On November 21, 2025, LI Auto showcased its innovations in driving assistance and charging technologies at the Guangzhou International Auto Exhibition. The company introduced the VLA Charging and Defensive AES Automatic Emergency Steering features, with plans to roll out these features to AD Max models and introduce the city NOA feature to AD Pro models, enhancing user driving experience and safety. Fan Haoyu, Senior Vice President of the Product Department at LI Auto, stated that the VLA Driver Model evolves through reinforcement learning, providing parking and charging experiences, while the Defensive AES offers 360-degree all-around safety protection.
LI Auto released the VLA Driver Model in August 2025 and fully deployed it to AD Max users in September. This model improved user experience across multiple dimensions, with total driving mileage exceeding 312 million kilometers, mileage penetration increased by 2.2 times, and daily activity tripled. This indicates that LI Auto’s advanced driving assistance technology has become an integral part of users’ lives.
The spatial understanding capabilities of the VLA Driver Model allow it to roam unfamiliar parking lots in search of parking spaces and memorize the structural information of parking lots. LI Auto extended this capability to its ultra-fast charging stations nationwide, launching the VLA Charging feature. This feature permits vehicles to autonomously drive into ultra-fast charging stations and automatically locate vacant charging stalls through a cloud dispatch system. When the vehicle approaches the charging spot, the ground lock automatically lowers, completing autonomous parking. After charging concludes, the vehicle can autonomously depart from the ultra-fast charging station and complete payment through password-free payment.
In the field of active safety, LI Auto has also made remarkable progress. As of November 20, 2025, the active safety system has cumulatively helped users avoid 11.31 million potential collision accidents and over 14,000 extreme incidents. The Defensive AES Automatic Emergency Steering feature is about to be fully deployed to AD Max users, helping users navigate various hazardous scenarios and avoid rear-end collision risks through acceleration avoidance or forward acceleration.
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