Horizon VP Lu Peng: The Era of Physical AI Is Here; Cabin-Driving Integrated AI Chip Coming in 2026

In a public speech, Horizon Robotics Vice President Lü Peng stated that the industry has reached a critical inflection point in the era of Physical AI. This era is not merely about opening new tracks but entails a comprehensive reconfiguration of the entire industrial development logic. He emphasized that Physical AI, as a computing platform empowering all things, relies on exceptional hardware-software integration capabilities and will give rise to an entirely new computing ecosystem. Lü outlined four core thresholds for building a Physical AI super platform: First, extreme hardware-software synergy, including chip customization tailored to algorithms in advance; Second, genuine openness—collaborating with partners across the industrial chain to co-build an ecosystem; Third, cross-scenario, large-scale validation, with automotive being the first high-safety, mass-commercialized vehicle for Physical AI; Fourth, cross-domain extensibility—the ability to scale the core technical framework across diverse fields. He stressed that the automotive sector represents the optimal scenario for deploying Physical AI technologies. By leveraging hardware-software synergy to unlock performance and adhering to an open ecosystem strategy, Horizon has already achieved mass production of tens of millions of chips. Looking ahead to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Horizon is driving deep integration between Physical AI and Digital AI at both software and hardware levels. Lü revealed that Horizon plans to unveil China’s first cabin-and-driving integrated AI agent chip—the Starlight series—at its annual product launch on April 22, 2026. This chip will consolidate complex computing tasks, enhance performance, reduce costs, and enable deeper fusion of Physical AI and Digital AI. Going forward, Horizon will use the automotive domain as its starting point to build a universal Physical AI computing foundation and jointly define new industry directions with partners.