After attending the Zhiji auto conference, I posted some pictures of new cars on social media and immediately received a user comment: "Buying a car these days is the same as buying a mobile phone." What this user actually means is that the current car is updated quickly and dazzled.
Through this topic, we go deep into the perspective of industry. What is happening in the automobile industry is also very similar to the development path of smart phones. In addition to the historic event that Apple defeated Europeans, China’s mobile phone industry has also become the most important pole in the world, and its brand image and core technology have made rapid progress. Huawei even made its own various core chips. Today, it used to be considered as an insurmountable operating system, and Huawei also used the HarmonyOS operating system to announce that we had turned over this mountain.
Under the background that cars are becoming smarter and more electrified, the whole industry is similar to the smart phone industry in the past, but the wheelbase of time is not long enough. Maybe looking back 10 years later, this feeling will be more profound.
Let’s focus on the present. The number of new automobile brands in China is unique in the world, and those traditional automobile manufacturers are also trying to build higher-end new brands, polish more eye-catching new products and start the horn of having more core technologies through this historic opportunity of change. Last month’s case was Dongfeng Motor, which launched Lantu, and this month’s case was SAIC, which pushed Zhiji to the stage.
Who is tomoji?
Strictly speaking, Zhiji is not unique to SAIC, but a new brand jointly created by SAIC, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech. As a newly established brand, you may still be unfamiliar with it.
Zhiji, which reads "self". Why take such a name? According to the official, Zhiji is taken from The Book of Changes, "Knowing everything is around, but Dao Ji is under the world", aiming at understanding everything with wisdom, diligently exploring, defining, creating and realizing the smart travel driven by the times and needed by users.
We can simply understand that intelligence represents intelligence; Represent oneself, alsonamelyUsers.If you read their introductions in the official media of Zhiji, you will definitely see what cars should look like in the intelligent age."This sentence.In addition to the three major shareholders, 4.9% of Zhiji’s shares will be built into a user rights platform.Therefore, Zhiji is a condensation of the two visions expressed by this brand.
Zhiji’s English brand name is "IM", which is the same as the Chinese name. Besides, purely for fun, the name IM is attractive, at least it will make people think of the iPhone.
The user rights platform is heavy enough, so it goes without saying what users participate in product design.
Where is the intelligence?
Is Zhiji really smart? Zhiji’s speed is fast enough. On the 13th, Zhiji has released two new cars, a car and an SUV, all of which have not been officially named, and they have no names when they are unveiled. Presumably, the naming of new cars that are still brewing inside must also have strong characteristics. Cars will be accepted during the Shanghai Auto Show in April, listed at the end of the year, and delivered to users in 2022. The progress of SUV is a little late, but it will also be listed in 2022.
Through specific models, let’s look at the intelligence of Zhiji.
Zhiji’s car is equipped with intelligent lighting system, which is composed of 2.6 million pixels DLP and 5,000 LED ISC, and can realize V2X driving fusion interaction and intelligent lighting expression. Specific functions, first, smart lighting navigation; Combined with high-precision map and navigation road planning, the next route can be guided by changing lights.
The second is Spot light pedestrian reminder; The infrared and visual fusion perception system of the whole vehicle is integrated to help pedestrians predict traffic risks in advance, for example, the number of seconds of traffic lights can be displayed on the lights. Third, the width-indicating optical blanket guidance; It means that the new car can recognize the road narrowing condition, automatically trigger the width-indicating light carpet in advance, and can automatically adapt to the lane line to draw the light carpet.
Fourth, the wisdom light moves with the eyes; Tracking the eyeball orientation through the camera in the car, and controlling the direction in which the headlights illuminate the driver. In addition, the smart lighting system supports flexible and personalized OTA, allowing users to design freely and enhance interest.
Zhiji’s car is equipped with an image sensor with 150 million pixels as a whole, which supports 180 distortion-free ultra-wide-angle, 4K high-definition video shooting, super night scene, high dynamic range, time-lapse photography, slow-motion photography and other modes. Videos can be edited and shared to social media with one click, and can be connected to major live broadcast platforms to broadcast live from the first perspective, and professional photography templates are provided.
This system is called Carlog, and it is extremely fresh. In the future, Kaizhiji’s car can easily record the picturesque scenery and cultural stories passing by and share them conveniently.
The eye-catching 39-inch huge display screen in the car can be intelligently lifted and lowered according to the usage scene, and there is also a 12.8-inch 2K AMOLED curved central screen on the lower side; Inside the screen is Zhiji’s IMOS system.
With the screen group full of science and technology, IMOS system has three characteristics, which are flowing, moist and pure. These three elegant words refer to multi-screen display respectively; Based on the weather, time, road conditions, and even based on the user’s mood, users are recommended in different scenarios; Only some necessary intuitive information is presented when driving. Sounds good? At least it aroused our strong curiosity and looked forward to the real experience.
From now on, charging will be intelligent. Zhiji’s car will be equipped with 11 kW high-power wireless charging for the first time in the world. It is said that the charging efficiency is almost the same as that of traditional charging, and it can charge 10.5 kWh in one hour, which is equivalent to 70-80 kilometers of battery life according to NEDC working conditions.
