Guangzhou has become the launchpad for what Xpeng says is China’s first mass-produced, fully in‑house robotaxi, marking a new phase in the city’s push to turn autonomous driving from a pilot project into real business.

Xpeng announced this week that the first unit of its Level‑4 self‑driving robotaxi has officially rolled off the production line at its Guangzhou headquarters, making it the first Chinese automaker to reach mass production of a robotaxi developed end‑to‑end with its own hardware and software. 

The vehicle is built on the new Xpeng GX platform and is described as a “pre‑assembled, production‑ready” model engineered to operate without human input in defined urban operating zones.

At the heart of the car is Xpeng’s proprietary Turing computing platform. The robotaxi uses four in‑house Turing AI chips, delivering about 3,000 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of on‑board computing power – a figure the company says sets an industry benchmark for vehicles aimed at fully autonomous service. 

[See more: Shenzhen’s humanoid edge: how the city is leading the robot world]

A dense sensor suite and redundant steering, braking and power systems are designed to meet China’s emerging standards for L4 intelligent connected vehicles.

Xpeng secured a road‑testing permit for L4 intelligent connected vehicles in Guangzhou in January, and has since been running routine public‑road tests with a safety driver. The company now plans to launch pilot robotaxi operations in the second half of 2026 to validate the technology, gauge user acceptance and stress‑test its business model. 

President Brian Gu told Reuters that Xpeng expects to produce “hundreds to thousands” of robotaxis over the next 12 to 18 months, with the goal of achieving fully driverless operations without an on‑board safety officer by early 2027.

Inside, the robo‑taxi is pitched as a premium experience rather than a stripped‑down shuttle. The production model includes privacy glass, reclining “gravity” seats, rear entertainment screens and a voice‑controlled cabin that lets passengers adjust climate and media without touching physical controls.