was maybe closer to a pillar things like that but overall you know i i think it's

08:20impressive the kind of technology they have how does it compare to tesla's fsd well i think they're

08:25very similar you know i can't say how a tesla would do in traffic here in guangchu but from my experience

08:32in the u.s is that they both of them have a very similar driving manners and tesla's fsd is one of the

08:38most advanced driver assistance features in the u.s today i think uh xpeng is basically almost neck to

08:47neck with it now we don't have xpeng in the u.s uh tesla's fsd here in in china is very different from

08:54the one that we have in the u.s they are not allowed to take all the video data and collect the data

09:00that they have in the streets like they do in the u.s so they're kind of like at a disadvantage but

09:06overall i think you know comparing my experience both in a tesla fsd and now at xpeng's ngp

09:14both of them are very remarkable and very close to each other so there you go that's all the latest

09:20from here from one juke with xpeng uh what do you think would you like to see an xpeng one day

09:26in the u.s let us know in the comments

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