Huawei Confirms L3 Autonomous Driving on Highways Next Year, Welcomes Tesla FSD to China

Li Wenguang, President of Huawei's Intelligent Driving Solution Product Line, stated that from a technical perspective, Huawei will achieve Level 3 (L3) autonomous driving on highways next year. This year, the company will launch relevant pilot programs, and upon their successful completion, seek routine regulatory approval. Some high-end vehicle models to be launched in the second half of this year will come pre-equipped with hardware capable of supporting highway L3 functionality. Li emphasized that current driver-assistance systems still fall significantly short of true autonomous driving, noting that autonomous systems must demonstrate safety records of at least several hundred thousand kilometers without accidents. Regarding the industry practice of offering "safety-net" guarantees for intelligent driving features, Li revealed that Huawei is collaborating with three insurance companies to introduce parking and intelligent driving-related benefits. He believes such partnerships can generate new business opportunities for the insurance sector. He also noted that competition among automakers has now extended into downstream areas like insurance and after-sales services, creating considerable pressure—but safety remains paramount, as personal injuries cannot be remedied merely by repairing vehicles. Li disclosed that Huawei has invested over RMB 10 billion in autonomous driving this year, with investments expected to exceed RMB 20 billion next year. On Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system entering the Chinese market, he expressed a welcoming attitude, stating it would foster healthy competition, accelerate technological improvements, and help popularize subscription-based models. If Huawei can deliver superior performance at a lower price, it would further boost adoption of its own subscription services. As of April this year, vehicles equipped with Huawei’s Qiankun ADS intelligent driving system have reached 1.7 million units, with the figure projected to hit 3 million by year-end. Data shows that under typical Chinese road conditions, conventional vehicles experience one severe accident—requiring airbag deployment or seatbelt pretensioner activation—every 1.8 million kilometers on average. In contrast, vehicles equipped with Qiankun ADS achieve an improved rate of one such incident every 5.17 million kilometers when driven manually, and this further improves to one every 7.57 million kilometers when driver-assistance features are engaged—representing 2.87 times and 4.2 times the national average, respectively.