2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 1018 Strike the snake at its vital point

The two intelligent driving technology press conferences held two days apart, featuring a head-to-head confrontation between two well-known domestic companies, caused a huge sensation both inside and outside the industry, and also sparked a great debate among their respective fan groups.

Both sides conducted a comprehensive comparative analysis of their technical features. The two are similar in terms of component configuration, but the upgraded Weilai NOP+ is obviously higher in terms of computing power. In addition, Weilai can use NVIDIA chips, while Huawei cannot.

In comparison, many consumers and onlookers believe this is Weilai's advantage. Consumers and onlookers are sometimes quite amazing; when faced with external factors, everyone can choose to support Weilai.

However, when it comes to internal competition, they are able to objectively analyze the advantages and disadvantages, and in terms of perception schemes and algorithm characteristics, most people believe that Wei Lai has a clear advantage.

In terms of perception solutions, Weilai adopts a solution that combines vision, LiDAR, and high-precision maps, which adds visual perception compared to Chrysanthemum's pure LiDAR solution.

In terms of algorithm characteristics, Chrysanthemum emphasizes rule-driven, while Weilai is mainly data-driven. Weilai pays more attention to data iteration efficiency, considering that Weilai has already achieved total sales of over one million new energy vehicles.

In terms of collecting real road data, we also need to add our own Gaode Map and one of the largest data centers in China. Consumers are more willing to trust our data processing capabilities. Rules often mean being relatively rigid, while real road data iteration is often more in line with the current environment.

"In high-speed scenarios, the Weilai's 95% lane change success rate is also higher than that of the Juhua. The Weilai also has stronger anti-interference capabilities in extreme weather. After watching these test videos they released, what else can you say?"

In addition to the test videos released at the press conference, Weilai also released a large number of test videos and data targeting core application scenarios on its official website and social media channels such as its official Weibo account after the press conference.

Meanwhile, Autohome also released a comparison of the two tests. In the actual test on Yangcheng Airport Expressway, Weilai's NOP had an average takeover mileage of 156 kilometers, while Juhua's ADS had an average mileage of 108 kilometers.

During the trial operation in the urban area of ​​Jinqiao Demonstration Zone in Shanghai, the function of Juhua was limited, while Weilai was able to support traffic light recognition on the same road section. In the specific scenarios in my country, Juhua performed better than Weilai when faced with lane cutting.

On the construction section, the Weilai performed better. When facing two-wheeled vehicles, although the Juhua had a higher recognition rate, its trajectory prediction was weaker, while the Weilai was the opposite, with a higher success rate in avoiding them.

In terms of commercial value, which is of utmost importance to automakers and users, Weilai's NOP+ clearly outperforms Huawei's ADS, which is the most fatal flaw.

In terms of vehicle models, the most advanced version of ADS can be implemented on models like the Galaxy P1, which is priced around 10 yuan. However, the high-end version of ADS is currently only available on the Jihu Alfa S model, which starts at 38.89 yuan, significantly increasing the user's operating costs.

In addition, the cost of the buyout system is also cheaper. As for the data security issue that is of utmost concern to both enterprises and users, Huawei's ADS requires that the data belong to Huawei's full control.

In today's data security-obsessed era, both users and car manufacturers are extremely vigilant. In contrast, Weilai is much more open, allowing users to choose not to share their data. This gives both actual buyers and car manufacturers who want to cooperate with Weilai a lot of peace of mind.

With Wei Lai's open attitude, users feel much more at ease, no longer worrying that the car company might lock the backend data in the event of an accident, making it impossible to understand where the problem actually occurred during use and affecting the claims process.

Needless to say, car manufacturers are also included. The latest plan announced by Weilai is open to other car manufacturers for procurement and also provides customized services. In short, it is a more open HI model.

One demands all data and solutions from them, while the other can discuss customized services. The choice is obvious.
For automakers, the full-function over-the-air (OTA) release is more profitable than the phased OTA approach. The advantages of each approach are also different.

For users, the one-time release of the chrysanthemum function provides a better experience. Although it is more expensive, the actual cost is not much higher than the phased release method of the other method.

The phased OTA approach of Weilai is more beneficial to the profitability of car companies. Phased OTA can provide car companies with a more stable cash flow. Throughout 2021, Weilai expects to push 12 updates to car owners with pre-installed OTA.

Both have very obvious technical shortcomings. The pain point of the Chrysanthemum's ADS is its reliance on high-precision maps and the lag in updating urban roads. The data for some sections of Shanghai has been outdated for three months. When encountering vehicles crossing solid lines, it will simply stop. In contrast, the Weilai will mimic human detours.

