At the Chongqing International Automotive Forum 2026, held from June 12th to 13th, Yu Peng, Vice President of XPeng Inc. (XPEV) and Head of the Automotive Technology Center, delivered a keynote address.
Yu Peng stated that the era of physical AI has arrived, fundamentally redefining the role of the vehicle chassis. He noted that while industry focus in recent years has been intensely concentrated on smart cabins and autonomous driving—which are critically important—a vehicle's true intelligence cannot be confined to screens and algorithms alone. It must extend deep into the vehicle's motion control system, which is the chassis.
He elaborated that the chassis determines how a car perceives the road, reacts, and protects the safety of every occupant in extreme situations. He believes this is the most essential foundation of an intelligent vehicle. Based on this conviction, XPeng Inc. will continue to significantly increase its R&D investment in its native AI chassis architecture. When asked why XPeng Inc. is investing such substantial effort into developing a native AI chassis, Yu Peng explained, "We believe the most effective weapon against industry involution is to continuously increase investment in new technology R&D, delivering truly differentiated and valuable products to users through technological innovation."
He mentioned that XPeng Inc. is a technology and intelligence company striving for global leadership in the physical AI era. The AI chassis capabilities it has developed for automobiles, including its fully self-developed, end-to-end motion control algorithms, are not limited to cars. They can be extended to other intelligent physical-world terminals such as humanoid robots and aircraft. The motion control capabilities represented by the chassis are the core infrastructure for embodied intelligence.
Consequently, Yu Peng pointed out that XPeng Inc.'s strategic deployments across chips, robotics, and aircraft are not isolated efforts. They are interconnected through the physical world, forming a synergistic network. AI chassis technologies validated in automobiles are now being transferred to robotics, while the dexterous experiences gained from robotics are, in turn, enhancing automotive autonomous driving systems. This synergy substantially improves the efficiency of R&D investments across the physical AI domain. XPeng Inc. will also focus on the large-scale implementation of its second-generation VRA 2.0 large model.
In closing, Yu Peng expressed XPeng Inc.'s firm belief that AI will fundamentally transform all aspects of life in the future. The company will continue to operate with a global perspective, delve deeply into embodied intelligence, and explore the boundless possibilities of physical AI through full-stack in-house research, aiming to break through industry involution. He looks forward to collaborating with the industry to usher in the next golden decade. "AI is not a distant vision; it is happening now. We firmly believe that the integration of physical AI starts with the chassis."
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