Text: Jiang Xiaohua
Two days ago, SAIC-GM Pan Asia Technical Center and Guangde Test Site jointly held a demonstration of the RoboTest platform - an unmanned vehicle intelligent test platform.
In the end, the male anchor Guangde test site car god senior engineer casually said that "many car companies can get on the new car in two or three years, and SAIC-GM must not be on it if the test is not completed".
This sentence may attract controversy among different groups, because it is very much in line with the characteristics of the public opinion field of this era: confrontational, positional, contemptuous chain, and simple and crude without seeking to understand.
And I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the significance of Guangde's test site to the development of China's automobile industry.
I have been to the Guangde test site many times, and under the guidance of the young senior engineer, I also got the G1 level test driver certificate, and with the help of the coach, I have completed the experience of all Guangde projects.
At that time, in the eyes of those of us in the car circle, the largest automobile test site in Asia at that time was the hope of China's automobile industry to move towards internationalization in an all-round way.
In the eyes of many people, the Chinese market has changed technology for so many years, and nothing has been exchanged. This is biased, and it can't be that people give you their most advanced technology as it is, so it's called exchange. Volkswagen's profound influence on the establishment of basic standards for the entire Chinese automobile industry, Toyota's profound impact on lean production on Chinese enterprises, and even the Pan-Asian Technology Center established by SAIC-GM and the Guangde test site are all technologies that we have exchanged, not only for vehicle companies, but also for the entire industrial chain.
For a long time, the difference between China's automobile industry and the international leading level has never been the ability to define products, not the innovation of a certain link, and the pearl of the sea in the history of the automobile industry in the past 140 years.
Of course, there are many backward links, such as design, such as process optimization, such as precision technology, and then industrial software, the core content of automobile manufacturing, in fact, we are still far from leading, and some links still exist in the state of "stuck neck".
However, there are three key words that really influence our approach to initial internationalization: testing, validation, and tuning.
Behind these three key words, there is actually one word: people.
The lack of a large number of these three types of talents, and the gap between experience and ability and the world's leading manufacturers, are the most difficult bottlenecks for China's automobile industry to integrate and even lead the world.
The establishment and operation of a test site of this level in Guangde is a great opportunity for testing, verification and tuning to develop rapidly in China and to accumulate talents.
After Guangde, high-level testing and verification sites have sprung up in China, such as high-level wind tunnels, and now there are large and small high-specification test sites all over the country.
For example, I went to the automotive testing center in Yancheng, which I visited two days ago. These test sites are expensive. The "all-inclusive" cost for half a day at this test site is 50 W.
Behind such a rapid development of the automotive testing industry, it is true that the rapid development of China's automobile market is the rapid development of China's automobile market, but what cannot be ignored is the talent cultivation mechanism that is quickly in line with international standards after the landing of a high-level test site like Guangde.
In addition, Guangde, which was built in the era when SAIC-GM had the best market and the most intensive new cars, was open to all car companies from the beginning, and the technical services enjoyed by all car companies at this test site were the same. More than half of the domestic car companies have vehicles that have been tested in Guangde.
We can find a lot of this kind of dissipative industrial development concept in the serious history of the world's automobiles.
For example, Volvo's three-point seat belts, such as Tesla's open-source behavior. In the automobile industry, in terms of the development of the core and bottom of the industry and the technology related to safety, the use of patents as a narrow brand advantage barrier has never been the conventional choice of real automobile manufacturers. Including Geely Automobile and Chery Automobile from China, they have always worked hard to promote the core development results, rather than desperately hiding them. Even today, with such fierce competition in the Chinese market, Guangde does not plan to take the RoboTest platform that reduces costs and increases efficiency for private use, but still does not refuse to come, and when this platform is developed, the test model is not framed in the scope of SAIC-GM or SAIC.
The whole industry is based on a solid bottom layer, the development of their own product characteristics, to meet different consumers, the logic of market competition.
In order to promote any technology, platform, and architecture, the premise must be that there is a set of testing and verification standards that are in line with international standards.
Therefore, when we are often satisfied with the refrigerator color TV sofa, when we are pleased with some plausible and far ahead, and marvel at the new car launch cycle of Chinese enterprises has been achieved within three years, we had better figure out first, the car is called the crown jewel of the manufacturing industry, what kind of industrial evaluation logic is based on.
For example, why German cars with superior performance have been very difficult in the domestic market in recent years.
