Li Xiang, CEO of Chinese electric car maker Li Auto, said AI means everything to the company.
After nine months out of the public eye, Li Xiang is back, appearing on the 2024 Li Auto AI Talk on Wednesday night.
In the interview, Li talked about his views on artificial intelligence and why he is building Li Auto into a leading global AI company.
When asked why Li Auto doesn't want to build cars again and wants to be an AI company, Li said, "Building cars is definitely the way to go."
"Electrification is the first half and intelligence is the second half," he further said. "But I think this intelligence is not talking about traditional software intelligence, but real artificial intelligence, which is a must for car building to continue down the road."
"Cars will evolve from being a means of transportation in the industrial age to becoming space robots in the age of artificial intelligence," Li added.
He revealed that close to half of Li Auto's R&D investment of over 10 billion yuan a year goes into AI.
Li said, "When large models emerge, my biggest feeling is that humanity will change fundamentally."
He believes that this change is reflected in the fact that the Internet has realized the equalization of information, and AI is beginning to help everyone realize the equalization of knowledge cognition and ability.
As a result, Li said AI in vision means the future in its entirety for Li Auto.
Li said in the interview that he doesn't want to dabble in the robotaxi sector like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, "because our mission is to 'create mobile homes, create happy homes.'"
However, he said Li Auto will definitely make robots, but not now, rather after it has achieved some results in L4 and self-driving cars.
As for the positioning of Li Auto, Li said, "Li Auto is an AI enterprise, what we want to do is not the intelligentization of the car, but the automatization of AI, and will promote the universalization of AI to every family."
In the interview, Li also responded to the purchase of a Ferrari car, even though it has neither AI nor self-driving capabilities.
He said many of his friends, as well as shareholders, have challenged Li Auto with the next phase of how the brand will do upgrades.
Li said that in the automotive industry he thinks the brands that do the best job and are his favorite are BMW and Ferrari, but that he has not yet experienced Ferrari himself.
Therefore, he believes that the only way to understand what Ferrari actually does is through experience, which can become his own knowledge and ability.
Referring to the possibility of making a sports car, Li said, "My thought today is that maybe by 2030 there is a 50% chance that we will make a very interesting supercar, but it will have to be an AI sports car."
