Inside China’s EV and smart-driving ecosystem. Real-world testing, interviews and reporting from the ground.
Shanghai, China
Joined July 2015
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21 KM. 10 ADAS Systems. Zero Passes. Was the Route Too Tough, or Were the Cars Not Good Enough?
10 cars, 10 different intelligent driving systems, and one ultimate challenge: a 21 km route through some of Shanghai’s most complex urban roads, starting from Lujiazui.
Each car started with 100 points. Lose more than 10 points, and you're out.
The result? All 10 intelligent driving systems failed, while a human driver narrowly passed with 91 points!
Beyond safety interventions, we also evaluated ride comfort, driving strategies on major roads and narrow streets, and overall driving efficiency.
Intelligent driving shouldn't just be usable — it should be genuinely good to use.
This time, we're not creating a leaderboard. Instead, we're using real-world scenarios and data to explore where urban intelligent driving stands today, and how far it still has to go before it delivers a truly great experience.
We'll also be publishing the details of our test route so anyone can take on the same challenge. Successfully complete the retest, and you'll receive a random gift from us!
Dongfeng eπ refreshed the 007 for MY2027 at today’s Wuhan Auto Show.
Limited subsidy:
• 550 Cruise: from RMB 109,900
• 675 Lidar: from RMB 129,900
(list RMB 115,900–135,900)
675 Lidar: 73.5 kWh, CLTC 675 km, Hesai ATX lidar + Tianyuan T200 (city/highway NOA).
Geely Auto's Q3 2026:
• Sales 812,500 (+7% YoY)
• Revenue RMB 98.96B (+10%)
• Net profit attributable RMB 4.84B (+28%)
• Core profit RMB 5.21B (+32%)
Revenue outgrew volume, which Geely credits to much stronger exports and a richer product mix.
Source: Geely Automobile Q3 results announcement (HKEX: 0175)
Japan's biggest automaker building the car, Waymo bringing the driver. Testing and validation start in 2027. Curious how much of the sensor hardware Toyota will integrate at the factory.
Today, we’re announcing the next phase of our autonomous driving collaboration with @ToyotaMotorCorp to scale a fleet of bZ4X autonomous vehicles in Japan, beginning with testing and validation in 2027.
Read more about our partnership here: waymo.com/blog/2026/10/toyot…
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本日、@ToyotaMotorCorpとの自動運転分野における協業を新たな段階へと進めることを発表します。2027年に開始する試験および検証を皮切りに、日本国内で「bZ4X」の自動運転フリートの拡大を進めてまいります。
パートナーシップの詳細はこちらをご覧ください：
waymo.com/blog/2026/10/toyot…
Japan's biggest automaker building the car, Waymo bringing the driver. Testing and validation start in 2027. Curious how much of the sensor hardware Toyota will integrate at the factory.
Today, we’re announcing the next phase of our autonomous driving collaboration with @ToyotaMotorCorp to scale a fleet of bZ4X autonomous vehicles in Japan, beginning with testing and validation in 2027.
Read more about our partnership here: waymo.com/blog/2026/10/toyot…
__
本日、@ToyotaMotorCorpとの自動運転分野における協業を新たな段階へと進めることを発表します。2027年に開始する試験および検証を皮切りに、日本国内で「bZ4X」の自動運転フリートの拡大を進めてまいります。
パートナーシップの詳細はこちらをご覧ください：
waymo.com/blog/2026/10/toyot…
Dongfeng and CATL just signed their third group-level strategic deal, after earlier ones covering the last two five-year plans.
What's new this time:
• Voyah, M-Hero and Yijing will be first to get CATL's next-gen 10C+ fast-charging batteries
• eπ, Yijing and M-Hero move onto battery swapping, and Dongfeng's commercial trucks get swap models too
• A shared overseas after-sales network, with batteries supplied locally from production bases
No specific models or timelines yet.
We're trying to buy the new Li Auto i6 tonight, and quick-delivery cars are already hard to get: once we picked AWD plus the dual Mach chip pack, there was no quick-delivery car left to choose.
The 2026 i6 is now on sale in China. Official price: from RMB 249,800, or RMB 239,800 as a launch offer for orders placed by Nov 30. Li Auto says deliveries start right away.
What else we caught at the launch:
- The electric front trunk is finally here, and 2025 i6 owners can pay to retrofit it from December.
- Three special paints, normally RMB 6,000, are free during the launch period.
- Li Auto says the outgoing i6 sold nearly 190,000 units.
Key numbers:
- Battery: 96 kWh, up from 87 kWh
- CLTC range: 780 km RWD / 710 km AWD
- Europe: sold as the "Li 6", Norway and the Netherlands first, from Q1 2027
We own a 2025 i6, so we know the old car well. This is a mid-cycle update: on top of the bigger pack and front trunk, it adds ADB adaptive headlights and swaps the front ultrasonic sensors for UWB radar, which tidies up the nose. Our gripe: with the new semi-hidden door handles, the interior door-open button pushes your elbow into the B-pillar.
For mostly city driving, we'd pick RWD, which gets 70 km more CLTC range than AWD. Our own car will go into a long-term battery test.
