author
Zhang Zhidong
1 year out of the car, 2 years of mass production, the "urgent" of the set, good or bad?
Responsible editor 丨 Shi Jie
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
"Can lidar still be configured like this?"
Last week, as soon as the prototype of the concept car of Jidu Automobile was unveiled, people were shocked by the layout of its lidar. Although there is a kind of meaning of holding the pipa and semi-covering the face, you can also faintly see the layout of the lifting lidar on both sides of the "hood"; coupled with the looming butterfly doors on both sides, this so-called "car robot" Jidu car seems to be more like a car.
I have to say that the concentration of lifting the veil layer by layer has touched the hearts of many practitioners. And looking back, from the confirmation of the leadership team, to the start of SIMACar, from the disclosure of core components, to the appearance of the car logo... Each node of the set is like a student's note, clearly organized and step-by-step.
At the 2021 Baidu Create conference, Robin Li said that in the first half of 2022, Jidu Automobile will announce the first concept car, and will mass-produce and deliver the first automotive robot in 2023. At the same time, Jidu CEO Xia Yiping also stressed that Jidu's first car will be unveiled at this year's Beijing Auto Show.
1 year out of the car, 2 years of mass production, the efficiency of the set of cars is very high, but this speed of car building, but also caused a lot of questions:
"How can the set be so fast? Didn't bother. ”
"The car built in 1 year, can the product power keep up?"
"Baidu is trapped in AI, and Jidu also has to go all the way to black?"
……
In the general perception of "slow work and fine work", it is obviously not normal to build a car so "efficiently", not to mention that this car robot that claims to have L4 level automatic driving capabilities takes only 1 year from zero to one.
The efficiency is of course excellent, but the fact now is that it is difficult to explain whether the first car of Jidu at the Beijing Auto Show was a premature baby or the result of his brilliant talent.
And there is also a point that has to be mentioned - in addition to the software and intelligent parts, the information disclosed by jidu at present is very little about the product power of the car itself.
01
Set degree car, from zero to one
Carefully reviewing the development process of Jidu Automobile, on March 2, 2021, Jidu Automobile was officially established, Baidu as the main controller held 55% of the shares, and officially entered the automotive industry as the first Internet car manufacturer, with Xia Yiping as CEO.
In June, Jidu Automobile disclosed the first sludge model, which attracted Robin to visit; in September, Jidu SIMUCar started running and gradually began to verify the logic of software algorithms; on the last day of 2021, Jidu SIMUCar integrated high-speed, urban dual-domain intelligent driving...
It is understood that the intelligent part of Jidu Automobile is empowered by Baidu Apollo, while the vehicle part relies on the Geely SEA vast architecture, and the production and manufacturing and supply chain parts will also use Geely's existing system. Therefore, as early as the beginning of its establishment, Jidu car manufacturing has been divided into two steps: from software first, to car-side integration.
In fact, according to the above figure, it can also be seen that in just 10 months, the advantages of jidu software have been fully utilized, and the research and development of related software has achieved weekly iteration. This kind of car-making method makes people see the true face of "software-defined cars", and the key to this is SIMUCar's car development model.
SIMUCar, full name Software Integration Mule Car, also known as software integration simulation prototype car, can be simply understood as synonymous with "software first" in car manufacturing.
In this "agile development" mode, Jidu not only realizes the rapid iteration of software, but also makes the operation of "1 year out of the car" a reality by simulating the three electric and chassis systems of traditional cars, and pre-positioning the development of intelligent cockpits and intelligent driving functions.
The advantage of SIMUCar is obvious, that is, it decouples the vehicle software operating system from the traditional hardware development project, which means that its software project and hardware project can be carried out at the same time and developed separately, which can greatly save the time from design and development to mass production delivery of the vehicle.
Of course, on the other hand, the car-making method that acts in this way may also produce more follow-up questions: how to ensure that when the car's hardware and software are combined, it can be harmonious enough? What if the soul is too wanton and the body cannot fit? What if the body is too ostentatious and the soul is difficult to reach?
It is very realistic that today's cars do add many attributes, but they are not only software and intelligence.
Even if concepts such as "software-defined cars" and "new four modernizations" are shouted loudly, Jidu has also gathered two cosmic strong cores (NVIDIA Orin and Qualcomm SA8295P) for the title of "smart car", but only arithmetic theory, only intelligence theory, only software theory, in the current automotive industry, it is still too early.
