Running a self-driving system through ordinary urban traffic is a controlled test. Running it through a densely packed Chinese city, on back streets shared with scooters, cyclists, school kids, wrong-way riders, and workers standing in the road, is something different. Kim Java and her co-host drove two systems along the exact same route: first in a Tesla running FSD version 13.2.9, then in an Xpeng P7 on NextGen Pilot, or NGP, version VLA 2.0. Both systems rely entirely on cameras rather than radar or lidar. The results were close enough that the comparison would make most automakers uncomfortable, which is precisely why Xpeng invited them and asked them to run both cars side by side.
The Xpeng P7 starts at around $30,000 USD equivalent in China, roughly on par with a local Model 3. The key structural difference coming into the test: Xpeng bundles its full self-driving capability into the purchase price. Tesla charges $99 per month for FSD access. The P7 also features a co-pilot mode that lets the driver briefly adjust steering or throttle without fully cutting the system out. In Tesla's FSD as tested, any meaningful steering input disengages the system entirely, forcing a manual re-engagement. On roads where being too hesitant at an intersection results in honking and a traffic cop waving you forward, that behavioral gap showed up in the footage repeatedly.
Tesla's FSD handled the majority of the route competently, but struggled in situations that demanded local assertiveness. At one intersection, a police officer flagged the car for hesitating too long. FSD navigation also sent the car down incorrect roads on two separate occasions, requiring manual intervention and re-routing. The Xpeng's NGP moved with more confidence in stop-and-go scenarios, threaded intersections more like a local driver would, and managed a narrow U-turn that the Tesla could not complete unassisted. Both teams noted the Xpeng had clearly been trained in this specific type of urban environment. The final scores: Tesla 7 out of 10, Xpeng 8 out of 10. The reviewers noted that Tesla's version 14 with its more aggressive driving modes was not available on the Chinese vehicles tested.
Bottom line: The lead Tesla built over years of development is real, but it is not universal across every operating environment. What Xpeng's NGP accomplished on roads it was clearly tuned for is a meaningful signal. If you have written off Chinese self-driving tech, this one is worth watching in full.