Xpeng names its robotaxi Yoyo – GX-based L4 vision-only car, 2,000 test rides done; driverless service in 2027

Xpeng’s robotaxi now has a name. The Chinese EV maker announced on Weibo on October 8 that its autonomous ride-hailing service will be called Xpeng Yoyo, or Xiaopeng Youyou in Chinese. At the same time, it launched a booking mini-programme called Xpeng Yoyo Autonomous Driving, with places for internal testing to be opened up to users in stages, CnEVPost and IT Home reported.

According to Xpeng, the Chinese name, which roughly translates to “leisurely travel”, is meant to reflect a relaxed and carefree way of getting around. The English name was chosen because it is easy to pronounce anywhere in the world, and the company describes it as the service’s first step towards going global. The mini-programme also lets passengers adjust the cabin temperature and fragrance and pick a music style before they get in.

Xpeng didn’t say when the service will be opened to the public, or how many vehicles it will involve.

Based on the Xpeng GX flagship SUV

The Yoyo robotaxi is based on the Xpeng GX, the company’s flagship three-row SUV, which is priced from 399,800 yuan (about RM232,000) in China. The robotaxi is engineered to Level 4 autonomous driving standards, and like Tesla, Xpeng has gone with a vision-only system that relies on cameras instead of lidar or high-definition maps.

It carries four of Xpeng’s in-house Turing AI chips with 3,000 TOPS of computing power, one more chip than the regular GX, and its driving decisions are handled by Xpeng’s second-generation Vision-Language-Action (VLA 2.0) model. According to Electrek, the system has a six-layer redundancy architecture, and the robotaxi is planned in five-, six- and seven-seat configurations.

From announcement to test rides in eight months

Xpeng has moved quickly since announcing its robotaxi plans in November 2025. It received a road test permit in Guangzhou and began regular road testing in January 2026, set up a dedicated robotaxi business unit in March and rolled its first mass-produced robotaxi off the line in Guangzhou in May. Internal test rides began in July, with chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng becoming the first user to go through the whole process, from booking online to taking a ride.

By the time of Xpeng’s August 24 earnings call, its robotaxis had completed more than 2,000 internal test rides in Guangzhou. He said the company had also finished developing a cloud-based remote takeover platform, and aims to operate passenger services without safety drivers in 2027. According to IT Home, Xpeng is also targeting per-vehicle breakeven for its Guangzhou robotaxi operations in the second half of 2027.

Rather than running the service alone, Xpeng plans to partner with leading Chinese and international mobility platforms in 2027 to expand into major cities in China and overseas. It expects to make money from vehicle sales, technology services and a share of operating revenue. Xpeng will also open up a software development kit (SDK) for its robotaxi, with Alibaba’s mapping and navigation platform Amap signed up as its first ecosystem partner.

He has acknowledged that rolling out robotaxis at scale will take time, saying in July that the company will keep improving safety, ride comfort and the system’s ability to handle situations it hasn’t encountered before. Xpeng isn’t the only Chinese carmaker working on robotaxis, either. Geely showed its purpose-built Eva Cab robotaxi prototype at Auto China in April.