Tesla Model 3 rival P7+ is first AI car with free self-driving unrestricted by weather or road conditions

With the goal to have Tesla beat at its own FSD game, Xpeng outed a direct Model 3 rival with sub-$30,000 price that offers full self-driving and autoparking for free.

Tesla’s main competitors in China, like BYD, Xpeng, NIO, and others, are moving at breakneck speed to develop advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) similar to FSD in a race to stand out and attract more customers.

A case in point is the new Xpeng P7+ sedan that is set against the Model 3 with a price point that is 10% lower than Tesla’s cheapest vehicle. Xpeng calls the P7+ “the first AI car” as it leverages artificial intelligence to control all vehicle processes, from autonomous driving to energy efficiency and thermal management, for the first time.

The widespread use of AI in the P7+ is also marked by the fact that this is Xpeng’s first smart vehicle that doesn’t use LiDAR for its self-driving sessions. Instead, Xpeng took Tesla’s approach and has equipped the P7+ with the so-called Eagle Eye vision technology that it says is more accurate than its previous self-driving hardware that uses LiDARs.

The new combination of AI software with camera and sensor hardware has proven superior in that it can continuously map an area the size of two football fields in any weather or road conditions. Thanks to the Eagle Eye tech, Xpeng may become the first automaker to use its self-driving tech in all major cities and on the highway by the end of the year.

The freewheeling system enables door-to-door and parking space-to-parking space ADAS intelligent driving ability for Xpeng vehicles. This is in stark contrast with Tesla’s FSD that is yet to be approved for use in China.

As for the P7+ specs, the car offers slightly longer range than the Tesla Model 3, and runs its self-driving software on two Nvidia Orin X chips, with the cabin infotainment system powered by the high-end Snapdragon 8295 processor.

The AI-controlled powertrain also returns a remarkable efficiency of about 18 kWh per 100 miles, and the P7+ is built on a modern 800V architecture that allows very fast charging.

Pre-orders have started from a $29,610 price tag that will likely be lowered for the actual launch some time next month. Tesla is facing stiff competition in China, with just 6.4% of “new energy” vehicle sales there last month.

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