(Yicai) Oct. 17 -- Li Shufu and Lei Jun were among the leaders of major Chinese automakers sharing insights and views on the development and safety of smart connected vehicles at an industry summit in Beijing.

Smart car technology should be built around user values and safety, focusing on solving real-world problems, Li, founder and chairman of Geely Holding Group, said in a speech at the 2025 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference yesterday.

Li noted that while self-developed technology is fundamental, industry collaboration is essential, and called for cross-industry standards and integration, adding that the development of smart connected cars signifies the transformation and modernization of manufacturing.

Lei, who set up and chairs Xiaomi, highlighted the potential of large language models in expanding the possibilities for intelligent connected vehicles. The Beijing-based firm is exploring the use of edge-side LLMs to enhance voice interactions and enable more natural human-machine exchanges by integrating emotion recognition, multimodal interaction, and spatial awareness, he added.

Xiaomi’s first car model has been on the market for a year and a half, with around 400,000 delivered so far, Lei said in his speech. The company has connected nearly one billion smart devices and serves over 10,000 partners and developers.

Advances in smart electric car technologies raise potential safety issues with assisted driving and batteries as well as data security and privacy protection, said Zhang Xinghai, founder and chairman of Seres Group. Automakers need to strike a balance between safety and innovation, he noted.

For instance, Seres’ Aito brand, created in collaboration with Huawei Technologies, has logged nearly 3.8 billion kilometers using assisted driving, has successfully avoided over two million potential collisions, and has provided more than 200,000 proactive safety services, saving users over 370,000 hours of repair time, he said.

Reducing accidents should be the top priority in the current stage of autonomous driving development, Li Bin, founder of Nio, said during a roundtable event.

Within four to six years, self-driving technology will reach or even surpass the ability of human drivers, said Cao Xudong, chief executive of Momenta. Robotaxis and advanced assisted driving will become the norm, he said during the discussion.

By 2030, vehicles with Level 2 and above autonomous driving features will account for more than 70 percent of the market, with Level 3 making up the rest, according to Thomas Ulbrich, chief technology officer of Volkswagen Group China, who was also in the roundtable.

This will be a major consideration for consumers when choosing a vehicle, he said, adding that clear regulations will be key to both technological progress and market adoption.

Editor: Kim Taylor