After demonstrating its intelligent driving ability in the new E-class, Mercedes-Benz will greatly accelerate its intelligence in 2024. "The latest L2+ navigation assistance system can also be empowered to other Mercedes-Benz models equipped with high-end intelligent assisted driving hardware (binocular camera). At the Mercedes-Benz New Year press conference on January 16, Oliver L Cher, senior executive vice president of Mercedes-Benz (China) Investment and head of Mercedes-Benz China R&D and procurement, said this when communicating with Feiling Automobile.
Mercedes-Benz showcased its new technology in intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit in the new E-Class. Among them, the new L2+ navigation assistance system was developed by local engineers in China. From the perspective of the new E-class, its hardware includes four panoramic cameras, binocular stereo cameras, millimeter-wave radar and 12 ultrasonic radars. Compared with the lidar solution of the new force, Mercedes-Benz achieves the same function with less hardware. In the previous test drive of the new E-class, Feiling has experienced its intelligent driving ability throughout the process. (Poke the link for more information on rejecting the beta!) Mercedes-Benz's new E-class car intelligent evolution: new car machine + new intelligent driving system Feiling).
This L2+ navigation assistance system can cover high-speed and urban expressways across the country, and has the ability to achieve high-speed end-to-end navigation assisted driving. In terms of driving, the all-new E-Class also has functions such as automatic lane change, automatic distance away from large vehicles, and automatic entry and exit ramp (to be delivered in 2024). This is basically equivalent to the high-speed point-to-point advanced driving assistance function of the new force.
Mercedes-Benz's strategy in autonomous driving is not to pile up hardware, but to use a more reasonable combination to achieve comprehensive capability improvement. "The development of autonomous driving is not simply based on the number of sensors such as lidar or cameras, and some sensors may be used very infrequently. Ou Lifu said. He pointed out that the more sensors a vehicle has, the more likely it is to overwhelm the computing power, which is very inefficient and energy-intensive, and may even affect the range of the car, and it is wiser to use the right number of sensors with more powerful algorithms.
According to Ou Lifu, in 2024, this L2+ navigation assistance system will have the function of automatically entering and leaving the ramp.
Mercedes-Benz did not make the number of cities open the feature as a key point, but sought to promote it on the basis of safety. "The opening of this city will only take place after 100% of the road verification in this city has been completed. Wang Xin, executive vice president of Mercedes-Benz (China) Investment *** and head of Mercedes-Benz China's R&D of autonomous driving and Internet of Vehicles, said. "Safety" is also the fundamental difference between Mercedes-Benz's autonomous driving and other car companies. Mercedes-Benz has long obtained the commercial license for L3 autonomous driving in the German and American markets, which have strict standards, and is also the only company in the world that has obtained both German and American certifications. Behind this is the strength of Mercedes-Benz in intelligent driving.
Mercedes-Benz is also the first company in the world to commit to taking responsibility for accidents in L3 autonomous driving mode if eligible. Whether it is the "double certification" or the assumption of responsibility, it shows Mercedes-Benz's confidence in its own technology. Behind the confidence is a long period of technical accumulation and maintaining a reverence for safety. Mercedes-Benz launched the "Prometheus" program as early as 1986 and began research and testing in autonomous driving, nearly 40 years ago. In terms of autonomous driving, Mercedes-Benz has maintained the greatest restraint to improve the safety of the technology.
For example, Mercedes-Benz China has conducted extensive tests in different cities for the function upgrade of automatic entry and exit ramps, with at least 20 tests at each ramp, covering different time periods, traffic congestion or smooth conditions, and also taking into account daytime, dawn, dusk and direct sunlight. In road tests, each model basically runs millions of kilometers. Wang Xin emphasized that Mercedes-Benz will steadily open up relevant intelligent driving functions based on the principle of "safety first".
In fact, Mercedes-Benz could have announced the opening of more road ranges only from a technical point of view, but there is no "beta" version in the Mercedes-Benz dictionary. "It's important to do a thorough test and wait until it's functional to meet our standards. Wang Xin said. In the future, relying on the continuous evolution of artificial intelligence, automatic data annotation and other technologies, the promotion of new functions of Mercedes-Benz autonomous driving will also be accelerated. In addition, in the future of the promotion of urban navigation assisted driving, Mercedes-Benz will also take a similar approach, will not deliberately pursue the number of open cities, but the pursuit of high quality, safety first. "You can always trust the Mercedes standard. Oliver said.
