At the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference held in Beijing's Yizhuang district on October 21, Nio founder and CEO William Li shared his vision for the next phase of autonomous driving, emphasizing that the ultimate benchmark is whether the technology truly creates value for users. According to Chinese EV outlet 电动邦 (Dian Dong Bang), Li spoke during a panel titled "How Global Autonomous Driving Enters the 'Second Half'."
Two Key Metrics for Success
Li argued that two critical indicators are indispensable for evaluating smart driving systems. The first is a commercial closed loop: whether users are willing to pay for the feature. Without genuine willingness to pay, he said, even the most advanced technology lacks sustainable user value. The second is quantifiable safety performance, which requires third-party institutions like insurance companies to provide real feedback on accident probabilities and rates, allowing users to perceive that the system is safer than human driving.
Regarding L3 autonomous driving, Li stressed the need to separate technology development from regulatory compliance. On July 1 next year, China's first mandatory national standard for L3 autonomous driving, GB 44721-2026, will take effect, ushering in a phase of stronger industry oversight. Nio is among the first batch of automakers approved for L3 access and road trials in China.
Nio's Safety Record and Technology Milestones
Since its founding, Nio's intelligent assisted driving has aimed to "free up energy and reduce accidents." As of now, the system, based on a world model architecture with closed-loop reinforcement learning, is deployed in over 950,000 smart EVs. It has accumulated more than 9.14 billion kilometers of safe assisted driving, with a cumulative usage time of 112 million hours, avoiding or mitigating 9.07 million potential accidents. According to internal data, the average safe mileage under human-machine co-driving is eight times that of human-only driving. Data from four insurance companies corroborates that vehicles equipped with Nio's system have seen accident-related losses decrease by over 30% year over year. Li noted that the final mass production and road deployment of L3 products will depend on the pace of legal and regulatory changes.
The conference, co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the Beijing Municipal People's Government, is China's first state-level intelligent connected vehicle event approved by the State Council. At the accompanying exhibition, Nio showcased the new ES8, the world's first 5nm automotive-grade high-level assisted driving chip, the Shenji NX9031, the lidar main control chip Yangjian NX6031, and a 900V high-performance intelligent electric drive system.
