At this year's Beijing Motor Show, BMW exhibited a panoramic vision bridge (a new-generation concept car), laser fiber optic taillights (new M4), a screen hidden in the wood grain trim, a 3D holographic projection hidden in the instrument cluster, and a lidar integrated in the headlights...... , I actually saw a bunch of high-tech new gadgets in Marelli.
Marelli, where is it sacred?
More concise than concise
First of all, please introduce Marelli, which is a long-established Italian supplier of auto parts and technical solutions founded in 1919. The most famous products may be known to many people, which are car lamps, instruments, and brake parts, but that should have belonged to the past, when it was called Magneti Marelli, a member of the Italian Stellantis group.
In 2018, Stellantis sold Magneti Marelli to KKR, a U.S. stock company, which in turn joined it with its original Japanese company Calsonic Kansei to form Marelli Holdings Ltd.
As a result, Magneti Marelli is now a multinational and world-leading automotive technology solutions company, with a wide range of products. Next, I would like to introduce to you some of the new gadgets I saw in the Marelli exhibition area of the Beijing Auto Show......
First of all, a display in the middle of the exhibition area in the simulated car room caught my eye, but when I looked around, I found ...... This is also the general interior, is it any different?
When Magneti Marelli turned on the power supply, I realized that there were too many black technologies hidden in it!
First of all, I saw a horizontal black area at the bottom of the front windshield, which could be divided into several hidden screens that played different functions. According to Dr. Fan Jianqiang, Executive Vice President of Magneti Marelli Group and President of China, this is called "Black Mirror Windshield", which will only display the necessary information when driving in the driver's corresponding visual position, and is very close to the driver's perspective of the road conditions in front of the driver, so as to not only play a role in prompting and displaying the effect, but also avoid the driver's distraction of the vision and cause danger.
But I was curious to ask the engineer, "How is this so similar to the 'panoramic view bridge' on BMW's new-generation concept car not long ago......?" This thing was jointly developed by Marelli and BMW!
Then I saw that the black marble panel on the simulated exhibit, the black glass frame at the steering wheel and the center armrest, when lit, will display a series of function buttons, similar to the hidden function keys that once appeared on BMW iX, NISSAN Ariya and other cars.
What's even worse is that in the wood grain trim in front of the deputy's seat, there is actually a screen hidden, and I really don't know what is in it when it doesn't light up.
According to Marelli, this is a technology called "smart surface", that is, it uses a film with many tiny holes on the surface, and when the light or LED/OLED is lit, the light will penetrate through the small holes and enter people's eyes, and when it is not lit, it will look like an ordinary interior fabric. The principle seems to be a bit similar to that kind of glass electrostatic eye patch, I don't know if it?
In addition, at this exhibit, Magneti Marelli also exhibited their 3D holographic projection screen, and I saw an image of a smart assistant floating in the instrument position, which came to life.
In addition, the technical solution of hiding the central control screen under the instrument is also worth paying attention to. On the whole, on this exhibit, I not only saw Marelli show off many of their advanced visual technologies, but also saw that Marelli seemed to foresee that the future of smart cabin technology may no longer require fancy displays, but should be as hidden, concise and low-key as possible, and only show it intimately when users need it.
Indeed, I also think that the cabin of the future will become more and more simple, and Marelli's technology is bound to come in handy!
In addition to the above technologies, the exhibition will also showcase the concept of the Magneti Marelli software-defined cockpit, which is designed with a centralized architecture, integrates advanced audio and sound zoning technologies, and uses environmentally friendly materials to meet the needs of car manufacturers in terms of professionalism, cost controllability and sustainability.
Playing with lights, I'm an old experience
Then, in addition to seeing the application of OLED flexible screens in another exhibition area, it is more important to see Marelli Marelli's technical solutions such as supporting architecture scalability, software portability, domain control standardization and cloud virtualization.
Among them, Magneti Marelli's digital twin demonstrator shows how it replicates a vehicle's cockpit in the cloud and wirelessly accelerates design, testing, simulation and functional deployment. With this thing, the engineers of the car factory can understand the software and hardware test effects more quickly and make adjustments and corrections in time, and the car factory will be more time-saving, cost-effective and convenient when developing various functions of the smart cabin!
In addition, a ProConnect platform designed for the Chinese market and integrating instrument cluster, infotainment, and 5G telematics systems will be exhibited here.
Powered by MediaTek's MT8675 system-on-chip (SoC), the platform is capable of managing both instrumentation and infotainment systems, supports up to six displays and 12 cameras, and is capable of providing 5G Release 15-compliant telematics capabilities. With this integration capability, ProConnect eliminates redundant components from traditional architectures, delivering up to 40% cost savings compared to maximizing value for OEMs and end consumers.
As for the lighting area, I saw the fibre optic taillights that appeared on the latest BMW M4 before, which turned out to be a joint development between Magneti Marelli and BMW.
Through the overlapping and winding of the optical fibers, this tail light looks particularly three-dimensional and highly recognizable, both in terms of aesthetics and safety!
Among them, a special lamp was also exhibited, which was jointly developed by Marelli Marelli and Hesai Technology, a well-known lidar technology manufacturer. The integration of Hesai's latest ATX LiDAR into Magneti Marelli's lighting solutions has the advantage of not compromising the vehicle's appearance and aerodynamics, covering a wider detection angle and better perception of the environment, and helping the manufacturer reduce costs.
In addition, the headlights on display, which can project a variety of animated images, were also very attractive, but what caught my eye was the Magneti Marelli platform developed for China, which integrates the vehicle's headlights, taillights and all the new 360-degree lighting functions into a single light domain controller.
At the same time, Magneti Marelli has also launched the MCU LESS intelligent driver concept for the execution side, further promoting the integration of the entire lighting software into the domain controller, and if it is upgraded through OTA and other means in the future, it can make the lights show a more personalized, technological and safe lighting effect.
More than you think
In addition to the above, Xiaobian also saw a novelty at the scene - full active motor suspension, which is mainly to banish the hydraulic damping cylinder in the traditional shock absorber, and replace it with a connecting rod mechanism and a motor, which not only responds faster than traditional hydraulics, but also focuses on the effect of active control, so that the vehicle can take into account both comfort and handling.
Hehe, I wonder if this unique technology comes from the valuable experience gained by Magneti Marelli Holding from participating in many automobile events?
In addition, I also saw Magneti Marelli exhibiting the vehicle domain controller developed in cooperation with Infineon, as well as an integrated thermal management module, battery cooling plate, intelligent actuator, and dual-valve intelligent damping control...... The products show that Magneti Marelli can provide a very diverse range of automotive parts and technical solutions.
As Dr. Fan Jianqiang explains: "China is a crucial market for Magneti Marelli, and we work closely with our customers, technology partners and suppliers to meet the differentiated product needs of international and local car manufacturers in the Chinese market. ”
Magneti Marelli China's next development firepower will be so strong that it is different from the past, don't ask me why I know, because in the second half of last year, the company's personnel experience was significantly adjusted, and the new team happened to have those old friends who are familiar with the Chinese market and are very active!