China’s Tesla rival Li Auto wants to expand into an AI and robot company


Li Auto, one of China’s closest rivals to US electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla, is looking to reposition itself as an artificial intelligence (AI) company and produce humanoid robots one day, according to the founder, as mainland policymakers bet on robotics innovation to supercharge the economy amid rapid AI advances.

AI means “everything” for Li Auto’s future, founder and CEO Li Xiang said in a video published to the premium EV maker’s website on Wednesday. The company aims for its foundational AI model to become one of the top three in China in a few years, competing with major tech firms beyond the car industry, he said.

Li Auto will soon launch a mobile app for its AI assistant Lixiang Tongxue, built on its self-developed foundational model Mind GPT, Li added.

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China’s four best-performing foundational AI models are from start-up ZhipuAI, AI pioneer SenseTime, smartphone maker Oppo and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, according to the latest rankings by SuperClue, a benchmarking platform. Mind GPT was not ranked among the more than 40 models listed.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Li Auto cars on display at a motor show in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province. Photo: Xinhua alt=Li Auto cars on display at a motor show in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province. Photo: Xinhua>

Li Auto’s AI push comes amid rapid development in AI technologies including large language models (LLMs), which underpin popular services, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. At the same time, local governments across China have introduced policies to accelerate robotics innovations.

Just as Tesla have been developing its Optimus robots, Hong Kong and New York-listed Li Auto plans to make humanoids, although this effort will move forward after the company achieves level-4 autonomous driving, according to Li

Level-4 autonomy refers to how highly autonomous vehicles that can handle most driving scenarios, which may still require a driver to take over in some situations. Li said at an industry conference in June that the company can reach this level within three years.

The EV maker’s planned venture into robotics would pit it against numerous rivals on the mainland that are trying to mass-produce AI-powered machines. A number of Chinese tech companies unveiled more than two dozen humanoids at the 2024 World Robot Conference in Beijing in August.




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