Addicted to the concentration of "Metaverse", too far from "Wei Xiaoli"

Due to the postponement of the Beijing Auto Show, Jidu Auto, which has been delayed for nearly 2 months, finally ushered in its debut.

On June 8, the online press conference of Jidu ROBODAY was held as scheduled.As the protagonist of this conference, Jidu's first concept car of automotive robots has also been officially launched in the form of a complete vehicle.

In fact, long before the ROBO-01 was unveiled, Jidu CEO Xia Yiping took Li Xiang, He Xiaopeng and other car circle bosses to discuss the layout of the lidar.Therefore, the unique lift-type dual lidar design has become the primary symbol of this integrated concept car.

But then again, relying only on lidar as a gimmick is obviously not enough to support the five characters of "automobile robot".

And from the point of view of the car-building process, although Baidu software, integrated SIMUCar model, and Geely's vast architecture are endorsed, the "high efficiency" of car-building in one year has caused many doubts in the industry.

Baojianfeng has learned from his self-grinding that building a car is indeed a "water mill". Even the mighty Tesla took nearly 20 years to achieve its current status.

Therefore, regarding this conference, in addition to looking forward to the appearance of the ROBO-01 vehicle, what I want to see most is, can Jidu have the real power to respond to the doubts in the market?What are the characteristics of the so-called "automobile robot"?

3 major design concepts + intelligence

The hardware determines the upper limit of the car, and the software defines the lower limit of the car.

In the new era of smart cars, the combination of software and hardware is indispensable, and Meng is not out of focus, and neither is indispensable.Therefore, under the elaboration of Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu, the concept car of this car robot not only contains the three major concepts in design, but also is always firm in intelligence.

The three concepts include: futurism, robotics, and empathy.

Specifically, ROBO-01 eliminates traditional door handles and other complicated components in design, and is equipped with a 3D unbounded integrated ultra-wide screen that runs through the entire cockpit.In addition, the whole car also cancels the physical control keys such as the shift lever, left and right paddles, and is equipped with a U-shaped steering wheel to create a sense of the future.

Robotization is manifested in various active deformable structures, such as the front cover "jump light" liftable lidar, active lift tail ROBOWing, foldable U-shaped steering wheel, lift satellite audio, and adaptive swan neck. Gravity seats, etc.

Interactive AI lamp language, high recognition rate AI voice interaction system, the main responsibility is the "empathy" ability of automotive robots.According to the introduction, ROBO-01 can transmit its thinking results in the form of AI lamp language according to its own perception of the external environment.

The AI ​​voice interaction system is a plus point for the smart cockpit.In fact, the most prominent places of intelligence we often say are in two places: intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit.

The set degree divides the car robot into three parts: "brain", "nerve" and "torso".The capabilities related to intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit serve as the brain and soul, the intelligent architecture JET serves as the nerve, and the vehicle structure and powertrain serve as the torso.

In order to build a better brain and soul, Qualcomm 8295 and NVIDIA Orin two "universal cores" were arranged together, which led to the AI ​​computing power value of the whole vehicle reaching as high as 538Tops.

There are also 2 semi-solid lidars (Hesai AT128), 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 12 cameras that act as perception "eyes" to achieve high-level autonomous driving.

According to the introduction, the integrated automatic driving system can realize the "three-domain integration" of high-speed, urban and parking, and has point-to-point high-level automatic driving capabilities.Today, the automatic driving system has run through the functions of unprotected left turn, traffic light recognition, obstacle avoidance, and free on and off ramps.

But in addition to the intelligence of these old-fashioned conversations, it is worth mentioning that there is also the "integration" of the set's own.

The set-up can utilize the full coverage, low-latency, high-bandwidth Gigabit Ethernet loop to link all vehicle sensors and high-performance computing platforms, and meet the efficient connection of underlying hardware, AI capabilities, and upper-layer application services, thereby achieving computing power Sharing, perception sharing, service sharing and other functions.

