EVwire brief: Xpeng has become the first automaker in China to mass-produce a purpose-built robotaxi, rolling the first unit off its Guangzhou production line today.
The vehicle is built on the company's GX platform to Level 4 autonomous driving standards, powered by four in-house Turing AI chips delivering up to 3,000 TOPS of onboard computing.
Pilot operations are set to begin in H2 2026, with Xpeng targeting fully driverless daily service with no on-site safety officers by early 2027.
Xpeng celebrated the milestone on X:
Context:
Similar to Tesla’s Robotaxis in the United States, Xpeng’s autonomous GX robotaxis use a pure-vision autonomous driving system instead of LiDAR or high-definition maps. This mirrors the strategy Xpeng has increasingly adopted across its broader vehicle lineup.
Xpeng said the robotaxi’s decision-making system is driven by its VLA 2.0 end-to-end AI model, which reportedly reduces system response latency to under 80 milliseconds.
The company says the platform is designed for flexible urban deployment across multiple cities and even cross-border operations.
Inside the cabin, the robotaxi features privacy glass, zero-gravity seats, rear entertainment screens, and voice-controlled cabin settings.
Xpeng also sells the regular GX, a manually driven version of its robotaxi. The regular GX is a full-size SUV with a starting pre-sale price of RMB 399,800 ($58,700).
Xpeng’s GX robotaxis use a vision-only system
Xpeng’s commercialization push in autonomous mobility
Xpeng established a dedicated robotaxi business unit earlier this year to oversee product development, testing, and operations as the company pushes toward commercial autonomous ride-hailing deployment.
The automaker also recently opened its robotaxi software development kit (SDK), with Amap becoming its first ecosystem partner.
Xpeng described the rollout as a key transition point for the robotaxi industry as companies move from limited technical demonstrations toward scalable commercial deployment.
The robotaxi platform also shares the same VLA 2.0 AI foundation used by Iron, its humanoid robot.
The first Xpeng GX robotaxis were produced at Guangzhou
Source: CNEV Post
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