AI Expert Zhou Shuchang Joins XPENG Motors as Senior Director of Autonomous Driving Algorithms
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AI expert Dr. Zhou Shuchang, a founding team member of StepFun, has officially joined XPENG Motors as Senior Director of Autonomous Driving Algorithms, reporting directly to Liu Xianming, Head of Autonomous Driving at XPENG. AI expert Dr. Zhou Shuchang, a founding team member of StepFun, has officially joined XPENG Motors as Senior Director of Autonomous Driving Algorithms, reporting directly to Liu Xianming, Head of Autonomous Driving at XPENG.
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AI expert Dr. Zhou Shuchang, a founding team member of StepFun, has officially joined XPENG Motors as Senior Director of Autonomous Driving Algorithms, reporting directly to Liu Xianming, Head of Autonomous Driving at XPENG.
According to sources familiar with the company, Zhou will lead the deep training of XPENG’s foundation model for autonomous driving, signaling a further expansion of XPENG’s R&D framework under its “Physical AI” strategy.
Public information shows that Dr. Zhou earned his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, after completing his bachelor’s degree at Tsinghua University and his master’s degree at the National University of Singapore. He has previously worked at Google, Megvii Technology, and StepFun, and is regarded as one of China’s earliest AI scientists with real-world experience in multimodal large models, reinforcement learning, and intelligent agents.
At StepFun, Zhou co-led key projects such as Step-1, Step-2, and Step-R, participating in the full R&D chain from model algorithm development to engineering deployment. In his personal bio, Zhou once described his philosophy as:
I enjoy turning frontier research into scalable, reusable systems through a blend of research × engineering × product.
His direct supervisor, Liu Xianming, previously held senior positions at Meta and Cruise, and is recognized as a prominent figure in the global AI community. Since joining XPENG, Liu has spearheaded the application of world foundation models in the autonomous driving domain.
Industry insiders view Zhou’s arrival as a key step for XPENG in strengthening its large-model capabilities and enhancing its autonomous driving algorithm stack.
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