Huawei's Jin Yuzhi: L3 and higher self-driving needs stricter safety, at Beijing forum
In short
Jin Yuzhi, Huawei senior vice president and CEO of Yinwang (引望), said at the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference in Beijing on 21 October that responsibility shifts to the system at L3 and above, so safety requirements rise. He also listed three changes in the "second half" of smart cars and restated Yinwang's "electronic screw" positioning.
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Jin Yuzhi (靳玉志), Huawei senior vice president and CEO of Yinwang (引望), said at the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference that autonomous driving will reshape the pattern of future mobility. CLS and Jiemian reported that, for autonomous driving at L3 and above, responsibility moves to the system, so safety requirements are higher. They quoted him as saying this is the biggest difference as global autonomous driving enters its "second half". Yicai carried a headline to the same effect. [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
IT Home, citing Sina Auto, gave more of his words. At L2 assisted driving, he said, the driver remains responsible in an accident, but at L3 and above responsibility passes to the autonomous driving system. He added that autonomous driving cannot develop healthily only in China and depends on global automaker partners and global association standards, and he called for value co-creation on policy, regulation and industry standards. [ 2 ]
The conference opened in Beijing on 21 October and runs from 21 to 23 October in Beijing Yizhuang, IT Home reported. Jin spoke in the roundtable titled "Peak dialogue: how does global autonomous driving enter its second half?". He said smart cars are going through three changes: from competition on technical ability to competition on safety and trust, from functions to experience, and from single-point competition to competition between industry systems. [ 1 , 2 ]
On safety, Jin said consumers want more and that the industry should make safety data open and transparent. He said Huawei Qiankun (华为乾崑) published a Safe Travel Report early this year and keeps updating its data. By his figures, Qiankun driver assistance has avoided 6.8 million possible collisions. On average, ADS drove 10.356 million km in assisted-driving mode before each serious collision, which he put at 5.75 times the average for Chinese drivers. [ 1 ]
On experience, Jin said convenient payment now covers more than 300,000 car parks, smart charging covers 2 million charging sites, and smart car care covers more than 3,000 car washes. On 19 October Yinwang signed a cooperation agreement with CATL (宁德时代) and Shidai Dianfu (时代电服) on an intelligent battery-swap ecosystem. Jin said Qiankun works with 25 car brands and more than 60 models, priced from the 150,000 yuan level to above one million yuan. By the end of August 2026, Qiankun driver-assistance installations, HarmonyOS (鸿蒙) cockpit installations and Qiankun app users each passed 2 million, and cumulative assisted-driving mileage passed 16.8 billion km by 20 October. [ 1 ]
Jin also restated Yinwang's position as an "electronic screw" for the smart connected car era. He said Yinwang has always been a supplier of the new intelligent components of that era. IT Home noted that he has stressed in media interviews that Yinwang does not compete with vehicle makers and aims to help carmakers build and sell better cars. IT Home posted a video item on this the next morning. [ 1 , 2 , 6 ]
Why it matters
The remarks, reported by business and tech outlets, tie the move from driver-assist to higher-level autonomy to a shift in who bears responsibility in an accident. They also show how Huawei's Qiankun (乾崑) unit describes its role to automakers.
Key facts
- The 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference opened in Beijing on 21 October and runs 21 to 23 October in Beijing Yizhuang. [ 1 , 2 ]
- Jin Yuzhi said that for autonomous driving at L3 and above, responsibility shifts to the system, so safety requirements are higher. [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
- Jin named three changes: from technical competition to competition on safety and trust, from functions to experience, and from single-point competition to competition between industry systems. [ 1 ]
- Huawei Qiankun (华为乾崑) works with 25 car brands and more than 60 models, priced from the 150,000 yuan level to above one million yuan, Jin said. [ 1 ]
- On 19 October Yinwang signed a cooperation agreement with CATL (宁德时代) and Shidai Dianfu (时代电服) on an intelligent battery-swap ecosystem. [ 1 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- At the conference Jin Yuzhi said responsibility for autonomous driving at L3 and above moves to the system, so safety requirements are higher. [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
- Jin spoke at the 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference in Beijing on 21 October, in a discussion on how global autonomous driving enters its "second half". [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]
Still unclear
- Safety and usage figures for Huawei Qiankun, such as 6.8 million collisions avoided and 168 billion km of cumulative assisted driving. They come from Jin's remarks as reported by IT Home alone, and the documents give no independent check.
- Jin's comparison of L2 and L3 responsibility, and his call for global value co-creation. These come from IT Home's account, which cites Sina Auto; the other outlets give only the short summary.
What local media are saying
Timeline, local time
- IT Home published its report on Jin's remarks on three changes in the "second half" of smart cars (21 October). [ 1 ]
- IT Home published a second item on Jin's safety remarks and the "electronic screw" positioning. [ 2 ]
- CLS reported Jin's remark that L3-and-above autonomous driving requires higher safety. [ 3 ]
- Jiemian published the same remark. [ 4 ]
- Yicai published a headline on the remark. [ 5 ]
- IT Home posted a video item on Jin's "electronic screw" positioning (22 October). [ 6 ]