What kind of new experience will the new platform and new system bring?
An even more important step for Mercedes-Benz in 2024 is the official unveiling of its modular architecture MMA platform by the end of the year. The MMA platform is a new modular architecture developed by Mercedes-Benz with the concept of "electric first", which interprets the new look of its new generation of electric family, and is reported to support a number of technologies such as 800V electrical architecture and permanent magnet synchronous motors. The all-new CLA-class concept car was unveiled at last year's Munich Motor Show on the MMA platform, with a production version due to be launched in 2024. According to Ou Lifu, the MMA platform will be officially unveiled at the end of this year, and it will also bring China's exclusive long-wheelbase models based on the MMA platform.
We won't disclose too much information about the specific product mix of the MMA platform models at this stage, but it can be said that there will be a long-wheelbase version of the locally-produced model, which will make the rear space more spacious, more comfortable and more luxurious. Oliver said.
Of course, with the arrival of the new platform, Mercedes-Benz's new technology based on the platform will also be unveiled. At this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, Mercedes-Benz showcased leading digital technologies including MBUX Virtual Assistant and MBUX Immersive Navigation. These technologies are based on Mercedes-Benz's self-developed operating system, MBOS. And at the same time as the release of the MMA platform, the MB of the whole bodyThe OS operating system will also be officially released. "We're building an architecture from the chip to the cloud, MBThe decoupling of hardware and software from the OS not only brings greater security and privacy, but also ensures that the product continues to evolve and upgrade. Oliver said.
According to the presentation, MBThe OS operating system is a full-stack self-developed architecture of Mercedes-Benz, covering intelligent cockpit functions, intelligent driving assistance and autonomous driving functions, body and comfort functions, driving and charging functions, etc. Of course, MB. released in ChinaThe OS operating system will also be localized to a certain extent. It is reported that Mercedes-Benz will launch a next-generation navigation system and implant more content, and will also upgrade the navigation architecture. After the arrival of the MMA platform, Mercedes-Benz's urban L3 autonomous driving and urban advanced assisted driving will also be accelerated.
With the launch of the MMA platform, we are planning to release navigation-assisted driving for urban conditions and L3 conditional autonomous driving. Wang Xin said.
In addition, as the world's first car company to obtain a commercial license for L4 automatic valet parking, Mercedes-Benz will launch a fully upgraded automatic parking function on the new E-class this year. With the arrival of the all-new MMA platform model, functions such as memory parking will also be introduced. Wang Xin said that Mercedes-Benz's valet parking is also in the path of technology development. However, according to Mercedes-Benz's research, automatic parking and remote control parking are just needed by customers, and the frequency of use is relatively large, while the use rate of memory parking is not high. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz will give priority to improving the functions that customers just need.
We hope to make trade-offs from the customer's point of view, and make the most urgent automatic parking algorithm to the extreme. Wang Xin said.
In terms of intelligent cockpit, the 8295 chip was first used in the new E-class car as a start, and the 8295 intelligent cockpit chip will be promoted in other models in the future. Its powerful computing power enables the car machine to make more bold changes in system architecture, infotainment, intelligent interaction and other aspects. Among them, the third-generation MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system is a highlight, which is also one of the research and development achievements of the Mercedes-Benz China team. In the cockpit, along with Mercedes' new operating system MBThe release of OS in 2024 will also usher in even greater changes.
From the perspective of current automotive intelligence, the customer's perception is mainly in the two parts of intelligent driving and cockpit, of which the cockpit focuses on the experience of the car machine. After strengthening these two sectors, the competitiveness of Mercedes-Benz products will undoubtedly be greatly improved. Interestingly, Mercedes-Benz has a different view on the current practice of some companies to deeply integrate mobile phones and cars. "It's not that we can have a better user experience with a specific mobile phone, but how to better realize the functions on the mobile phone in the car is what we care about the most. We hope that different brands of mobile phones can have a good connection with our products. Wang Xin said.
Local R&D capabilities have been greatly enhanced
Whether it is L2+ advanced driver assistance functions or cockpit upgrades, the local Chinese team has contributed a lot to the research and development. For example, the L2+ intelligent driving assistance system led by a team of Chinese engineers has been shortened to 12 months. In terms of development cycles, this is a surprising number because it is much faster than the industry average. According to reports, during the development period, the Mercedes-Benz China R&D team can complete up to two software iterations per day, and in the entire development process, an average of three software iterations per week have been achieved.
