XPeng has used their 1024 Tech Day to unveil an assortment of new concepts including a flying car and a robotic pony that will haunt your dreams. Starting with the flying car, it was developed by XPeng’x Urban Air Mobility affiliate known as HT Aero.
The company didn’t go into many specifics,
but said the model was developed in-house and features multiple safety
redundancies as well as a lightweight design and a foldable rotor mechanism.
When the car is parked, two gullwing doors open and allow the rotors to swing
into place. The blades then extend, allowing the car to takeoff and land
vertically.
In terms of styling, the model looks like
a futuristic supercar as it features an aerodynamic design and partially
covered rear wheels. The flying car also sports a high-tech interior with a
transparent infotainment system and a digital display integrated into the
steering wheel. We can also see a central divider and unique controls for
flying. While the model looks pretty farfetched, XPeng says a roll-out is
planned for 2024. They also noted it will be “road-capable” and this suggests
it will be fully street-legal.
In other news, XPeng used the event to
announced plans to launch the XPilot 3.5 driver assistance system early next
year. It features the “industry’s first mass-produced quadruple perception
fusion solution, with dual-camera-vision coverage, complemented by LiDAR and
millimeter-wave radar sensors.” They will enable vehicles to see in 3D as well
as recognize, classify and note the position of objects around them.
Roughly a year later, in the first half of
2023, XPeng will roll out XPilot 4.0. It’s billed as a “full-scenario” driver
assistance system that allows for autonomous point-to-point driving. It’s
slated to use an 8 million pixel front-view binocular camera, 2.9 million pixel
side-view cameras and two Orin-X autonomous driving SoCs. The Tesla competitor
also announced plans for China’s first “800V high-voltage mass-production SiC
platform, with new-generation X-Power superchargers able to charge for a range
of up to 200 km in just 5 minutes.” Speaking of the latter, the
company will introduce 480 kW superchargers to all for quick charging.