On the eve of Tesla's announcement of its Robotaxi, Xpeng Motors (XPEV, Financial) has begun recruiting for its own Robotaxi operations team. This move comes as a surprise, as just over two months ago, Xpeng's Chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, had stated that the company would not engage in operations. The decision highlights the industry's ongoing debate over the viability of L4 autonomous driving, especially with companies like Tesla and Xpeng utilizing an end-to-end large model purely based on vision technology, which some industry leaders criticize as insufficient for achieving full autonomy required for Robotaxis.
According to recruitment listings, Xpeng Motors is seeking to fill positions such as Robotaxi Operations Director and Senior Product Operations Manager. The Operations Director role offers a monthly salary range of 40,000 to 60,000 RMB, with a total of 15 months' salary payable annually, potentially nearing one million RMB per year. Candidates for this role need experience with leading global Robotaxi companies and expertise in building a complete autonomous driving operations system with team management experience of 20 to 50 people.
Xpeng Motors has not yet commented on the reason for this recruitment initiative, although the company plans to launch its Robotaxi vehicles in 2026. The company is pushing the boundaries by rapidly iterating its XNGP intelligent driving assistance system and recently unveiled the Xpeng P7+, which features advanced AI vision driving solutions, eliminating the previously standard laser radar.
Despite rapid technological advancements, there is skepticism within the industry. Executives from companies like TuSimple and Lightyear express doubts about the capability of end-to-end models to transition from L2 assistance to L4 autonomy due to the absence of necessary redundancies and the technical enigmatic 'black box' issues.
He Xiaopeng remains optimistic about the potential of end-to-end technology, predicting a significant breakthrough by 2025 akin to a "ChatGPT moment" for full autonomous driving. In contrast, Tesla is pursuing a combined vehicle production and service model for Robotaxis, aiming to maintain a competitive edge in this emerging space.
