DJI vehicles make a fortune by being flexible and muffled

Visual China.

Text |Cyber Cars.

Interestingly, after the Zhijie S7 showed unmanned parking technology and drove itself on the stage of the press conference,The iCar 03 with the blessing of DJI Automotive also drove itself on the stage in an unmanned way.

icar 03 drove himself on stage.

And it is worth noting that it is different from the Zhijie S7 and any car in China that has L2+ level assisted drivingThe iCar 03 does not have a millimeter-wave radar or ultrasonic radar, which also means that it is the first car in China to rely on pure visual perception hardware to achieve high-end assisted driving functions.

DJI Automotive is undoubtedly the biggest contributor to this achievement, but it was not mentioned much throughout the event. This is inseparable from DJI's style and DJI's positioning in the automotive circle: extremely low-key, willing to retreat behind the scenes of the Tier1 business.

But contrary to its low-key identity, DJI has been designated for more than 20 models.

Why did DJI vehicles usher in an outbreak at this time?What is DJI's strategic thinking for vehicles?

In terms of time, the iCar 03 is the second production model of the Chengxing platform, and the first car is the Baojun Yunduo cooperated by DJI Automotive and Baojun.

Although the information revealed at the pre-sale launch event was limited, it is certain that the ICAR 03 adopted a more radical approach than the Baojun Cloud:Millimeter-wave radar and ultrasonic radar were completely removed, and only retainedA pair of 8 million pixel forward-looking inertial navigation stereo binocular cameras, a 3 million pixel rear-view monocular camera and four 3 million pixel surround view fisheye cameras are the 7V scheme of the platform.

From a functional point of view, the iCar 03 will also support intelligent drivingCross-layer memory parking, city memory pilot, high-speed pilot and other functions.

Hardware configuration of the intelligent driving solution of the iCar 03 application.

It is worth mentioning that on the eve of the official start of pre-sale of the iCar 03, DJI Automotive has just upgraded the Chengxing platform.

On December 15, DJI Automotive announcedThe hardware resource utilization, perception performance and generalization ability of the platform have been improved, and it is clear that the memory driving function will be officially delivered.

On the same day, Zhou Yu, deputy general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Brand Division, also confirmed on Weibo that Baojun Yunduo, which is equipped with DJI's Chengxing platform, will open the internal testing of the memory navigation function for users nationwide at the end of the year, "The whole country will be fully dry in March." ”

DJI also said in the announcement that the memory driving function and the optimization of functions such as automatic parking, high-speed navigation and driving assistance in this update will be pushed to users from December to March next year through OTA"The latest technologies and capabilities of the Chengxing platform will be directly applied to the models that will be mass-produced. ”

In other words, the iCar 03, which opened for pre-sale and delivered this time, is theoretically equipped with a memory navigation function that has reached the deliverable stateSome users can also experience the ability to store up to 10 lines of 150km and realize the point-to-point pilot assistance function with only one run.

Why some users?Like the Baojun Cloud and Baojun KiWi EV, the iCar 03 is not equipped with intelligent driving functions as standardOnly the top-of-the-line model has been blessed by the Chengxing platform.

The difference between the icar 03 intelligent driving version and the entry version is nearly 60,000 yuan.

It can be seen that icar 03 does not intend to advertise intelligent driving as the main label of its own products.

There is nothing wrong with thisAfter all, the intelligent driving function is still the X factor in the mass market of less than 200,000 yuan. On the one hand, at present, the perception of intelligent driving, or the demand for intelligent driving, is not highOn the other hand, intelligent driving systems** are not cheap

In short, the value for money is not enough.

"At present, on the whole, the cost of high-end hardware accounts for 10%, which is a very big cost pressure for car companies. But if 10% of the cost doesn't bring more than 10% of the value, it's hard to deploy at a particularly large scale. That's why the allocation rate of new forces is higher, because it's mainly aimed at the early stage of technology." Previously, there were ** chain players who said so.