As an example, two days ago, I posted a draft of a new Magotan article, and there was a watchman who posted it under every message, and if the price exceeded 150,000, I wouldn't read it.
If you follow the pricing logic of the new car in the current automobile public opinion field, it is the same to look at the configuration, you have air suspension, I have Brembo brakes, you have 80 inches of lift, I have 50 inches of giant screen...... Children make choices, and adults want them all.
It seems that after counting the configurations, it is better to have an expert to talk about the BOM cost, and then the pricing will be calculated.
However, it is also an air suspension, a group of well-trained and experienced testing and tuning teams, working for more than 100,000 or 200,000 kilometers, with a nervous and delicate buttocks, and bargaining-ordering-loading air suspension, do you think it is a price? Even if the supplier is the same.
I can tell you clearly, the suspension, throttle gear, braking stroke, high-speed steadfastness, etc., the butt sitting on it is different, the experience of the production car is definitely different, and the cost is also very different.
If our car values are what we have, what we have at a price, then the end result is that those experienced butts who have been trained with great difficulty are gone. What is given is a single dimension that feels comfortable in the first place.
This is especially true of the security aspect that we attach more importance to.
In recent times, we have been mentioning the car specification level, which is like this. The most expensive part of a car is the vehicle specification grade. You can ask Huawei whether the cost of their investment in automobiles is high for developing lidar and intelligent driving, or whether they are making things the same as those of the same vehicle specification. Didn't Yu Chengdong say, he admired those companies that could sell cars for 150,000 yuan and still make profits, so that he would lose money if he sold them below 300,000 yuan, what is it? Of course, not every new company has Yu Chengdong's troubles, after all, not everyone is respecting the word car regulations.
There are two levels in the vehicle specification level. The first is a tangible material, or an exposed configuration that may come into contact with the human body.
For example, a hook in the front cockpit that can be used to hang hot snail noodles, why hasn't it been made for 140 years?
First of all, it may not have been made by anyone, at least similar pendants have mostly appeared in the car. But if there are a few occurrences in which the relevant components are in the driver's journey, interfering with the driver's itinerary and causing an additional risk of injury in a collision, such great inventions will be stopped.
After a long period of industry accumulation, many contents have been reversed into the standard of testing and verification, such as any new thing, before getting on the car, first through a series of tests, risk assessment, material safety assessment, etc., before getting on the car.
The second one is a little more complex and may not be stylish, such as software features, entertainment features, how to make sure that these features don't pose additional driving risks, which is often more complex than validating a piece of material, which may require testing as many exhaustive scenarios as possible.
Even if these systems are very complete, we can still see that after the launch of some large manufacturers' automotive products, there will still be such and such problems, especially in the application of new technologies and new functions.
Therefore, what matches the verification and testing system is the automobile recall system.
Then some people may say, since so much has been done, it is still impossible to guarantee the absolute perfection of the car, so why bother to do this, what is the problem, what is the problem, what is the problem to solve?
Dear, the first thing to do in these systems is to protect your interests.
With these systems in place, the probability of serious problems in new cars will be greatly reduced, and the probability of problems within a certain mileage will be even lower. Even if there is a problem, except for some radical technology caused by the immortal bureau, most other problems can be solved by a relatively simple recall.
You must know that in any country where a problem arises with such a high-value commodity, it is impossible to simply solve it by return, and the logic of Pinduoduo may not work here. This is not some business-free, legal protection of large enterprises this kind of crude logic, objectively no company can bear the high cost of returning the car, with the current scale, Toyota such a strong cash flow company, it is impossible to return a batch of cars to you when there is a product problem.
Therefore, the more perfect the pre-test and verification, the more the basic interests of consumers can be guaranteed.
Second, the establishment of strict testing and verification capabilities is the basis for a social itinerary to supervise and inspect enterprises.
For example, the EPA in the United States, why there are not many ways to deal with Tesla, is because the social inspection and testing capabilities of electric smart cars are not strong, but this agency's detection and supervision capabilities for cars with engines are very strong.
However, the formation of the ability of any inspection and testing institution is based on the pre-development of the enterprise's testing and verification capabilities. Of course, it is also based on the development of some high-level motorsport.
For example, the domestic auto market has recently been in full swing in the price war and value war. In fact, no matter what everyone says is serious or-for-tat, the measurable and binding point that finally falls is to improve the testing and verification capabilities from the management department, to the industry, and then to the enterprise.
