The global automotive industry is undergoing a monumental transition. But the real revolution is no longer restricted to four wheels. It is about integrating artificial intelligence into the physical world.
This shift was evident at the Chery International User Summit in Wuhu this week. While the global media focused on the company’s latest electric vehicle architectures, its embodied artificial intelligence and robotics subsidiary, AiMOGA, offered a glimpse of a future beyond traditional car manufacturing.
Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Automobile, set the tone for this pivot.
“Leaders told me the same thing, saying that Chery’s cars are becoming less and less like cars,” Yin told the audience.
“It also feels like the Chery Company is less and less like an automobile company. This is what I want to hear. Chery is an enterprise that is disguised as an automobile company.”
Yin drew a parallel with the dawn of the motoring age. “In 1886, Karl Benz invented the first automobile. People at that time could not imagine that today, all over the world, people would drive on wheels, just as we can hardly imagine, in 10 or 20 years, our future cities and future transportation.”
The leap from manufacturing traditional vehicles to building complex humanoid robots is the modern equivalent of that breakthrough.
Modern electric vehicles are essentially massive computers on wheels. They rely on advanced battery chemistry, complex radar arrays, spatial awareness mapping and sophisticated machine learning to navigate unpredictable environments.
Chery has simply taken this exact technological foundation, refined it and repackaged it into autonomous walking and working machines.
During the global product launch, AiMOGA revealed a comprehensive product lineup designed to integrate seamlessly into human society. Yin framed this not merely as an evolution in manufacturing but as a fundamental shift in human history.
“The AI technological revolution this time is truly called a revolution because human beings have created a self-evolving and self-improving intellectual lever,” Yin explained.
“Machines have begun to become the main force of thinking. AI not only redefines the way of production but also redefines, expands and blurs our corporate boundaries and business models.”
The summit showcased a diverse family of machines tailored for highly specific tasks. Among the striking lineup includes Mornine and Molly, bipedal humanoid robots designed for customer-facing roles such as retail greeters, showroom assistants and tour hosts.
For more specialised industrial and civic duties, Chery showcased Mogard and Mocare. Mogard takes on the direct appearance of a security official or traffic warden.
Mounted on a stable wheeled base and dressed in a high-visibility uniform aesthetic, it is ideal for patrolling public precincts, managing crowds or monitoring restricted areas. Mogard has already been used in China as a pointsman at busy intersections.
Mocare is a service-oriented robot featuring a large interactive screen embedded in its chest. It is explicitly designed for healthcare environments, hospitals or public transit hubs where users need quick access to digital information or remote medical assistance.
Then there is the Argos Pro. This is a highly agile quadruped robot dog featuring a sleek white and black chassis. Argos has already been used at corporate events for guidance, delivery and even synchronised performances. It showcases an impressive blend of gyroscopic balance and spatial computing.
Rounding out the heavy-duty industrial side of the presentation was Moqiong. This is a robust bipedal humanoid built with broader shoulders and thicker limbs for demanding physical tasks and logistical heavy lifting.
But the summit’s most significant announcement was aimed at the home.
AiMOGA introduced Mobo, a companion robot marketed as a new member of the family. Standing 90cm tall and weighing 18kg, it is designed to be small enough for domestic spaces while interacting with its surroundings.
Mobo is voice-controlled and runs on Chery’s proprietary MoAgent system. Its multimodal capabilities allow it to process visual, spatial and audio inputs, while a long-term memory system is designed to learn users’ routines and preferences.
During a demonstration, Mobo interacted with an elderly woman, reminding her to take medication and recalling which colour pill she needed at a particular time. It then accompanied her to her bedroom, activated its fall-detection system and told her a story she had previously shared about her son.
Chery describes the approach as “say it once, gets it done”. Mobo supports more than 20 languages, the company says.
The technology reflects years of research and development. Yin described the company’s transformation as its “own genetic recombination, changing itself first and then the world”, pointing to advances in its technological systems over the past five years.
China is increasingly adopting automation as it responds to an ageing population, demographic shifts and demand for greater efficiency. But the growing capabilities of AI-powered machines also raise concerns about jobs.
Yin acknowledged the disruption, warning that companies that refuse to embrace AI risk being left behind. “In the future, AI will truly eliminate those who refuse AI and reject embracing it,” he said. Those at risk, he added, are those who “dare not use AI to rebuild their industries”.
Yet Yin also stressed that technological progress has limits. “We always believe that AI can replace skills but it is impossible to replace humanity and insight into the future as well as strategic planning for the future.
“AI can improve efficiency but it cannot replace human responsibility, human judgment and human warmth,” he said.