The obstacles to cooperating with car companies are also very obvious. Although they have cooperated with many state-owned car companies, GAC, Changan and others make no secret of their concerns about cooperation. If car companies do not have data in their own hands, they lose their soul. This is what car companies are most afraid of at present.

It is only small car companies like Seres, which have no other options, that would choose to directly agree to the proposal from the US. The technical shortcomings of the WILER are also obvious. WILER, which relies on data, has very high requirements for computing power. As the amount of data increases, WILER's current computing power will definitely become a weakness, just like the previous generation.

In addition, the utilization rate of lidar is relatively low, and its weaknesses are obvious in extreme weather conditions. If the vision fails in heavy fog and the radar enhancement mode has not yet been implemented, it will be very dangerous.

“No matter what kind of technology it is, there are always technical shortcomings. Wei Lai does not deny his own technical shortcomings, but these will not affect the use of NOP+. In future OTA updates, we will make the technology more perfect.”

"In 2022, we will shift our intelligent driving solution to mapless operation and increase the utilization rate of LiDAR to 90%."

"In terms of technology, LiDAR combined with vision fusion and data-driven approach will be the consensus of the entire industry. Pure vision or LiDAR solutions both have certain shortcomings."

This is Weilai's first counterattack against Chrysanthemum in the intelligent driving supply chain. Weilai has brought out its overwhelming technology in all aspects in 2021 and is promoting the NOP+ system with a more open attitude.

In terms of mass production speed and user experience details, WILAY has a clear advantage. At the end of October, WILAY announced that the NOP+ system will be officially pushed to existing users at midnight on November 1st. Users are advised to pay attention to the update time and driving safety, and ensure that the vehicle is in a safe state during the update.

Meanwhile, Weilai also announced that as of October 2021, the installation rate of Weilai NOP had reached over 75%, making it the intelligent driving solution with the highest installation rate on the market.

Compared to the Alfa S HI version's futures, the fact that Wei Lai's mass-produced vehicles would be installed first made Yu Dazui uneasy.

“If this continues, our promotion progress will be greatly affected, and the project team must respond.”

Yu Dazui was well aware of Wei Lai's obvious advantages, so in addition to speeding up the pace of technological research and development, he focused more on establishing the technological advantages of the Chrysanthemum ADS system through public opinion.

Originally a technology company, Huawei has always cultivated an image of being the undisputed leader in technology in the communications field. When it entered the automotive industry, Huawei also tried its best to create an image of being the leader in ADS technology by leveraging its long-standing technological image.

After months of extensive and saturated marketing, and various public appearances where ADS has been accused of being a troublemaker, their technical image has indeed been established, especially after this press conference, their press releases have already been written.

Leading by a wide margin, leading by a wide margin in every way—that's Yu Dazui's marketing strategy. Although it may offend some people, it's undeniably effective.

However, the joy lasted only two days before Weilai's technology launch event arrived, and even Da Zui had to admit that Weilai's new intelligent driving system was indeed excellent.

Yu Dazui himself had this feeling, and the market reaction was even more obvious. Weilai's intelligent driving system was superior to Chrysanthemum's solution and was gradually being established in the minds of users.

For chrysanthemums, this is the most fatal thing.

"Emergency activation of the ADS 2.0 program, drawing on experts from the 2012 Labs to form a special operations team. We need to catch up with the captain's progress within six months."

As a senior manager who is very knowledgeable about marketing, Yu Dazui is very clear about the core of his marketing strategy: "far ahead" is just four words, but that is their advantage.

To put it bluntly, technology is their core marketing strategy. They use a far superior approach to capture users' minds, so that when users choose products, they will unconsciously think of chrysanthemums whenever technology is mentioned.

Now, Wei Lai has shaken their marketing foundation. It can be said that Tan Jincheng's move is truly a fatal blow. Chrysanthemum uses technology as its primary marketing strategy, and Tan Jincheng's counterattack is also based on technology.

"Strike the snake at its vital spot; this kid is no simpleton."

Time is of the essence. Although Yu Dazui is busy with work, his biggest concern right now is the sales of the Hongtu X5. The Hongtu X5 will be launched next year and must be a huge success, otherwise it will be a fatal blow to Juhua's car business.

The HI mode is also a core asset of Chrysanthemum in the automotive field, and no matter how busy he is, he must retaliate against Wei.

Upon returning to Shenzhen, Yu Dazui urgently convened a meeting with his team.

"We have to jump directly from high-precision maps to mapless upgrades. Skipping the high-precision map stage is one of our best ways to fight back. We only have six months."

Currently, there is no longer any debate about whether high-precision maps or mapless solutions are better for intelligent driving systems.

