Ex-Tesla Engineer: Chinese Automakers 1.5-2 Years Behind in End-to-End Autonomous Driving
Gu Junli, a former Tesla engineer and current head of autonomous driving at Chery-affiliated ZDrive.ai, stated at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2024 that Chinese automakers lag approximately 1.5 to 2 years behind Tesla in developing end-to-end neural network technology for autonomous driving. While Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) v12 represents a significant leap in user experience and data utilization, Gu predicts Chinese companies will begin replacing rule-based ADAS modules with data-driven neural networks by 2025. However, fully integrated single-model systems similar to Tesla’s are not expected in Chinese production cars until 2026-2027. Major players like Li Auto, Xpeng, and Huawei are currently adopting partial end-to-end approaches but still rely on predefined rules or separate networks for specific tasks. Despite these challenges, Chinese firms are accelerating data collection and computing power improvements. Chery plans to launch advanced city navigation features in premium models by early next year, aiming to integrate Level 2 ADAS into 500,000 new vehicles this year. Gu emphasized that while Tesla leads, Chinese companies will contribute to broader, personalized global adoption of self-driving technology.
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Ex-Tesla Engineer: Chinese Automakers 1.5-2 Years Behind in End-to-End Autonomous Driving
Gu Junli, a former Tesla engineer and current head of autonomous driving at Chery-affiliated ZDrive.ai, stated at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2024 that Chinese automakers lag approximately 1.5 to 2 years behind Tesla in developing end-to-end neural network technology for autonomous driving. While Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) v12 represents a significant leap in user experience and data utilization, Gu predicts Chinese companies will begin replacing rule-based ADAS modules with data-driven neural networks by 2025. However, fully integrated single-model systems similar to Tesla’s are not expected in Chinese production cars until 2026-2027. Major players like Li Auto, Xpeng, and Huawei are currently adopting partial end-to-end approaches but still rely on predefined rules or separate networks for specific tasks. Despite these challenges, Chinese firms are accelerating data collection and computing power improvements. Chery plans to launch advanced city navigation features in premium models by early next year, aiming to integrate Level 2 ADAS into 500,000 new vehicles this year. Gu emphasized that while Tesla leads, Chinese companies will contribute to broader, personalized global adoption of self-driving technology.
TechNode