Self-Driving ‘Wheelchair’ Targets Young Users | Jiaziguang Year

Autonomous “Wheelchair” Targets Young Demographic | Jiazi Light‑Year

The dilemma after a new species is born.

The “Token economics” inside a ring.

Author | Zhang Lin

Edited by Liu Jingfeng

In 2023, a news story about a young person commuting to work in an electric wheelchair sparked widespread discussion.

On social media, videos of young people riding electric wheelchairs on their commute, in malls, and in university cafeterias quickly spread. The juxtaposition of “young people” and “wheelchair,” two highly contrasting terms, successfully captured attention.

Young people using wheelchairs for travel, imageSource: Xiaohongshu “Guardian God Electric Wheelchair” account

However, the good times didn’t last long. Media reports revealed that many of these videos of young people riding electric wheelchairs were actually commercial marketing activities. In a concurrent investigation, Southern Weekend also noted that company officials disclosed, “If you ask about speed, we don’t buy it anymore.”

Although it is a niche track, it still attracted some attention in 2026. “Jiazi Light‑Year” found that from the beginning of the year to now, there have been at least nine public financing events in this field, with funding sizes ranging from tens of millions to several hundred million RMB.

Its growing attention from investors is also linked to embodied intelligence, autonomous driving and other emerging industries.

Since 2024, at events such as China’s World Robot Conference, the AI Conference, and the U.S. CES consumer electronics show—any stage that can bring an integrated smart hardware‑software product to market—smart wheelchairs have always been present.

Before the hype around embodied intelligence, a healthy person would rarely encounter a wheelchair, whose users were typically older adults. Now, smart wheelchair manufacturers are trying to attract younger users by changing product performance.

Among the entrepreneurs and investors that “Jiazi Light‑Year” interacts with, everyone avoids labeling the product as an “electric wheelchair.” They prefer to define it as an “embodied intelligent robot” and view it as the home entry point for future AGI. Alternatively, they see the wheelchair as a new mode of transportation—somewhere between a bicycle and a two‑wheel electric vehicle—that can satisfy the “lazy” needs of more people.

However, when it comes to actual implementation, companies inevitably target the health‑care sector, and seniors remain the primary target users of the wheelchair.

1. Young people’s “smart wheelchair,” from curiosity to practicality

At 6:30 p.m. in Shenzhen, Li Zhanbin walks out of the company gate to have dinner at a fast‑food place across the street, a rare moment of downtime in his day. After going downstairs,he often sees young people riding smart wheelchairs on the road.

“I see them almost every day; it’s nothing special to me,” Li Zhanbin says. “Their wheelchairs aren’t fast either, about 15 km/h.”

Li Zhanbin is the founder of Shenzhen Xingcan Intelligent, whose company is a smart wheelchair manufacturer, so he pays special attention to such situations.

His observations may not be rigorous, but indeed some young people in Shenzhen use smart wheelchairs as daily commuting tools, due to the city’s extremely strict bans and restrictions on mopeds and electric vehicles.

Guangdong Province is one of the provinces with the strictest electric bicycle regulations. According to Guangzhou’s new e‑bike rules, when riding an electric bicycle in a non‑motorized vehicle lane, the maximum speed must not exceed 15 km/h, and there are strict restrictions on the road areas. Violations may result in hefty fines. This rule has been hotly debated as “not meeting residents’ actual needs.”

At the same speed,electric wheelchairs even have higher road rights than electric bicycles, and this difference has created market demand for electric wheelchairs in Guangdong Province. In July 2023, the Shenzhen Electric Bicycle Industry Promotion Association even published a dedicated article discussing the road rights and safety hazards of “wheelchair travel.”

It is worth noting that the users of electric wheelchairs discussed in the article are primarily young people.

Therefore, when the embodied intelligence industry booms in 2025, some manufacturers begin to design wheelchairs specifically for young consumers: concepts for chassis and frames are introduced, and electric wheelchairs are no longer just ugly, health‑care tools.

For example, in July 2026, “Smart Wheelchair Company” Zhengqi Future announced the completion of a multi‑hundred‑million‑RMB angel round, with investors including top financial institutions such as Dinghui VGC Investment and Linear Capital, as well as automotive industry capital like SAIC Group Hengxu Capital, CATL‑affiliated Ba Rui Capital, and BYD‑affiliated Zhengxuan Investment.

In addition, there is investment from Chow Tai Fook in the high‑end consumer sector.

