Li Liyun, the former head of Xpeng’s autonomous driving center, has left the Chinese electric vehicle maker following his replacement by Liu Xianming, a company executive with expertise in artificial intelligence, according to local media outlet LatePost.
Li, who joined Xpeng in June 2019, reflected on his 76-month tenure at the company, highlighting the expansion of the automaker’s smart driving system from highway applications to urban roads, the transition from reliance on high-definition maps to map-free operation, and a shift from multi-sensor dependence to vision-based systems.
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Xpeng announced in an internal memo on October 9 that Li would no longer serve as head of its autonomous driving center, with Liu, previously head of the company’s AI team, stepping into the role. Liu earned a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2016 and joined Xpeng in March 2024.
The change marks the most significant leadership adjustment in Xpeng’s autonomous driving team since August 2023, when vice president of autonomous driving Wu Xinzhou departed to join Nvidia. Li had assumed leadership of the autonomous driving center at that time.
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