The foundation of all this is JET, an intelligent architecture developed by Jidu.

It is understood that JET integrates the electronic and electrical architecture EEA and SOA operating system, which can carry high-level autonomous driving core functions and AI capabilities, thereby realizing global integration.In fact, it is precisely because of the existence of the JET architecture that the smooth development process of SIMUCar is facilitated.

In other words, the reason why Jidu was able to hand over the transcript of ROBO-01 so quickly, 80% of the credit comes from the JET architecture with strong "integration" ability.Moreover, JET will also continue to shine on the future road of Jidu.

In the mud, there are still problems

In all fairness, the selection of the June time node is not too good, but it is not too bad.

On the one hand, at the turning point of the epidemic and the economy is on the rise, more people will pay attention to ROBO-01; Ideal L9, Xiaopeng G9 and many other strong friends in the hustle and bustle of the torrent.

Generally speaking, the arena ofnew energy vehiclesis very large, so big that it can even affect a country's economy; but the arena of new energy vehicles is very small, and there are always those familiar faces who turn around and fight each other. Friends again.

It is true that the market fornew energyvehicles is very large, but it may not be enough to rely only on the emergence of a concept car whether Jidu Automobile can eat its own cake under the crowd of heroes.

First, there is bound to be a long way to go from concept to mass production.The overall planning of upstream components and the development of the end-user market are all delicate tasks that take time to polish.

Described by the iceberg theory, the current stage of the concentration car is only to solve the problems above the water surface, and the iceberg hidden under the water still has many difficulties and obstacles that need to be solved urgently.

The complexity of manufacturing plants,capacitycoordination, supply chain management, building sales channels, and delivery centers far exceeds the development of the car itself.What's more, the current concentration has two backers, which means that in both directions, although Dongfeng can be borrowed, how much can it be borrowed in the end?

Judging from the share of Chidu Automobile, Baidu holds 55% of the shares and Geely holds 45% of the shares. It is the strong alliance of the two parties that has produced Chidu Automobile, which is about to bear fruit now.

But on the other hand, Geely has its own son "Ji Krypton", Baidu's attitude is slightly swaying, and it is not even as strong as Xiaomi's "last venture".Under such a background, if you do not master the strength of the Jidu car, it is easy to fall into the situation of "grandma doesn't love my uncle and doesn't love it".

In fact, just two days ago, there was news that Zhu Jiang, the vice president in charge of operations and user business, had left Jidu.The real reason is unknown, whether it is normal work adjustment or passive resignation, but if the concentration cannot "self-consumption" and strangled in the cradle in advance, I am afraid that there will still be more waves.

So, then again, what exactly is long-termism that belongs to Chidu Auto?

Is it the container for the commercialization of Baidu's autonomous driving capabilities?Or a touchstone from Geely?Or is it the "intelligent" that Jidu Automobile has always advertised since its establishment?

Talk is cheap, everyone will say rhetoric, but if they think from the user's point of view, they may not care how high the level of intelligence is, just enough and convenient; zero-hundred acceleration does not require much Quick, the quality of the car itself is strong enough, just don't make small mistakes at every turn...

All in all, there is nothing wrong with intelligence, and technology injection is also the choice of the times, but before that, please don't forget the self-attribution of the car.

You must know that "showing off skills" is just the icing on the cake. Auto products cannot be fast-selling products. The quality of their own products, as well as subsequent user adhesion and after-sales service, are the real long-termism.

Regarding this press conference, I am deeply touched by the sentence, "Success does not depend on when to start, but when to take the first step."

Today, Jidu Automobile has taken the first step, and the mass-produced model will also be unveiled this fall, which is 90% similar to the ROBO-01 concept car.

In addition, Jidu will also release the design of the second mass-produced model at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, which is still fast-paced.

However, looking at the "cartoon"-like press conference screen, I didn't know whether to expect Jidu cars to come faster or to slow down.