Zhengqi Future is labeled as a physical AI company. In its official description, it defines its product as a 3‑kilometer short‑distance travel robot for all users, but in form it resembles a high‑performance smart‑driving “wheelchair” aimed at young people and high‑quality lifestyle consumers. The configuration of four‑wheel independent suspension and adaptive active suspension allows it to easily handle slopes, gravel roads, and slippery surfaces.

Zhengqi Future One Step X5short-distance travel robotImage source: Zhengqi Future

This travel robot features intelligent hill-climbing and high‑low temperature environment calibration, allowing users to ride it on a light off‑road trip near the suburbs. As a result, it feels more like a consumer electronics product.

In contrast, the state classifies wheelchairs used as rehabilitation aids as “Class II medical devices” for regulation. Not only must the product obtain registration approval and receive a “Medical Device Registration Certificate” before market entry, but manufacturers must also obtain a “Medical Device Production License.” Products aimed at personal short‑distance mobility, however, are not subject to these constraints.

Hong Xiaoping, founder of Strutt, also defines his product as an “intelligent universal personal mobility device.” In his interview with the media outlet LatePost, he explicitly stated that his smart wheelchair “can truly give those in need the freedom and joy of travel. This need transcends health status, disability, age, or youth.”

Li Zhanbin, who also makes smart wheelchairs, agrees with this product definition. He says, “Designing and developing ‘wheelchairs’ for younger users is a perfectly valid approach.”

When asked how much the price of a smart wheelchair should be set to truly appeal to young buyers, Li Zhanbin answered: “It must not exceed the price of a Zhang Xue motorcycle.” Using Zhang Xue’s breakout benchmark model ZX500RR as an example, its dual‑rocker version is officially priced at 29,980 yuan.

2. The real selling point is “light autonomous driving”

When communicating with companies such as He Xingcan Intelligent, Strutt, and Zhengqi Future, “Jiazi Light‑Year” consistently claims that it is not pursuing the “wheelchair” direction, but rather a mobility robot, a home robot, a new‑era transportation tool, and an early entry point for future general artificial intelligence.

Since the goal is to create an entry product for general AI, the robot must possess autonomous driving capabilities. This not only gives it superior performance but also marks the biggest difference from traditional health‑care wheelchairs.

So, how many steps does it take to put autonomous driving into a “wheelchair”?

First, a comprehensive upgrade of the hardware perception layer. Compared with traditional wheelchairs that have almost no active perception ability, smart wheelchairs have even more sensors than some cars.

For example, the Strutt smart wheelchair EV1 is equipped with 2 LiDAR units, 10 ToF sensors, 6 ultrasonic radars, and 2 cameras—a total of 20 sensors—enabling 360° environmental perception and 3D mapping. In terms of perception capability, this wheelchair is essentially an L2‑level autonomous driving device in a wheelchair form factor.

Xingcan Smart’s product is similar; its Xcan Mate X smart wheelchair also features a perception suite of “LiDAR + ultrasonic radar + camera.”

The convergence of product functions stems from the spillover of automotive technology. For instance, in the perception layer, the mainstream in the automotive market remains multi‑sensor fusion, and Tesla’s “camera‑only” approach has not been widely embraced or emulated in the Chinese market.

Strutt uses 20 sensors, while Xcanbot uses 12. A typical configuration is a combination of “LiDAR + camera + ToF/ultrasonic”: LiDAR provides precise 3D spatial information, the camera recognizes semantic information such as traffic lights and crosswalks, and ToF and ultrasonic sensors handle short‑range blind‑spot detection.

However, the specifications and performance of these sensors cannot be compared with automotive‑grade sensors. “Jiazi Light‑Year” learned that the LiDAR detection range on smart wheelchairs is generally within 10 m; in a patent filed in 2021 by Nanjing Institute of Technology titled “A Smart Walking Aid Device and Its Control Method,” the LiDAR detection range on a smart wheelchair is as short as 0.6 m and at most 4 m.

But precisely because this performance level is not particularly robust, the price of such sensors is very low. A single LiDAR on a smart wheelchair now costs around 500 CNY, and given the relatively slow speed of smart wheelchairs, this sensor performance is more than sufficient.

Beyond hardware perception capabilities, the performance of the software system—or the intelligent wheelchair driving system—depends solely on each company’s expertise.

For example, Xingcan Smart’s wheelchair is equipped with the self-developed XcanSense 5D omnidirectional perception system and XcanBrain embodied brain. Through multi‑sensor fusion, it can achieve autonomous navigation, dynamic obstacle avoidance, and intelligent following in complex indoor and outdoor environments.

Li Zhanbin formerly served as Deputy General Manager of Geely Group, Technical Director of Great Wall Motors, and head of Baidu IDG autonomous driving mapping. The company he founded, Xingcan Smart, has transplanted “L4‑level autonomous driving core technology” into wheelchair products.

