On 9 October 2026, XPENG announced its appointment as OICA Secretary of a new UN task force on automated driving. The company will support coordination and administration, helping participants share knowledge and experience from real traffic. OICA represents vehicle manufacturers in international discussions on standards and regulations.
France and China co-chair the group, according to XPENG. Its name, the Task Force on Exchange of Scenario-Relevant Information (TF-ESRI), refers to sharing information about traffic situations encountered by automated vehicles. It reports to GRVA, the UN working party on automated and connected vehicles, within the WP.29 vehicle forum of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
Participants include regulators and manufacturers, alongside technical experts and approval authorities. Engineering association SAE International provides the other secretariat. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), which XPENG represents within OICA, supports the appointment.
Sharing experience from real traffic
The task force will propose ways to share and use traffic-scenario information when assessing automated vehicles. This may cover different road environments and traffic behaviour, safety data or incident investigations. XPENG links the work to the implementation of automated-driving rules UN R185 and GTR 26.
Its terms of reference call for proposals on organising information, managing its exchange and making it publicly available. The group must present its results within two years of GRVA approving those terms. Its remit excludes proposing specific scenarios or a database for regulatory use. It will neither draft regulatory provisions nor set requirements for the use of scenarios in regulations.
XPENG’s earlier participation in UN work
XPENG has participated in the UN task force on driver-assistance systems since 2023. In February 2026, it demonstrated XNGP on roads in Shanghai to officials and experts from markets including the EU, the UK, the US, Japan and Canada. The demonstrations accompanied a meeting of the UN working group on automated driving systems.
The company has also announced public NGP demonstration rides during the Paris Motor Show, which runs from 12 to 18 October 2026.
The appointment does not itself grant approval for NGP or VLA 2.0 in European customer vehicles. The VLA article covers the technology plans and approval requirements. For the cars’ hardware and the rules governing driver-assistance systems, see the assistance hardware article.
Image: XPENG
Sources
XPENG: OICA Secretary of the UNECE task force TF-ESRI · 9 October 2026
GRVA-26-05/Rev.1: Terms of reference for TF-ESRI · 16 September 2026
XPENG: XNGP demonstrations for global delegates · 13 February 2026