The day after launch we went to a Li Auto store. What the product specialist told us:
• Almost every store in Shanghai has passed 100 orders, and test drives are fully booked
• Ready-stock cars are sold out; a new custom build now takes 7–8 weeks per the app
• Most buyers come straight for the i6: young families buying a first car, and owners of 5–6-year-old gas cars
• What they notice first: the power frunk, front zero-gravity seats and the wide display
• A few ask about Li's in-house 5C battery, but not many
In a poll of our community after launch, satisfaction was 83% for product completeness, 74% for price, 50% for battery trust and 31% for the value of paid options.
Avatr canceled its Oct 29 livestream for the 07L Max BEV at the last minute. The car still launches — config, price and launch perks land at 18:30 Beijing time today.
VP Yong Jun says they skipped the stage show on purpose after weighing config and pricing feedback on the existing 07L: tonight's numbers are "our answer in action."
(Avatr is the Changan–Huawei–CATL premium EV brand.)
No stage show, but the price is out: the Avatr 07L Max BEV starts at RMB 229,900, or RMB 215,900 with the limited-time launch offer.
• Huawei Qiankun ADS 5 driver assistance, an 896-line lidar and 27 sensors in total
• HarmonyOS cockpit with a 35.4-inch 4K display and a 15.6-inch center screen
• 3-meter-class wheelbase, zero-gravity front passenger seat, CATL battery
Chinese driver-assistance chip startup XHEART launched its X7 Ultra today: 700 TOPS for large driving models (equivalent TOPS, ADAS use only), plus what it calls China's first mass-produced Armv9 automotive-grade CPU.
On stage it also previewed the X9, due in 2027: 3,000 TOPS and 700 GB/s of memory bandwidth, built for next-gen world models.
XHEART says the X7 series has been in mass production for 8 months, with 200,000+ chips shipped, 10 production models on the road and orders covering 40+ models.
XPeng's MONA L05, a large five-seat SUV, is now on sale in China in both battery-electric and extended-range versions.
Prices with the launch offer (RMB 5,000 off for orders placed by Dec 15):
• 560 Plus BEV: RMB 139,800
• 535 Max BEV: RMB 149,800
• 1310 Max EREV: RMB 149,800
• 635 Max BEV: RMB 159,800
• 1310 Ultra SE EREV: RMB 161,800
• 635 Ultra SE BEV: RMB 171,800
List prices are RMB 5,000 higher.
Volkswagen's China joint ventures have swung to a loss. VW's share of their operating result was -€113M for the first nine months of 2026, vs +€744M a year earlier.
China deliveries: 1.38M in 9M (-30.2% YoY), 405.8k in Q3 (-38.5%). VW also booked ~€1B of impairments on its fully consolidated China companies.
One bright spot: electrified deliveries in China rose ~30% YoY in Q3, led by PHEV and EREV models.
Source: Volkswagen Group 9M 2026 results
volkswagen-group.com/en/pres…
BYD now has more than 1.02 million employees, chairman Wang Chuanfu said on stage at the China Society of Automotive Engineers' annual congress on Oct 28.
• About 960,000 in China, about 60,000 overseas
• About 120,000 R&D engineers, working on batteries, motors, electronic controls and semiconductors
Wang credits the scale to BYD's vertical integration, keeping core parts like batteries, motors and chips in-house.
We’re going big!
Ten cars take on a 21-km urban driving test in Shanghai. Who will make it to the end? And how well can their driver-assistance systems really handle everyday city streets?
October 30. Don't miss it!
Yijing's Zeng Qinglin confirmed a Taizhou Yijing X9 fire was due to being rear-ended by a loaded truck. All passengers were safe; the battery remained intact despite fire damage.
South Korean police have referred 80 Tesla owners to prosecutors for allegedly unlocking FSD on cars that aren't approved to run it, and seized 21 unauthorized activation devices (Seoul Metropolitan Police, Oct 27, via Yonhap). Yonhap TV says it's the first case of its kind in Korea.
Some owners reportedly bought devices overseas; others built their own. All 80 are still only suspects.
Context: in Korea, only US-built Model S, Model X and Cybertruck can officially use FSD (Supervised), under a KORUS FTA safety-standard exemption. Per TV Chosun, about 180,000 of the ~240,000 Teslas in Korea can't.
Under Korea's Motor Vehicle Management Act, unauthorized changes to safety-related software can carry up to 2 years in prison or a KRW 20 million fine.
yna.co.kr/view/AKR2026102706…
Mercedes' Q3 results are out, and China is the biggest drag.
• Mercedes-Benz Cars adjusted EBIT: €560M, vs €1,139M a year ago
• Adjusted return on sales: 2.5% (Q3 2025: 4.8%)
• Cars sold: 407,232, down 8%. China -31%, Europe +5%, US +6%
• Record BEV quarter: up 61% YoY, 16.8% of global sales
Mercedes points to a tougher China market with "further intensifying competition."
group.mercedes-benz.com/inve…
Mercedes' own Q3 sales release puts numbers on it: China car sales -31% YoY, while car sales outside China rose 1%. GLC and E-Class were almost two-thirds of its China volume, and the electric GLC L launched there in July. Full Q3 results land Oct 28.
media.mercedes-benz.com/en/a…