If a car with autonomous driving capabilities easily costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, a similarly autonomous “wheelchair” only costs tens of thousands. This can indeed serve as a young person’s first “intelligent driving” device.

Moreover, when a wheelchair gains autonomous driving capability, its product positioning can be elevated again: an intelligent wheelchair is not just a mobility tool, but a “physical interface” for general artificial intelligence to enter the home.

Compared with humanoid robots, the biggest advantages of intelligent wheelchairs are: low cost, high usage frequency, and natural fit for home scenarios. In the vision of mainstream smart wheelchair companies, they can first enter ordinary users’ homes as “mobility companion robots,” collect data through real‑world interactions, and then build spatial topology and semantic information via a data loop, ultimately achieving general AI.

In addition, brain‑computer interfaces open new possibilities for intelligent wheelchairs. In September 2026, MoJia Robotics’ self‑developed brain‑controlled wheelchair (MoJia BCI) won the “Shenchi Wheel Battle” sports wheelchair championship at the 2026 Global BCI × Healthcare Innovation Scenario Competition. This also makes the integration of BCI technology and robotic motion control a new exploration direction.

With innovative concepts driving development, some brands even equip smart wheelchairs with robotic arms to assist users, aiming for more comprehensive spatial interaction.

Smart wheelchair displayed by a manufacturer at the 2026 World Robot Conference, image credit: Jiazi Light-Year Photography

However, the more it does for people, the more easily it gets labeled as “health‑care” or “for people with disabilities.”

3. Beach and Bikini

Returning to the original question, who actually uses smart wheelchairs? Young people? Or the elderly?

From the user’s perspective, this answer seems to be getting blurry—it depends on the scenario and purpose. In health and wellness applications, even a smart wheelchair is a medical device and must be strictly regulated; for mobility use, whether it can be on the road depends on traffic regulations; and in closed areas like parks or malls, although feasible, its applicable range is greatly limited.

Young people travel together using electric wheelchairs,Image source: Xiaohongshu “momo” account

Social customs also limit its user groups and scenarios: after all, no young person wants to sit in a smart wheelchair and receive inexplicable concern from friends or colleagues. The most basic mental inertia remains that when a young person sits in a wheelchair, they must be injured or ill.

It’s like a person wearing a swimsuit on the beach, which is perfectly reasonable, but when they wear a swimsuit on the street, they will inevitably attract strange looks.

In the market, the current overseas users of smart wheelchairs are mostly affluent seniors. They have mobility difficulties but are more willing to spend to improve their travel experience. Industry insiders also told “Jiazi Light‑Year” that in China, buyers of smart wheelchairs are concentrated in the 30‑50 age group; they are not buying for themselves but for their parents.

Industry investor Zhang Xuyang’s comment is even more direct: he believes that smart wheelchairs, whose primary use case is mobility, do not have strong demand among younger people.

He told “Jiazi Light‑Year”: “In Disneyland, young people are not averse to using a smart wheelchair to get to the next attraction because the setting guides them. In everyday life, however, this need is no longer essential.”

If a smart wheelchair appears in amusement parks or scenic areas, it is seen as a mobility tool; if it appears in hospitals, pharmacies, parks, or markets, it is perceived simply as a “wheelchair” – a public perception that is hard to change.

Li Zhanbin told “Jiazi Light‑Year”: “Policy drives and the AI technology revolution will accelerate the large‑scale deployment of smart wheelchairs. In the next 3–5 years they may spread in home settings, followed by a lazy‑economy for personal mobility. First they provide essential value, then emotional value—that’s the current state of the industry.”

According to an IIM Information industry report, global shipments of smart wheelchairs will be about 1.876 million units in 2025, of which 34.2%—roughly 640,000 units—will have environmental perception or autonomous navigation capabilities. If we limit the shipment range to the Chinese market, the number would be even smaller. In the short term, this is not a huge market.

Therefore, the issue with smart wheelchairs today is not a binary choice between “young users or elderly users,” but a more tangled industry structure. Conceptually, smart wheelchairs aim to become the home entry point for AGI; in marketing, they strive to appeal to younger people and promote a new mode of travel; yet in product and channel strategy, they must first transition through elderly users, wellness institutions, hospitals, and the child‑paying market.

The all‑life‑style of young people is the most compelling narrative logic, but who will buy it? Who is using it? Is it safe? Until these questions are answered and a standard answer is formed, smart wheelchairs will continue to swing between the imagination of “new mobility” and the reality of “essential health‑care needs.”

(Cover image source: AI generated)

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