“As entrepreneurs, as inventors, we should be really fearless enough,” he continued. “We should be brave enough to push forward for innovation, because we live in the AI era. Think about our offsprings, our kids. If we can make this a reality, they will appreciate us.”
“This is a new thing, and there’s no perfect new thing, but now it’s getting into a certain level of maturity that can be deployed on a large scale,” Han said. “I’m not saying we can supply a kind of transportation tool that is 100% safe, but we can provide something that may be 10 times safer than a human driver.”
The real transformation with the technology will happen within the decade, with the development of L5 vehicles, Han said. Autonomous vehicles operate on a five-point scale of automation, with L1 requiring some driver assistance, and L5 requiring no assistance. WeRide currently produces vehicles operating in the L2 to L4 range, denoting partial to significant automation. Han called the development of effective L5 vehicles the industry’s “ChatGPT moment” capable of revolutionizing the future of road travel.
“I think L5, within 10 years, you will see the driving capabilities on par with the best human drivers,” Han said.
