After GPT-6, Do Autonomous Driving Companies Have Only One Path Left?

Back in 2024, he predicted the autonomous driving industry had to pivot to large-model-driven systems — or face an existential mismatch.

Fail to pivot to the large-model paradigm by then, and an autonomous driving company risks being priced out of the game.

Place this against the reality of China’s autonomous driving roads, and the gap between the two coordinate systems snaps into focus.

In the first half of 2026, Huawei held 18.1% of China’s high-tier autonomous driving market, Tesla 13.2%, and Momenta 12.2%.

As Zhou put it, the steam-engine era of autonomous driving has arrived.