Li Auto is planning a foray into autonomous trucks, an effort that will be led by its vice president of intelligent driving business.

The extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) maker has been seeking autonomous truck-related talent through multiple headhunters, and has already interviewed people who have worked at other autonomous driving companies.

The job title is director of truck autonomous driving technology, and the main tasks include being responsible for system design, development, testing and pilot validation of autonomous driving for factory logistics trucks.

Candidates need to have more than 10 years of experience, and more than six years of experience in R&D management and technical architecture, and have led the construction of core business systems.

Over the past year, Li Auto's internal team has held several discussions around the value point of L4 autonomous driving technology, with the main target directions including passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

In mid- to late-June of this year, Li Auto management largely determined that it would enter the autonomous truck segment of the commercial vehicle sector.

There is a view within Li Auto that the company has accumulated a large amount of data through assisted driving systems for passenger cars, and the data is of great value in L3 and L4 intelligent driving systems. From that perspective, Li Auto has the advantage of going across sectors.

Li Auto's internal team has formed certain goals for the project and will see phased results next year.