Shanghai (ZXZC)- Autonomous driving expert Dr. Wu Xinzhou has officially joined China-based EV startup XPENG Motors as vice president of autonomous driving R&D, the startup announced on March 14.

Dr. Wu will be in charge of the holistic technical roadmap planning, business and team management for the startup's self-driving R&D arm in the U.S. and China and directly report to He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of XPENG Motors.

According to published records, Wu Xinzhou received the bachelor degree from Tsinghua University in 1998, the master and Ph.D. degrees from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000 and 2004, all in electronics engineering. Before joining XPENG Motors, he had been working at Qualcomm for over a decade, specializing in autonomous driving solutions based on the computer vision, deep learning, targeted positioning and in-depth coupling of sensors. Besides, he also has rich working experience in vehicular research, wireless communications and IoV (Internet of Vehicles) industries.

XPENG Motors announced on February 21 that Mr. Miyashita Yoshitsugu had joined as the Senior Director of Production Quality, responsible for quality management of its production.

A leading expert in the field of lean production, Mr. Miyashita worked in Toyota Motor Corporation as a quality engineer for nearly 40 years, serving as the Director of the Quality Assurance and Quality Management Departments of GAC Toyota Motor Co. Ltd. 

Another senior executive joining the startup in 2019 is Li Pengcheng, former co-founder of Youcheyihou.com, a car media platform providing small program, mobile app services and e-commerce for car supplies. He is appointed as general manager of brand public relations. He is responsible for businesses of brand strategy, public relations, socialized marketing as well as originality of brand image.