Foundation models for embodied intelligence

Intelligence that can perceive, reason & act.

I am Kun Zhan, Head of Foundation Models and Autonomous Driving at Li Auto. I build vehicle-scale AI systems that connect perception, language, decision-making, and action—and carry them from frontier research into production.

Beijing / San Jose Li Auto Autonomous Driving · Foundation Models · Embodied AI

Portrait of Kun Zhan
Kun Zhan
詹锟
Building physical-world intelligence from research to road
Research at a glance Production research across autonomous driving, multimodal AI, and world models.
Publications 63 Jul 2026 snapshot
Citations 2,217 Since 2021: 2,195
h-index 19 Since 2021: 19
i10-index 28 Since 2021: 26

Overall citation metrics from Google Scholar ↗ · Updated . Publication list and per-paper citations: snapshot.

01 / About

From machine intelligence to language intelligence—and back to action.

My work focuses on unifying the capabilities a physical agent needs: understanding three-dimensional scenes, reasoning about intent and risk, planning under uncertainty, and executing safely in real time.

Mission
Build physical-world AGI, starting with autonomous driving and expanding toward robots and intelligent spaces.
A

Vision–Language–Action

Unified perception, reasoning, planning, and control for complex real-world environments.

B

World models & reinforcement learning

Simulation, generative scene models, closed-loop evaluation, and learning from physical feedback.

C

Model–system co-design

On-vehicle inference, model–chip co-design, data engines, and reliable fleet-scale deployment.

02 / Principles in the age of AI

What I choose to stand for in the age of AI.

Eight principles on technology, organizations, and lasting value.

Ambitious in goals. Deliberate in choices. Accountable for outcomes.

In the age of AI, I want to do more than keep pace with technology. I want to push the boundaries of intelligence, create value in the real world, and help exceptional people do difficult things together over the long term.

These are not things I claim to have achieved. They are standards I hold myself to in research, in leading teams, and in making trade-offs.

Open each principle to read the full reflection.

Make the vision real through choices, not declarations

A vision I believe in must answer three questions: Why do this? Where should the best resources go? Which opportunities are worth passing up?

Fine words are not enough. When short-term gains conflict with long-term goals, choices are what count. What I truly believe should be visible in my decisions.

Make the work succeed before claiming a share

I value fair returns, but I do not aim to capture every benefit. I do not need to take every reward or own every part of the work.

Before securing my own share, I care more about whether cooperation and sharing can improve our chances of achieving something significant. Restraint does not mean a lack of ambition; it means directing ambition toward what matters more.

Go deep on a few important things

Something worth doing is not necessarily ours to do. The fact that everyone else is doing it is not a reason for us to follow.

I care less about appearing to cover everything than about truly solving the key problems. Intermediate wins are worth pursuing, but they must not replace the ultimate goal. Saying no to good opportunities outside our focus is also a responsibility.

Help exceptional people bring out the best in one another

My responsibility is not to make every judgment for everyone. It is to make our shared direction clear and build trust and collaboration.

I want to create an environment where excellent people have the confidence to exercise judgment, the willingness to collaborate, and the opportunity to grow. Being able to keep moving forward together through setbacks matters more than a momentarily impressive roster.

Deliver on commitments and make room for exploration

What we have promised deserves serious follow-through. Directions that have not yet been proven also deserve a chance to be tested.

I do not accept using “research” to evade delivery, or filling every hour of everyone’s schedule to create a sense of managerial security. Well-defined work needs efficient execution; uncertain exploration needs time, resources, and patience.

Treat efficiency as innovation

I care both about the limits of intelligence and whether it can actually be used within real constraints on compute, cost, and latency.

Enabling the same resources to support stronger models, and stronger models to serve more people, is a core problem worth investing in. Algorithmic breakthroughs and engineering efficiency belong together: efficiency is not only about savings, but about making previously impossible things feasible.

Turn experience into capability

I care not only about what a model can do this time, but whether it can learn from interaction and feedback to do better next time.

I see continual learning as a core direction for long-term investment. This applies to models, to myself, and to the team: we should not simply repeat work, but let every experience improve the next judgment.

Build AI, and use AI to change how we build

AI should be more than the product of our research and development. It should become part of our ability to do that work.

I want each generation of models to help us find problems, test ideas, and improve systems faster. Progress should be measured not only by how capable this version is, but also by whether it brings the next breakthrough closer.

Deepen intelligence. Make things happen. Keep progress going.

03 / Milestones

A path from prediction systems to vehicle-scale foundation models.

Selected moments across leadership, production systems, model releases, and research.

Foundation-model leadership

Leading Li Auto's unified foundation-model and autonomous-driving agenda across Mach VLA, Mach Mind, world models, reinforcement learning, infrastructure, and deployment.

Livis Day keynote

Presented Li Auto's software and embodied-intelligence roadmap, connecting intelligent vehicles with a broader physical-world AI stack.

World models & CVPR research

Contributed to ReconDreamer, StreetCrafter, and DrivingSphere—advancing reconstruction, controllable scene generation, and closed-loop 4D simulation for autonomous driving.

DriveVLM & ECCV research

Released DriveVLM and contributed to Street Gaussians and TOD3Cap—bridging multimodal reasoning, dynamic urban reconstruction, and 3D scene understanding.

Joined Li Auto

Helped evolve the driving stack from Highway NoA and City NoA through end-to-end, VLM-assisted, and VLA-based architectures running across production vehicles.

Baidu Apollo

Led L4 prediction and pre-decision algorithms for robo-taxi pilots and production-oriented autonomous-driving systems.

04 / Experience

Research leadership grounded in shipping real systems.

Li Auto

Apr 2021 — Present · Beijing / San Jose

Head of Foundation Models & Autonomous Driving

  • Lead foundation-model and autonomous-driving teams spanning VLA, agentic LLM/VLM systems, world models, reinforcement learning, data infrastructure, and on-vehicle deployment.
  • Drive model–chip–OS–controller co-design and production integration across Li Auto's full-stack AI platform.
  • Guide a 100+ person organization across perception, planning, foundation models, simulation, data, and deployment.

Site Manager, U.S. R&D Center

  • Launched Li Auto's overseas research hub and connected Silicon Valley research with Beijing execution.

Baidu Apollo

Apr 2016 — Mar 2021 · Beijing

Algorithm Lead, L4 Prediction & Planning

  • Led prediction and pre-decision algorithms for L4 robo-taxi pilots in complex urban traffic.
  • Delivered planning-and-control modules and onboard deep-learning components for fleets in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Education

2009 — 2016

Beihang University · M.S. in Navigation, Guidance and Control

Research focused on object recognition and tracking.

University of Science and Technology Beijing · B.Eng. in Automation

05 / Selected research

Research that expands how vehicles see, imagine, and decide.

Selected work across VLM/VLA systems, world models, 3D reconstruction, planning, and simulation.

06 / Updates

A living window into current work.

Short notes for model releases, talks, research, and milestones—without the overhead of a full blog.

Let’s build what moves intelligence forward.

For research conversations, speaking, advisory work, or collaboration, reach out directly.