• New cars produced at the Nio F2 factory can drive themselves from the final assembly shop to the road test area, a video shows.
• That's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the plant's smart capabilities, said William Li.

Nio (NYSE: NIO) is starting to put autonomous driving technology to work in its factory, allowing vehicles to drive autonomously out of the plant when production is complete.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker's F2 plant in Xinqiao, Hefei, Anhui province, recently began letting new vehicles drive themselves off the factory floor after they roll off the assembly line, according to a report by the local Hefei Daily today.

Supported by 5G network, vehicle-road-cloud collaboration technology, new cars produced at the plant can drive fully unmanned on the 450-meter road from the exit of the assembly shop to the road test area, according to the report.

This makes Nio the first automaker in China to realize the ability to let new cars drive themselves out of the factory as they roll off the assembly line under cloud control, the report said.

A brief video shared by Hefei Daily on Weibo shows new cars from Nio's sub-brand Onvo rolling out of the plant driverless.

William Li, Nio's founder, chairman and CEO, retweeted the video on Weibo and called Nio's F2 factory a "super smart factory."

"The driverless transit of the new cars is just the tip of the iceberg of the factory's intelligent capabilities. Everyone is welcome to visit," Li wrote.

Nio currently has two vehicle assembly plants in Hefei, Anhui province, which the company refers to as its F1 and F2 factories. The two facilities became operational in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

The F2 plant in NeoPark utilizes a lot of automation and has been open for public tours from since October 2023.

Earlier this month, Nio said on its mobile app that it is opening 11 time slots this month for the public to tour the F2 plant.

In late January, Tesla shared a video showing that the new Model Ys it produces at its Fremont factory in the US could drive autonomously from the production line to the delivery area.

Teslas now drive themselves from their birthplace at the factory to their designated loading dock lanes without human intervention

One step closer to large-scale unsupervised FSD pic.twitter.com/Aj6dHsLaRO

— Tesla AI (@Tesla_AI) January 29, 2025

Nio president confirms construction of F3 plant has begun, says F1, F2 can no longer meet demand

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