The Car-to-Robot Pipeline: Why Automakers Are Racing to Build Humanoids

Two weeks. That is how long Lang Xianpeng lasted as head of Li Auto's new humanoid robot division before the Chinese EV maker replaced him with Zhan Yifei. The rapid turnover signals something deeper than internal politics. It reveals the speed at which automakers are pivoting from cars to robots.Li Xiang, Li Auto's founder and CEO, made the company's ambitions clear at an all-hands meeting in late January. Beyond automobiles, Li Auto will definitely develop humanoid robots and will make them available as soon as possible. He framed 2026 as the final opportunity for companies to become AI leaders.The urgency is not unique to Li Auto. Across the industry, car companies are treating humanoid robotics as the next logical step in their evolution. Tesla, BMW, Hyundai, and now Li Auto are all building or partnering to build humanoids.The technologies overlap at every level. Perception systems trained on road environments transfer to indoor navigation. Planning algorithms for collision avoidance apply to manipulation tasks. Foundation models developed for language and vision can control physical systems.Li Auto joins a growing list of automakers betting on humanoids. Tesla announced in January that it would end production of the Model S and Model X at its Fremont factory to focus on Optimus. BMW has partnered with Figure AI. Hyundai plans to deploy the Atlas humanoid in its factories by 2028.