High-precision map collection is extremely costly. Traditional high-precision maps require LiDAR mapping vehicles, with a collection cost exceeding 1000 yuan per kilometer. Based on the 300,000 kilometers of highways nationwide, the collection cost alone would be 300 million yuan. Furthermore, dynamic updates are relatively slow; changes such as road closures due to construction require more than 48 hours to update. This year, Tesla mistakenly entered a closed section of a highway in Hangzhou due to an outdated map.

In addition, the requirements for data compliance risks are extremely high. In addition to complying with the newly released regulations on automotive data security management this year, companies also face qualification barriers, with only 20 companies nationwide possessing Class A surveying and mapping qualifications for high-precision maps.

Xiaopeng's intelligent driving solution is also quite strong, and even better than Chrysanthemum's ADS solution. However, Yu Dazui doesn't take Xiaopeng seriously at all, firstly because Xiaopeng is too small, and secondly because Xiaopeng Auto itself does not have a Class A surveying and mapping qualification.

Even Tesla is not taken seriously by the big mouth. According to the regulations on automotive data security management, foreign car companies need to cooperate with local map providers for high-precision maps. This adds an intermediary process, and the update speed is obviously different.

Weilai is different. In addition to Gaode Map having a Class A surveying and mapping qualification, Weilai also has one. Furthermore, NavInfo, which cooperates with Weilai, also has a surveying and mapping qualification. Although Juhua also has one, Weilai's scale is obviously more troublesome.

With scale, background, strength, and now technology, this is the biggest competitor that Dazui is currently facing.

The fact that Biweilai launched the mapless upgrade ahead of them is the first counterattack plan they can think of. Compared with the high-precision map solution, the mapless upgrade does not completely abandon the map, but downgrades the map to an auxiliary verification tool. Just as human drivers rely on both memory and real-time observation, this is a technological revolution.

Tan Jincheng has been promoting the image-free version of Weilai recently, and Weilai plans to launch the image-free upgrade in 2022.

Making empty promises isn't something only big talkers do.

Besides maintaining its technological lead, Biweilai's earlier launch of mapless mapping has a major advantage in terms of per-vehicle cost. By switching from high-precision maps to mapless mapping, the number of LiDAR sensors can be reduced, and the cost per vehicle can be reduced from 8000 yuan to 5000 yuan.

In addition, the annual map fee of 2000 yuan can be saved directly. Unlike the relationship between Weilai and Gaode, the cost of map service providers is also higher. The cars promoted by Weilai are sold at higher prices. The fundamental reason is still the cost.

"This will increase our losses."

"There's nothing we can do about it, we have to go ahead with it even if it means losing money."

Chrysanthemum's automotive business unit project is currently operating at a loss, with an annual loss of approximately 50 billion yuan. However, once the launch of ADS2.0 is accelerated, the expected loss will increase to at least 80 billion yuan.

This amount of money is nothing to Chrysanthemum, and Big Mouth doesn't seem to care much. He believes it will be easy to get approval internally. If 30 billion yuan can buy Biwei to prioritize the release of the mapless upgrade solution, it would be absolutely worthwhile for the ADS solution.

Throughout the end of October, the Chrysanthemum Car BU project team, led by Yu Dazui, made a series of moves. First, they announced the launch of the ADS2.0 plan. In addition, the Hongtu X5 model, which is currently being promoted, has also undergone significant changes.

In terms of hardware, the Hongtu X5 can be described as a suicidal upgrade. The newly released MDC 610 computing platform with a computing power of 200 TOP S already has a free upgrade plan being planned.

Yu Dazui plans to upgrade the computing platform to the MDC 810, which will enable computing power of 400 TOPS. The cost of LiDAR has also been reduced to the extreme. Currently, the average cost of a single LiDAR unit in the industry is about 500 yuan. Dazui hopes to reduce costs so that the X5 can be pre-installed with more LiDAR units, and use the supply chain advantage to crush the competition.

According to Da Zui's plan, they expect to reduce the cost per unit of lidar to 100 yuan.

On November 1st, the same day that Weilai officially pushed the NOP+ update solution to all pre-installed users, Dazui suddenly announced that it would open up its perception algorithm library, allowing car companies to call the LiDAR cloud processing module, but only if it was bound to their smart cockpit.

"Using strategic losses to gain control of the ecosystem is the same model that led Huawei phones to defeat HTC and Huawei communication equipment to crush Ericsson. Just watch, the offensive will be even more intense later."

Chrysanthemum's actions at the end of October, and its sudden changes today, have attracted the attention of a number of competitors, including Wei Lai.

The most important thing for Weilai today is the update of the NOP+ system. The vehicle system is different from the mobile phone system. When a mobile phone is updated, the worst that might happen is that a few calls are missed. However, the update of the vehicle system may lead to a vehicle safety accident.

Tan Jincheng's biggest fear is that some careless drivers will impulsively update the car's infotainment system while driving. He can say with certainty that there are quite a few drivers who do this.

