(bright upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Driving today might feel like
you're using a tech gadget.
Especially if it's a car developed
by Chinese automaker XPENG.
First, you'll need your phone to activate the features.
- We need to scan it.
(beep)
- [Narrator] Then you'll give commands.
(woman speaking foreign language)
(car replies in foreign language)
- [Narrator] And when you get to your destination
the vehicle will park itself.
(car speaking foreign language)
- [Narrator] These features are all part of XPENG's
strategy to stand out
in the world's second biggest market for electric vehicles.
The company is competing in China,
not only with EV leaders like Tesla,
- [Man] The all electric, F-150 lightning.
- [Narrator] But also traditional automakers
like Ford and GM, which are doubling down
on producing electric vehicles too.
- Technology, combined with mobility and auto,
is where we think the future is gonna be.
- [Narrator] One high-tech feature
automakers are racing to build,
full self-driving capabilities.
But putting more tech in vehicles
creates engineering challenges and also risky behaviors.
- She's totally asleep.
- [Narrator] Like Tesla, XPENG is trying
to push the boundaries of integrating tech into our cars,
and has gotten into a spat with Elon Musk over software.
(tech music)
So we went to XPENG's, RND lab
to understand its vision for driving.
- We are working on a very unique culture
and capability that allows to rapidly innovate.
We'll be able to be one of the top players in China.
(man speaking foreign language)
- [Narrator] XPENG has always operated
like a tech startup since it was founded in 2014.
- We have lot of the traditional auto background employees.
At the same time we have staff
coming from leading technology companies.
- Brian Gu is a former JP Morgan executive,
who took over as XPENG's vice chairman
and president in 2018.
- We actually dedicate close to 40% of our staff
in the RND area in software.
So I think that's very different compared
to traditional auto companies.
(champion bell rings)
- [Narrator] Gu was the man behind XPENG's IPO
on the New York stock exchange last year,
that raised $1.7 billion.
Using this money, XPENG hired more engineers
and poached talent from China's top tech companies
like Tencent and Alibaba.
And one of the big goals for this larger engineering team
is to develop self-driving technology.
Currently, XPENG offers what it calls,
"Advanced driver assistance systems."
This controls the car on a highway,
but you have to keep your hands on the steering wheel.
In five years, XPENG's goal
is to develop a fully autonomous vehicle
that doesn't need anyone in the seat.
To make this happen, it's invested a lot
in software and hardware.
- We are keeping basically investment
in autonomous driving as our number one priority.
- [Narrator] Xinzhou Wu
leads XPENG's autonomous driving division.
Its software decides when the car should accelerate
or brake, and that relies on information
that comes from a vast array of sensors.
Plus, the most recent XPENG cars are going to be equipped
with a special piece of hardware called Lidar,
which uses light waves to map what's around.
- Lidar can do a range calculation
to get a kind of a 3D world view.
Here we can make autonomous driving in the city safer.
- [Narrator] Lidar is expensive,
typically costing about a $1000 a piece.
And XPENG's latest car will take two.
The company will be the first automaker
to mass produce Lidar-equipped vehicles this year.
And its entry point will be lower than $35,000.
But XPENG's tech strategy has some big detractors.
- Lidar is, is a fool's errand, expensive sensors,
that are unnecessary.
- [Narrator] Tesla is taking a different approach
and instead of investing in software
that can interpret what's on the road,
using only regular cameras.
- Tesla has very much tried to do self-driving
on the cheap with the bare minimum number of sensors
that they think they can get away with.
- [Narrator] Sam Abuelsamid is an auto analyst
who's been analyzing EV tech features for the past 10 years.
During a recent road test of EV's self-driving capabilities,
Tesla came in first by a big margin.
But Abuelsamid says XPENG's system has more potential
because of its hardware.
- With the right software, you can do distance measurement,
but it's never going to be as accurate or as reliable
as what you could do with active sensors like Lidar.
- [Narrator] A lot of sensors and cameras
potentially mean the self-driving software
is receiving more useful information
about what's on the road.
Just compare XPENG's 32 sensors in its latest sedan,
to the 12 sensors and 8 cameras in a Tesla vehicle.
Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment,
but Musk has tweeted several times
that its camera based system
is more precise than sensors like Lidar.
But the Tesla and XPENG rivalry
goes beyond choice of hardware.
It all came to a head when Tesla filed a lawsuit in 2019
against one of its former employees in the US,
who had quit to join XPENG.
The lawsuit alleged that he took copies of the source code
of Tesla's current driver assistance system,
in order to hand it over to his new employer.
In court documents, Tesla alleged the Chinese company was
inspired by and on a mission to beat Tesla.
And has transparently imitated Tesla's design, technology
and even its business model.
In April, Tesla settled the lawsuit
with the former employee,
who acknowledged he shouldn't have saved the source codes.
But said he didn't provide it to XPENG.
XPENG said the engineer no longer works for the company
and that its in-house developed RND
has been its competitive advantage.
- I view Tesla as our partner rather than competitor.
Tesla never brought that claim against our company,
which means that there is no evidence
to point any wrongdoing.
(car accelerating)
- [Narrator] But if there's one challenge
that the two rivals are facing together,
it's the uphill battle with the public perception
of their prized tech.
- There's a growing sense that
the driver assistance systems that they have,
the capabilities have been oversold.
- [Narrator] Edward Niedermeyer is an industry observer
who pushes for self-driving technology
as a way to make roads safer.
- Okay Tesla, let's get this trip started.
- [Narrator] But he says social media videos
showing some drivers operating a Tesla
from the backseat, shows how dangerous these systems
can be when people are not using them properly.
- There's considerable research that shows us,
people are much more likely to misuse those systems
if they overestimate their capability.
- [Narrator] Tesla has repeatedly said
that features it offers make driving safer.
Meanwhile, XPENG is working on a driver's test,
acknowledging that its self-driving system has limitations.
- For our drivers to be able to unlock
the autonomous driving features,
they actually need to take a test.
We also need to educate the drivers
how to properly use those technologies.
(tech music)
- [Narrator] So while XPENG hordes
it's self-driving capabilities,
engineers are beefing up other tech features
like it's voice recognition system.
(woman speaking foreign language)
(car answers in foreign language)
- [Narrator] Or making its battery management software
super efficient.
XPENG has already started selling cars in Norway
and says these tweaks will help it crack
the larger Europe market.
And someday, the company plans to have its cars on US roads
right alongside Tesla vehicles.
(innovative music)