Therefore, icar 03 will be the top configuration of the intelligent driving function, and the entry price will open a gap of nearly 60,000 yuan, which also means that it hopes that the intelligent driving function will be used as a "bright color", but it may not have high hopes for the sales blessing.

This is also destined, or with a high probability, it will be difficult for DJI to prove its "ability to carry goods" through the iCar 03, just like the previous cooperation with Baojun

Judging from the sales distribution of the Baojun Kiwi EV, the production model of DJI's first-generation intelligent driving solution, and the Baojun Yunduo, the first model equipped on the Chengxing platform, the top-of-the-line intelligent driving version of the two models accounted for about 40% and 18% of the sales in November this year, respectively.

The proportion of data seems to be good, but in fact, the sales of both models are not too good, and the Baojun Yunduo sold 2,848 units in NovemberThe Kiwi EV has sold an average of 200-400 units per month in the past six months.

Of course, sales volume is the main concern of OEMs, at least for the moment, it is not the most concerned topic of DJI Automotive.

So, what is the topic that DJI Automotive is most concerned about?Get more projects.

Unlike Huawei's smart car model or HI model, DJI does not seek to be too involved in the design, manufacturing, and sales of the whole vehicleOnly as one of the many leading OEMs to participate in the entire chain.

Such a role also determines that DJI will retreat more into the background, and it does not have to be like Huawei, standing in front of the stage strongly.

As a pure tier1 business, it is obvious that DJI Automotive pays more attention to the number of fixed-point projects and product quality in its own hands.

Relying on DJI's own reputation and capabilities, DJI's vehicles are much faster than general intelligent driving solution providers.

According to the Red Star,By the end of 2024, there will be more than 20 models equipped with DJI's in-vehicle intelligent driving products.

Up to now, there are a total of 4 models of DJI's on-board intelligent driving products, which means that there will be more than 10 models of DJI on-board blessing that will enter the market one after another, and it is even very likely that in the Beijing Auto Show next year, there will be many car companies in order to catch up with the wave of intelligence and reveal specific cooperation models with DJI vehicles.

Why has DJI recently ushered in a big explosion of project designation?

At the press conference of the new M7, Yu Chengdong said that Huawei's high-end intelligent driving will be launched nationwide at the end of this year.

The external reasons are obvious, with the emergence of Xiaopeng G6 and Wenjie M7 two popular products, superimposed Huawei, Xiaopeng, Ideal and other head smart electric vehicle players began to compete for the opening speed of urban NOAHigh-end intelligent driving systems have begun to become an important factor influencing consumers' decision-making process for purchasing new energy vehicles.

The general direction of the competition of new energy vehicles has shifted from electrification to intelligence. By 2024, if you don't have a usable and easy-to-use pilot assistance system, it is very likely that you will lose out of the cruel competition.

This external factor has stimulated many traditional OEMs, and the time for self-development of the whole system is running outFinding a set of intelligent driving products that can be quickly implemented from the outside has become the best choice for OEMs.

With external demand, DJI Automotive also needs to have its own diamond drill to take over this porcelain work: the Chengxing platform.

According to Xie Tiandi, head of DJI's automotive market, he introducedThe biggest feature of the Chengxing platform is that it is low cost and extremely flexible.

The first two models that DJI Automotive and Baojun cooperated, Kiwi EV and Yue, also used the previous generation of platform technology, which is not very expansible, and the development workload of changing models is also a lot, and it does not have the advantage of platformization.

Based on a minimum of one inertial navigation binocular sensor and five vision sensors, as well as a computing power requirement as low as 32 TOPS, the platform can provide L2+ assisted driving functions including memory parking, memory navigation, and high-speed navigation.

Of course, the basis of this set of purely visual intelligent sensors also means extremely low hardware costs. Shen Shaojie, the person in charge of DJI Automotive, once introduced,The hardware cost of the Chengxing platform can be as low as less than 10,000 yuan, or even to the level of 5,000 yuan, which is roughly equivalent to the ** of a long-range lidar.

The most important thing is that in addition to saving the cost of intelligent hardware sensors, the platform can also save the sunk cost of the first chain for car companies by supporting a variety of choices of sensors and chips.

