BYD’s “Intelligent Driving for All” press conference caused a huge stir.
At the press conference, BYD announced that all its models will be equipped with the self-developed "Eye of God" high-end intelligent driving system, covering from the 70,000 yuan level of Seagull to the 1 million yuan level of Yangwang. This is the first time that intelligent driving technology has been brought to the mainstream market on a large scale, completely breaking the traditional pattern of "intelligent driving means high price".
On February 10, 2025, BYD held a press conference at its global headquarters in Shenzhen, announcing that all 21 models of Dynasty and Ocean Network will be upgraded to high-end intelligent driving. BYD's full range of models on display.
In response to this, industry peers have spoken out one after another.
Richard Yu, Executive Director of Huawei, Chairman of the Device BG, and Chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, posted twice. On February 11, he said on Weibo, "Smart driving, being usable and being easy to use and safe are completely different realms! Just like making phone calls with an internet connection, you need 5G to surf the internet!" Later, he posted on WeChat Moments, "Lowering costs and making the most basic smart driving assistance popular is worthy of praise and celebration! However, confusing the concept of high-level smart driving and calling the most basic entry-level smart driving assistance high-level smart driving is inappropriate!"
Huawei and BYD have a subtle competitive relationship in the field of intelligent driving. The two sides have cooperated on brands such as Fangchengbao, but BYD has reduced the cost of intelligent driving to a low price range that Huawei can hardly reach through self-development, which may threaten the technology premium of Huawei's intelligent driving system in the high-end market.
After all, BYD is trying to rewrite the rules of intelligent driving with economies of scale by relying on the massive data accumulated from millions of L2 vehicles and the advantages of a vertically integrated supply chain.
Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, was pragmatic and tough as always. He stressed that "intelligent driving is not a show, practice makes perfect", and called on the industry to pay attention to the real needs and safety bottom line of high-frequency travel scenarios. Li Ruifeng, CGO of Great Wall Motors, followed closely, saying that "futures and spot are two different things", pointing out that some car companies may have over-promised on their technology implementation capabilities.
As for Great Wall, it has currently started cooperation in the field of intelligent driving with Yuanrong Qixing, DJI Car, etc., but whether it can match BYD's "blitzkrieg" remains to be seen.
In contrast, He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xpeng Motors in the new force camp, publicly welcomed leading automakers to join the ranks of popularizing smart driving, saying that this is "the beginning of technological equality." Behind this statement, Xpeng Motors has planned to equip the MONA M03 Max model to be delivered in the second quarter of this year with the city NGP function as standard, trying to consolidate its "autonomous driving technology label" through technological differentiation.
This stance of both cooperation and confrontation reveals the survival logic of new forces in the wave of popularization initiated by BYD. They need to take advantage of the momentum to expand the market base of smart driving, while maintaining the brand moat with higher-level functions.
At the same time, brands such as Leapmotor and GAC Aion have also announced that they will expand their laser radar and end-to-end solutions into the 150,000-level market. The industry is showing a dual-track pattern of "low-price popularization" and "technological climbing".
The intelligent driving revolution ignited by BYD is essentially a battle for the critical point of the transformation of the automotive industry from "electrification" to "intelligence". The "technology first" represented by Yu Chengdong and the "scale inclusive" advocated by Wang Chuanfu reflect two completely different paths. The former defines user experience with high-end functions, while the latter promotes technology penetration with cost control.
Wei Jianjun's "practice theory" and He Xiaopeng's "equal rights theory" represent the prudence of traditional car companies and the flexibility of new forces. It is worth noting that BYD's "killer weapon" lies not only in the decentralization of hardware, such as the 70,000 yuan model equipped with three-eye vision and 29 sensors, but also in the iterative advantage of its car cloud data construction under the massive ownership, which makes the "smarter with use" intelligent driving system likely to form a Matthew effect, further squeezing the survival space of its competitors.
When intelligent driving has changed from a "plus point" to an "entry ticket", the competitive dimension of the industry has quietly changed. BYD's "table-turning" strategy has forced all players to recalculate the triangular relationship between cost, technology and user value. The auto market in 2025 is destined to evolve into a new round of industrial transformation in the smoke of price wars and the iteration of intelligent driving technology.
