Vice President of Autonomous Driving Xinzhou Wu has resigned from his position at Xpeng, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer and rival to Tesla, citing personal and family obligations.
Wu, the leader of Xpeng’s autonomous Driving and a highly sought-after asset, was instrumental in propelling the company to new heights of success. He used to work for Qualcomm, where he rose to the position of senior director of engineering. He was able to outsmart other electric vehicle drivers and obtain a competitive advantage.
Xpeng is dedicated to enhancing the system and has just released an ADAS called Xpeng navigation guided pilot (XNPG), which is similar to Tesla’s full self-driving system (FSD).
In addition, Xpeng improved its city navigation features in March for customers in first-tier cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. The new and improved technology is so effective that its penetration rate has risen above 60%. By 2023’s end, the business hopes to have implemented a system that requires one or fewer human takeovers per 1,000 kilometres driven when using its highway navigation.
Despite not disclosing his plans, Wu is widely regarded as Xpeng’s largest avsset. However, word on the street has it that he’s moving up the ranks in Nvidia’s autonomous driving team. He Xiaopeng, CEO and creator of Xpeng, has confirmed the rumours, expressing his delight at the prospect of Wu becoming a senior management in a multinational conglomerate working in tandem with Xpeng on chip technology.
Nvidia, a pioneer in the field of autonomous vehicles with products like the Drive platform and cutting-edge car chips, was a fantastic partner for Xpeng.
Wu has been replaced by Luyin Li, a senior director of autonomous driving. This change, he claims, has been in the works for about a year, and it will go off “smoothly.”
For Wu, “I believe Xpeng’s solid team and system will propel forward the development of ADAS until the era of driverless cars arrives.”
It is unfortunate that Wu has decided to depart the company. Just a week after Xpend disclosed a promising investment from Volkswagen, the decision became public. The two companies plan to shortly collaborate on the development of electric car models specifically targeted at the Chinese market.
Although Wu’s departure won’t have a major impact on Xpend, it will be the end of an era there. Wu is a specialist in artificial intelligence who moved back to China after working in Silicon Valley as a manager of research and development teams.
Sad to say, Wu reflected on his time with Xpeng, saying, “Five years ago, I crossed the ocean to join Xpeng, landing on the right platform at the right time.” Inadvertently, I entered a competition that whipped up a storm and lit the competitors’ souls on fire.