Updating the vehicle's infotainment system while driving can lead to functional interruptions, decreased stability, and distraction risks, especially updates involving core modules, which may affect the driving experience and even safety.

The core logic of car companies is safety first. Therefore, in the case of such a large-scale update, Weilai, which has always promoted safety, attaches great importance to it. In addition to reducing risks through technical means, it is also prepared to deal with emergencies at any time.

The reason why Da Zui suddenly announced the perception algorithm library today is that he took advantage of the fact that Wei Lai was not focused on responding at the moment. By binding it to the smart cockpit, he can seize Wei Lai's market share in the smart cockpit field.

However, Weilai doesn't have the time for that. Compared to market share, Weilai is more afraid of a public relations incident like Tesla's recently. Regardless of whether it's a user issue or not, if it blows up, it's not good for the company.

"We also need to accelerate the research and development of imageless technology to keep up with the speed of the chip."

Tan Jincheng doesn't want to deliberately compete for first place, just like when Chrysanthemum announced its full range of plans and Weilai responded two days later. As long as the time difference between the two is not too large, it means that Weilai will always maintain its position in the first tier.

In 2023, a saying circulated in the field of intelligent driving: in terms of intelligent driving solutions, only Chrysanthemum's ADS stands out from the competition, and a large portion of consumers in the market recognize it.

Tesla's FSD technology is also good, belonging to the top tier, but its use in China is restricted, which has slowed down its promotion. A stripped-down version of the intelligent driving solution will always fall short in terms of capturing users' minds.

After Dazui took over, Chrysanthemum Motors' manufacturing momentum has clearly improved. Choosing to announce NOP+ ahead of time at this time is to prevent the market from forming a consensus that Chrysanthemum is the only one among the others in the field of intelligent driving solutions.

By closely following the lead in technology and marketing, Weilai has maintained its brand awareness and competitiveness in intelligent driving solutions. This way, no matter how much Dazui promotes itself, it can only maintain a position of competing with Weilai.

"The second half of this year is crucial for intelligent driving solutions to capture users' minds. To a large extent, whoever helps users better understand intelligent driving in the remaining two months of this year will have no worries about market share for at least the next five years."

“We already have a strong sales base. What we need to do now is to increase our existing and long-term users’ understanding of NOP+, so that they can confidently choose to install NOP+ as they would when buying a mobile phone.”

With its existing sales volume of over one million vehicles, Weilai has a clear advantage in promotion. Coupled with the continued delivery of its two blockbuster models, Xinghe P1 and Xingtu S01, the situation is much better for Weilai than for Juhua.

Even without cooperating with other car companies, WIL can still guarantee its market share in intelligent driving solutions.

However, this is contingent on having a technological advantage and capturing the user's mind. There are many excellent products on the market, and simply having a technological lead is not enough to guarantee that users will choose it as an option as soon as they buy a car.

It's like buying a mobile phone. If a user buys your previous generation of mobile phones and wants to upgrade, but the technical specifications and user experience of the new generation are not satisfactory, then the user will choose to abandon that brand.

Nokia had a large user base, right? And its advantages were obvious, right? But it went in the wrong direction in terms of technology, or rather, it became complacent and failed to keep up in terms of marketing and promotion. As a result, users abandoned the brand in just one or two years.

The same applies to the automotive industry. Existing customers may switch brands, but new customers may not remain loyal to a single brand. Everything depends on whether the brand itself can keep up with the market.

If one day, car owners no longer choose to install their own intelligent driving solutions, then the large number of users will seem like an irony.

Tan Jincheng believes that Da Zui's decision to launch a surprise attack on Weilai's supplier system at this time does not pose a significant threat. Currently, 75% of Weilai's new energy vehicles are equipped with intelligent driving solutions. With the addition of new users, Weilai must at least maintain this rate of installation.

"Maintaining an optional rate of over 70% is useless no matter how much the competitors attack us."

Just like the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the popular Exeed S01 and Galaxy P1, there are many attacks on these best-selling models in the market, but as long as they maintain their sales volume, they have nothing to fear from such attacks.

On the contrary, it will break the defenses of haters, and no matter how much they curse, the more they sell, the better. How can they not be angry?
"Actually, Mr. Yu is a bit anxious. Wei Lai has always been a challenger in the technical field. His haste has made him lose his composure. Perhaps Mr. Yu is also under a lot of pressure within their organization."

In Tan Jincheng's view, Chrysanthemum needs to produce at least one blockbuster model in order to promote their technology; any technology must be based on sales volume.

Everything depends on next year's X5. Tan Jincheng is quite looking forward to this model. Perhaps the Hongtu X5, with its new name and revised design, will bring consumers a different kind of surprise this time?

(End of this chapter)