02
"Do the right thing, don't do the easy thing"
Relevant data show that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in 2021 reached a new high, and by December, it even reached 22%.
When the enthusiasm of the industry is ignited to the highest point, the most conspicuous is the new car-making forces led by "Wei Xiaoli", but for the new car-making forces such as Jidu and Xiaomi, the "industry benchmark" must be correct?
Weilai may repeatedly emphasize the importance of "users", the ideal may talk about the home "daddy car", Xiaopeng may talk about a certain technology or certain technical parameters...
Of course, key factors such as users, market segments, and technology cannot be ignored, but if you only stare at one place, others do user culture, you also do; others cut market segments, you also cut; others advocate technology, you also talk about various concepts. After all, it is difficult to become a general trend.
Each car company has its own unique label, and the set of "intelligent fanaticism" that shows at this time may be the bearer of the future "intelligent" label. But this kind of thing can not be said by one family, whether it is intelligent or not is ultimately determined by the market, and whether the car is good or not will ultimately be determined by the market.
At this moment, Xia Yiping, who has the dual title of former head of Ford Motor Networking and chief technology officer of Mobike, may be able to become a firewall-like existence on the way forward for Jidu Automobile.
First of all, from the perspective of resume, Xia Yiping is a technician who has been involved in the automotive industry, not only has a typical "post-Internet era" thinking, but also has the basic literacy of technical personnel in the new era. In other words, with the existence of Xia Yiping, there is a high probability that there will be no situation in which "the layman drives the insider" within the set degree.
Secondly, with the double aura, Xia Yiping not only understands the importance of enterprising in the new era, but also has the awe that the automotive industry should have. You know, the threshold for building a car is not low, and even if you build a good aircraft rocket, you may not be able to build an excellent car. This is well known to Xia Yiping, who has been deeply involved in the automotive industry.
So as far as the shortcomings of the set degree are concerned, will Xia Yiping not see it? It is a bold guess that Xia Yiping should be able to see, and knowing that geely's big tree is unreliable, the next step will be to turn to the skateboard chassis that is more "in line" with the SIMUCar model.
What is a skateboard chassis? In short, skateboard chassis = non-carrier body structure + wire steering/braking system + battery pack integrated with chassis.
When the concept of "software-defined car" becomes more and more "correct", the electrification reform of auto parts, such as the wire steering system that cancels the steering column, the wire braking system, etc. gradually dominates the mainstream, and the technology of battery pack and chassis integration such as CTC in the Ningde era has become more and more mature, and a new car manufacturing direction has emerged. It's just that these are more conjectures about the future than what Jidu can do now.
03
Inner volume is the norm in the industry
In the history of the development of the automobile for a hundred years, competition, inner rolls, and waves of heroes abound, even in today's electric vehicles occupy the C position, the inner volume of the automotive industry has not stopped at all.
Taking "Wei Xiaoli" as an example, they may still be able to see a certain segment, or each adheres to the gears of 20, 30, and 400,000 in terms of price, or the main models launched are different, but on the way to seek an incremental market, the boundary between the three is slowly blurring.
In fact, when Xiaopeng G9, Weilai ES7, and Ideal X01 choose to be in the same frame in 2022, it has already heralded an involution drama involving the entire automotive industry, which is about to be staged.
And it is not difficult to find that in addition to the three Wei Xiaoli, Nezha and Weima, the new forces of second-tier car manufacturing, and the traditional car companies' GAC Aean and Volkswagen ID series, are also working hard for the new incremental market. Therefore, if we look at it from this point of view, the "urgency" of the set degree may be understood as the urgency of seizing market share.
But it also needs to be admitted that in the face of increasing competition in the product sequence, the set of latecomers, whether it is the first SUV or the first car, will face a severe test from "inside and outside". At that time, if Jidu can't come up with enough product strength to deal with it, it is not impossible to break the sand.
All in all, despite all the doubts raised about the set degree in the previous article, at the end of this article, I still want to say that when the hundred ships are competing for the current, the most important thing in the tide is still a "contention" word. I am very happy and fortunate to be able to see companies like Jidu use their own thinking to interpret the automotive industry in the new era in this glorious era.
As for the so-called merits and demerits, it may as well be left to the Beijing Auto Show, and after watching the set of real cars, and then make a judgment.
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