BYD Launches Super Agent Didi Xia, Deepens Alibaba Cloud Smart Cockpit AI Partnership

Didi Xia uses AIOS as its foundation and relies on a super agent engine to dispatch vehicle-side capabilities and external services. At the launch event, Yang Dongsheng, BYD Group senior vice president and president of the Automotive New Technology Research Institute, said Didi Xia has a multimodal perception system that can hear, see and feel, and a tool system that can invoke various atomic capabilities. He said it also has reusable skills and memory systems, so it understands users better the more it is used.

Yang said BYD has built an open platform for ecosystem agents, allowing third-party AI agents and developers worldwide to connect to BYD's agent ecosystem and jointly build an in-vehicle agent alliance. He said Alibaba's Qwen model provides important support for demand understanding and task coordination, while ecosystem agents such as Fliggy and Flash Purchase further expand the service boundaries of the smart cockpit.

In the cooperation, the Qwen AI cockpit solution is being deployed for the first time as the cloud-based intelligent hub in BYD's cockpit. When a user gives a voice command, the system completes speech transcription; the Qwen model then takes part in intent recognition, task judgment and service distribution. Different agents for vehicle control, music, video, search and ecosystem services then coordinate execution.

Compared with a voice assistant that only answers questions, this architecture places more emphasis on understanding, breaking down and executing complex requests. In one real travel scenario described by the report, a user does not need to switch repeatedly among multiple apps. The user can state a need in natural language, and the cockpit can provide continuous responses covering information search, route planning and life services.

BYD's cockpit currently uses Qwen open-source models and Alibaba Cloud's Bailian service capabilities, and can call ecosystem services including Fliggy and Taobao Flash Purchase, according to Leiphone.com. As the two companies deepen their cooperation, more Alibaba ecosystem services are expected to be gradually connected, giving the cockpit a broader ability to 'get things done.'

The entry of Qwen agents into the cockpit is part of a years-long technology partnership between the two companies extending into AI applications. Since 2023, BYD has worked with Alibaba Cloud in areas including assisted driving and smart cockpits. Their cooperation is now expanding from cloud infrastructure and data platforms to models and agents, supporting vehicle development, cockpit experience and global business.

For BYD, the value of large models lies in connecting scattered vehicle capabilities and services and forming a stable, continuously iterating intelligent entry point in the overall vehicle experience, rather than adding an isolated function. In the next stage, the companies will continue to deepen cooperation around smart cockpits, global services and AI research and development, improve a technology and service system for the global market, and explore more applications of large models in vehicle development and user services.

Li Qiang, vice president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group and general manager of AI automotive, said smart cockpits are moving toward AI-native development and becoming a core engine that reshapes human-vehicle interaction and drives value leaps in the auto industry. He said Alibaba Cloud will continue to use Qwen and Alibaba ecosystem agent capabilities to work with BYD in pushing smart cockpits toward a more natural, intelligent and service-capable direction.