Without standardized and systematic verification capabilities, this fight will never end. The end result is naturally harmful to consumers.
Let's go back to SAIC-GM's Guangde live broadcast this time.
The theme of this live broadcast is the display of RoboTest's unmanned vehicle intelligent test platform. The meaning is easy to understand, that is, to use robots to help new cars complete preliminary tests faster and more rigorously, so as to shorten the time required for new cars to complete all scenario-based tests.
Why is this something to be praised? At the heart of it is attitude.
For example, we all know that the test of cars now has real road conditions of real people, and there are tests of special road conditions of real people. For example, some corrosion resistance tests that are higher than the actual road corrosion conditions, or some tests that are really difficult to complete in road conditions, such as long-distance tests where the high ring maintains a speed of 200 kilometers per hour; There is also a simulation test of the machine simulating road conditions.
Different companies have completely different attitudes towards machine simulation testing. The first reaction of most mainstream companies is that this test method itself still needs a long time and perfect testing to figure out which parts of the real test it can completely replace.
Therefore, companies like Toyota, General Motors, Geely, and Chery have gradually and cautiously reduced the test mileage of real road conditions, and the simulation test mileage of many products will reach tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of kilometers. This is not just a test of the vehicle, but also a test of the simulated test system.
And the first reaction of some companies is, oh my, the most expensive part of car manufacturing has finally become cheaper, and the most troublesome part that can't afford to spend money has finally been solved by the machine.
Of course, you can listen to it as a very enjoyable story about technological progress, and then blow a wave of short videos or something. However, if you think about it with your ass, you know how good and real the driver and passenger experience can be formed without the test and adjustment results of real people's real road condition perception feedback? Comparing the two sides, which way do you hope for the new quality productivity of the industry?
For the RoboTest platform used by SAIC-GM this time, the company's attitude is to use this platform to replace the test content with high repetition and high manpower consumption to speed up the testing process.
However, even though this is a real site road condition test, in many links that require the experience of experienced people to make evaluation reports, SAIC-GM still insists on employing people, although it is much faster to use robots.
This is the cautious attitude that those working in the automobile manufacturing industry should have. In this world, there are not many commonly used products that are directly linked to life and high frequency, and automobiles are among the commonly used products that cause the most deaths and injuries every year and a single accident can lead to mass deaths and injuries. In my opinion, this is a typical case of the new quality productivity practice of the automobile industry, from the application of new technologies to the adherence to the basic attitude of the industry.
It is no exaggeration to say that the testing, verification, and tuning systems and standards of this industry have been perfected by major enterprises and governments in the past 140 years.
This must not simply be attributed to the provisions of advanced countries establishing industry barriers through standards and blocking the industrial necks of new countries. In fact, Toyota and Hyundai Kia, which emerged only after the European and American auto industries have been quite developed, although they have different ways of playing, they fully respect the testing and verification system and are committed to improving their industrial level.
Geely Automobile, as the Chinese car company with the highest recognition in the international automotive industry, is not the core of how leading the engine thermal efficiency it does, nor is it that it has launched satellites and built the largest intelligent computing center of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, but that it has the highest degree of integration with international standards in the entire system capacity building, including verification and testing.
Therefore, in addition to today's positional and emotional public opinion field, if you are a rational speaker, please leave some reasonable weight for testing, verification, tuning, including design, in the part of your consciousness that the car is reasonably priced. If these things are not priced by us all the time, then these things will disappear with us.
And with these things gone, will we really be far ahead?
Writing this article, not to speak for anyone, or to criticize anyone, every enterprise at every stage, there will be ups and downs, every enterprise has also made some mistakes, you have to take some international manufacturers have also done wrong things, and even evil things to scare me, then you will win directly.
What I want to say is that this industry needs such a complete set of basic system values recognized by the whole industry from its attributes, which does not mean that it can eliminate the negligence and short-sightedness of some enterprises. But without this set of things, the industry is bound to run amok with evil. The car, not simply disassembled to show you what materials are used in each part, the whole few non-standard collisions, high-altitude fall performances, you can make a judgment.
Without the standardized system, the pearl of the manufacturing industry has been dusted. At that time, the industry will be as the old men with various voices on the short video say, building a car is not a big deal.
The value war of automobiles is a war to defend the pearl. The ultimate winner or loser is decided by each of us, and ultimately determines the winner or loser of each Chinese car consumer.