Xie Tiandi sees "chip freedom" as a special advantage of Chengxing. Due to the long development cycle of the model models of traditional OEMs, chip manufacturers have long determined that "the Chengxing platform can flexibly adapt to the chip fixed-point and other parts of the OEM, saving a lot of sunk costs." ”

The flexibility of the Chengxing platform does not stop there, Xie said"As long as the model has a wire-controlled chassis, we can get on (the platform), and the time to achieve landing is very short. ”

Now let's look back at DJI's interpretation of the naming of the Chengxing platform: "I hope to promote the user's beautiful travel with flexible configuration, friendly threshold, and high-quality experience", which can be said to be a sentence that does not mention car companies, but every sentence is for car companies.

The flexible adaptation of the Chengxing platform also represents the flexibility of DJI's overall automotive strategy.

Nowadays, although all OEMs are fighting an intelligent arms race, the needs for intelligent driving are different between different car companies, and even between different models of the same car company.

When it comes to product definition, ** interval, and even the internal voice of the intelligent driving team, the following situations will occur:Some car companies attach great importance to intelligent driving, and need to open up resources from the early stage of model planning, and plan the definition of functions and vehicle safety with internal intelligent driving teams or external Tier1 partnersAt this stage, some car companies only need to realize the delivery of intelligent driving functions, and the integration, optimization and upgrading of functions are all a later story.

Xie Khotan likened this situation to a pyramid, "The pattern of intelligent driving has not yet been determined, and there is a demand in all positions of the pyramid." It's just that the higher you go, the more OEMs want to provide intelligent driving systems that are powerful enough and have a smooth experience, the more they will be involved in the 'soul theory'. ”

Xie Tiandi said that DJI has the ability to serve car companies or models in various locations in the pyramid.

The 9V solution of the Chengxing platform can provide urban navigation assistance functions.

But competence is one thing, reality is another.

Judging from the models that have been mass-produced, the adaptability of the Chengxing platform to the middle and bottom models of the pyramid has been proven.

Among the more than 20 models that DJI has obtained, this kind of demand may also account for a considerable part, namely:Models that are already in the development cycle and require the support of the intelligent driving function, or models that have already been launched and are still in the sales cycle but require the support of the intelligent driving function in the mid-term facelift.

But whether it is Baojun Kiwi EV, Baojun Yueye, Baojun Yunduo or ICAR 03, they all rely more on the positioning of their own models and ** to ensure their own sales of the basic plate, and the intelligent driving function is just the icing on the cake selling point.

DJI Automotive also lacks a popular model like the M7 and Xpeng G6, which takes intelligent driving as one of its core selling points to expand its brand recognition.

However, products with intelligent driving as one of the core selling points need to "enter the city and open the city". Although the Chengxing platform can now provide urban memory navigation functions and can cope with various scenarios including urban roads, urban expressway ramps, and laneless lines, it is still a bicycle function, and the route can only be stored on the vehicle side.

If you want to provide a real urban NOA that can be opened in the whole country, DJI Automotive is not unable to provide it (80 tops+9V solution), but this will involve the problem of soul theory:Which team is responsible for the iterative optimization of subsequent features?Is it necessary to include the best business (DJI Automotive) in the data closed-loop?

Baojun's memory pilot function has been launched for internal testing.

All of the above issues are not up to the platform or DJI itself.

In other words, although the number of project fixed-point points has exploded, DJI vehicles still need to be prepared for danger in times of peace. With the popularization of intelligent driving functions, regardless of whether they are self-developed or not, the demand of OEMs for intelligent driving systems will also change from the pursuit of icing on the cake to the pursuit of experience-oriented necessary functions.

At that time, DJI Automotive and other intelligent driving solution providers will need to negotiate with OEMs about the "soul" ownership.

And,The competition of the intelligent driving system will also change from the competition of who delivers faster and more to the competition of all-round services of the intelligent driving system (iterative upgrading of functions, account system of intelligent system, etc.).