00:00Now, would you get into a driverless car?
00:02Some interesting data from Chinese smart car maker Xpeng.
00:06It's found that motorists in Europe are far more hesitant than those in China to let go of the wheel,
00:12despite AI playing a bigger role in everyday life than many of us realize.
00:17Only 13% of Europeans would get into a car without a driver at the wheel, compared with 70%
00:24in China.
00:26Over 50% of European drivers feel comfortable with AI features in their cars,
00:31such as adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition.
00:3590% of Chinese motorists trust those applications.
00:39But some European countries are more open to the new tech than others.
00:43Spanish people more than twice as likely as the Brits to trust those innovations.
00:48Juliet Mann asked Xpeng co-president Brian Gu how a car company grows in a time of tough tech competition
00:56and tariffs.
00:58There's no quick fix or shortcuts around it.
01:03It is something that you have to address if you want to develop a global business.
01:08Yes, there's a tariff environment in Europe that we have to deal with,
01:12but we're adopting strategies to quickly change our product mix, our partnership model,
01:19our localization strategies in order to react to that.
01:23So that's something we have to do as a company.
01:25So you're a technology as much as you are a car maker.
01:28I think 40% of your staff are in R&D, which is quite unusual when it comes to an
01:34automaker.
01:35Is that what gives you the edge?
01:37Is that the direction you think that other car makers are going to go in?
01:41It's our DNA.
01:43It's when we are started, we have a vision that we are tech-focused.
01:47We are R&D-focused companies.
01:50We have consistently deployed more R&D resources than pretty much every other competitor we have in China as well
02:00as globally,
02:01percentage-wise.
02:02We also have been very, very persistent in investing into the future tech.
02:08Even when we are small companies, we have developed an autonomous driving effort that requires a lot of investment and
02:16a lot of talent and focuses,
02:19which at that time people would always say, oh, why don't you focus on cost and electrification?
02:25Why do you spend so much money on software?
02:28Because we always believed the model that intelligence is going to be the ultimate differentiation,
02:33not just simple energy transition, not just by controlling a low-cost solution to compete.
02:40So let's talk a little bit more about autonomous driving, because every car firm is racing towards that true self
02:47-driving model.
02:48How close are we really to systems that can safely operate across different countries, road worlds and driving cultures?
02:57Well, I think there are obviously a different level of autonomous driving categories.
03:03For example, in China, our current cars on the street already have a very advanced driving technology,
03:13but still it's called Level 2+.
03:15And that technology currently is not available in Europe yet.
03:19We are working with European regulators.
03:23So hopefully by next year, there will be the advancement in regulation.
03:28So the DCAS 3.0, which is the United Nations standard, can be used in Europe, allowing such technology to
03:35be used here.
03:37Is it about the technology, though, or is it about what consumers want, what they're open to trying?
03:42Well, I think our experience, because China went through the exact same thing five years ago.
03:47People said, we don't need that.
03:49We just need an affordable, nice-looking EV.
03:52But when we start to introduce the technology, after five years, after we showcase technology on highway
03:59and later on urban roads and then on busy small back streets,
04:04now people, more than 50% of drivers are using that every day.
04:07So that means that the penetration, it becomes almost like the majority of the time,
04:12they rely on the machine, on the autonomous driving, rather than themselves.
04:16I think the same thing will happen.
04:18Maybe it'll take a slightly different adoption curve.
04:21There is so much discussion right now about physical AI,
04:24that intelligence that doesn't just compute, but interacts with the real world.
04:29How is X-Plan thinking about that shift?
04:33Well, we're very excited about it.
04:35We think this is exactly what we have been focused on.
04:38It's because the advancement in AI has allowed, we get to this point,
04:44that physical has become potentially a reality.
04:47AI, in the last 15 years, has seen significant changes.
04:52You have to change things.
04:53You have to impact things.
04:54That has to be done physically.
04:56So the physical AI is, I would say, the next frontier,
05:01but it also has probably the biggest, widest application in our daily lives.
05:06Is that why you're investing in human-owned robots?
05:08And that's why we think, because of potential,
05:12and because we are now at the cusp of physical AI,
05:16that's where we think is the biggest opportunity.
05:18And we are now using it for autonomous driving vehicles,
05:22as well as for human-owned robots and flying cars.
05:25So that flying wheel we developed for automobile, for autonomy,
05:29is now can be applied to other physical modalities.
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