These intelligent abilities are relatively innovative. Then, to what extent has Zhizhi achieved the intelligence in the automatic driving ability that the industry is competing for at present?
The first model, namely the car, will be equipped with the NVIDIA Xavier computing platform with a computing power of 30-60TOPS, and the integrated sensing solution of 15 high-definition visual cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars and 12 ultrasonic radars, as well as the algorithm developed based on the characteristic road conditions and driving habits in China, will form the whole system of automatic driving.
From the hardware point of view, the ability of this system is in the first-class level at present. However, the new car will be delivered in 2022, when Weilai ET7 with stronger book strength will also be delivered.
Zhiji has also considered a more radical scheme to provide new cars with upgrade redundancy in a compatible way. At present, it is not clear whether the redundant system can be installed after installation or introduced in the form of a modified model.
The key upgrades of this redundant system are lidar and NVIDIA Orin X chip. It is exaggerated that the number of lidar will reach three; NVIDIA Orin X chip and weilai ET7 use the same model, and the computing power will soar to 500-1000+TOPS.
As for the time point, the official said that the lidar will enter the mature stage of commercial mass production, and Zhiji Automobile will be upgraded immediately. Considering that Weilai plans to deliver ET7 equipped with lidar to users in 2022, Zhiji’s speed should not be too late.
As for the specific actual experience, the news given by Zhiji be The functions of the automatic driving system include memorizing parking and calling cars, automatically parking service and calling cars, traffic light recognition, automatic crossing, traffic jam prevention, automatic obstacle avoidance, automatic lane change, overtaking, getting on and off ramps according to the navigation path, and rear-end collision alarm.With the permission of national laws and regulations and the opening of high-precision maps, by the end of 2021, wisdomone’s ownThe car will have the ability to take over the automatic driving from point to point.
Zhiji focuses on automatic parking service and wake-up car. This function allows users to get off the bus and let the vehicle automatically parking service through the mobile APP; When picking up the car, the car will automatically park out of the parking space and drive to the designated location to facilitate the user to get on the bus. By the end of 2021, the functions of automatic parking service and calling cars will be applied in certain commercial centers in first-tier cities.
In 2022, it will gradually expand to specific supermarkets in first-tier and new first-tier cities. This function is quite beautiful when you think about it. After a year, the new car is delivered and you can drive Zhiji’s car to a specific shopping mall, so you can save the trouble of finding a parking space. I have to say, the development of technology is really fast. Of course, the premise is that Zhizhi can accomplish his goal on time.
In addition, the actual experience of the autopilot system, we have to wait until 2022 to get the answer, that is, it is not really that smart.
How is the performance?
Intelligence must be the most important ability of future cars, not power and endurance. Power and endurance in the future, everyone should do the same. Therefore, it is rational for Zhiji to focus on intelligence. Having said that, the new car released by Zhiji is also excellent in terms of power and endurance.
The new car is equipped with front and rear dual motors, and the rear axle motor is the main driving source. The total maximum power is 400 kW, and the torque is 700 Nm, which is slightly less than that of Weilai ET7, but the acceleration time of 100 kilometers is consistent with it, only 3.9 seconds.
Standard 93 kWh battery pack, with 115 kWh battery pack; Although the semi-solid battery technology adopted by Weilai ET7 battery pack is not adopted, it is also the first in the world to use silicon-doped lithium-supplementing technology, which realizes the ultra-high energy density of 300 watt-hours/kg, and can support Zhiji’s car to reach the battery life of nearly 1000 kilometers.
You don’t have to worry about the ability of the chassis. The new car is equipped with an all-aluminum chassis with a front double wishbone and a rear five-bar suspension, a brake-by-wire system, an AKC rear wheel steering system by wire, and a CDC intelligent electronic control suspension system, and the key adjustment is the responsibility of Williams professional chassis adjustment team from one of the three F1 teams.
It can be said that Zhiji represents the peak of SAIC’s strength.
Can the future be expected?
The emergence of intellectual self is aptly described by being in the right place at the right time. Tianshi refers to the intelligent and electrified industrial transformation, which represents the opportunity to change lanes and overtake into the high-end market; In addition, after years of development, the industry has reached a critical point of technological leap, and the infrastructure construction is also improving day by day. It seems that Zhiji’s admission is late, but it just happened to catch up with the good opportunity.
SAIC’s own brand has gained sufficient technical foundation and experience in various aspects through its development in the low-end market in the past, and SAIC itself is also quite rich, which is the geographical advantage of Zhizhi itself. People and better understanding, the background and resources that Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech can bring need not be said.
When I came out of Zhiji’s release venue, Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China, and looked up at this 632-meter symbol of China’s economic take-off, I couldn’t help feeling again that, like the smart phone industry, China will surely make breakthrough progress in the future of the automobile industry and become the most important pole in the world.
And the new intellectual will witness this process; And what is its own fate? After reading our introduction, what do you think of it?
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