In terms of the function of lane change, although the earliest prototype of the solution was in foreign countries, it has been comprehensively enriched and optimized in the Chinese market. For example, combined with AutoNavi Map, a new user interface is added, which effectively integrates navigation and intelligent driving to form a navigation assisted driving system. In addition, it has been re-optimized for important cities, typical road conditions and guide lines, with less room for lane changes and lower lane change speeds (50 km/h).
On the L2+ system, we tested it in a large number of Chinese cities, covering 230,000 driving scenarios, just to bring a safe and reliable intelligent luxury experience to Chinese customers. Oliver said.
In the cockpit, the Chinese R&D team has made a lot of optimizations for the voice recognition of the third-generation MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system, which can achieve millisecond-level response. In terms of this function, the addition of the Chinese R&D team provides Chinese consumers with a clearer and easier to operate interface, rather than piling up complex functions. The atmosphere light in the new E-class car can be combined with the first to achieve "happy movement", so that customers can not only hear the first in the car, but also see and feel it. It's also an important part of the luxury experience.
In addition, the Chinese R&D team, in collaboration with local partners, has developed a fully upgraded automated parking solution in less than a year, which is expected to be released and covered by multiple products this year. "We have developed a new perception module that will enable the vehicle to have more accurate detection capabilities, better vehicle control capabilities, and a new UI interface. Wang Xin said.
This is made possible by Mercedes-Benz's increasingly strong R&D network in China. In the past three years, Mercedes-Benz's R&D strength in China has continued to strengthen. In 2021, Mercedes-Benz opened a new China R&D Technology Center in Beijing, followed by a new Shanghai R&D Center in 2022. In 2023, Mercedes-Benz established Mercedes-Benz (Shanghai) Digital Technology in Shanghai***It is reported that the new building of Mercedes-Benz Shanghai R&D Center will be officially opened this year.
Olifu said that Mercedes-Benz's R&D in China has covered forward-looking design, e-mobility, intelligent connectivity, autonomous driving, localization and vehicle testing, etc., and has developed into the most comprehensive R&D network of Mercedes-Benz outside Germany. In addition to advanced R&D hardware facilities, the local talent team is also expanding. Mercedes-Benz China's R&D team consists of 2,000 local experts from various fields, including automotive engineers, software developers and trend analysts, which have become an important part of Mercedes-Benz's global R&D strength.
The Chinese market is defining standards and innovation in many areas, including voice recognition, infotainment, autonomous driving, and more. Therefore, our research and development of autonomous driving technology in China can not only serve the Chinese market, but also the global market. Oliver said. It stressed that in 2024, it will continue to accelerate research and development, especially in the fields of intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving.
Summary
In 2023, Mercedes-Benz adheres to high-quality development and achieves about 76 deliveries in the Chinese market50,000 new vehicles, basically the same as the delivery level in 2022, and achieved high-quality and resilient development in multiple strategic business segments. Among them, in the high-end luxury market, Mercedes-Benz's position is unshakable. Mercedes-Benz's Mai** brand and G-class off-road vehicles have achieved substantial growth by % respectively.
In terms of new energy vehicles, Mercedes-Benz's annual deliveries of pure electric models have more than doubled, and plug-in hybrid models once again lead the luxury car market. In terms of core luxury product matrix, deliveries of long-wheelbase C-segment vehicles achieved near-double-digit annual growth; The long-wheelbase GLC SUV and long-wheelbase E-Class have undergone high-quality product upgrades, and the new products have continued to gain favor with customers since their launch.
In 2024, Mercedes-Benz will continue its product strategy of dual gasoline and electricity, with more than 15 new and new-generation products, simultaneously promoting the new energy of all products and the upgrading of fuel products. This includes the all-electric G-Class, the all-new EqS SUV, the AMGEQE 53 SUV, the all-new GLC plug-in hybrid, the all-new E-Class plug-in hybrid, the all-new CLE Coupe Convertible model, and the next-generation EQA and EQB.
With the arrival of new platforms, new technologies and new products, Mercedes-Benz will gradually enter the real stage of development from 2024. There is no doubt that the real competition in the luxury car market has just begun.