(Yicai) July 6 -- China has taken the lead in the global assisted driving market, whether in technologies and products or the formulation of laws and regulations, according to the founder and chief executive of Chinese technology company Xpeng Group.

Only China and the United States have achieved large-scale rollout of Level-2 assisted driving, while most other regions, including the European Union, are yet to catch up, He Xiaopeng, who is also chairman of Xpeng, told media, including Yicai.

In addition, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has actively pushed forward the formulation of mandatory national standards for autonomous driving systems in the country, He pointed out, adding that draft standards have been completed and are undergoing approval procedures.

The national standards cover core technical specifications laid out in the newly released United Nations Global Technical Regulation on Automated Driving Systems and put forward more detailed technical requirements for Level-3 and Level-4 autonomous driving systems based on China's industrial realities and regulatory demands, clearly defining safety baselines for vehicles of different automation levels, He stressed.

Xpeng is not only a Chinese manufacturer of smart vehicles, but a member of the committee responsible for drafting UN traffic regulations, He said. The Guangzhou-based company is actively aligning its products with regulatory requirements and continuously upgrading relevant technical capabilities, he pointed out.

Xpeng's first global model, the Mona L03, opened domestic pre-orders on July 2, while its global prices will be unveiled on July 16, followed by the launch of sales. Having carried out global market adaptation work at the research and development stage, the launch breaks the firm's previous pattern of a long lag between the domestic and overseas release of new models.

Except for cars, Xpeng will also export its self-developed smart driving tech. According to its roadmap, the company will accelerate overseas adaptation, certification, and technical export preparation for its second-generation vision–language–action architecture starting next month, with the tech set to enter global markets in phases next year.

He looks forward to competing side by side with top global smart driving tech players, noting that relevant Chinese technologies will "go global" no later than late this year or early next year, while overseas tech will also "enter China." Only such two-way exchanges can drive technological progress, he stressed.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev