In addition to Musk and Tesla, independent car companies are also going to form China's own "Starlink"! At 7:37 a.m. on February 3, 2024, the second orbital satellite of Geely's future constellation was successfully launched at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit as planned, and the launch mission was successful. It is worth mentioning that Geely is currently the only independent car company in China that launches satellites.
As an important direction for Geely's layout of intelligent automotive innovation, Geely's future travel constellation has been pinned on a lot of expectations. To this end, Geely has set up a company responsible for satellite communication technology: Spacetime Daoyu. Geely's Future Mobility Constellation is also the world's first commercial communication, navigation, and remote sensing integrated constellation built by Space-Time Daoyu. Previously, Geely and Shikong Daoyu have completed a series of work such as satellite mass production, orbital surface-level deployment, constellation-level tracking and control, and application testing in the first orbital plane. The smooth progress of this mission means that Geely has completed the deployment of the second orbital plane network of the constellation.
One of the major uses of Geely's future mobility constellation is to achieve higher-precision intelligent driving assistance functions and strengthen the car's external connectivity and communication capabilities. It can be said that Geely is taking the lead in continuing to "open the book" in a new dimension, and independent car companies are continuing to break through technical barriers in different fields and gradually occupy new brand heights.
With the help of Geely's Future Mobility Constellation technology, cars can achieve instantaneous "centimeter-level" high-precision positioning, and can achieve accurate route planning, and then complete applications such as vehicle cloud management, vehicle-road coordination, intelligent driving, and automatic parking. For example, through constellation technology, higher-level intelligent driver assistance systems can help car owners obtain real-time high-precision positioning, as well as higher-precision road features, so as to achieve a better driving experience.
As Geely's main brand of intelligent new energy vehicles, ZEEKR will also rely on the future travel constellation. So, what technologies will ZEEKR bring? And which models will be equipped with these new technologies?
At present, many models of ZEEKR have adopted the SEA architecture. The three-electric system is widely used in a number of Geely's flagship models with high-end positioning, and to a certain extent, it can be said that it is the gatekeeping technology of Geely's transformation into new energy. With the blessing of Geely's future travel constellation, the technology will be upgraded to a "space version of the SEA vast architecture". To put it simply, ZEEKR vehicles equipped with this technology will usher in a breakthrough in the "electric ecology", and the practical functions of driving assistance, automatic driving, and vehicle machine systems can be improved.
ZEEKR revealed, ZEEKR 001 FR, ZEEKR 007 are equipped with on-board satellite communication technology, of which 001 FR is the world's first mass production of two-way satellite communication technology models, with the help of pre-installed on-board satellite communication terminal - "auspicious time search", with on-board satellite communication antennas and software services, can achieve even in poor network environment or even missing places, the vehicle can still achieve high-precision navigation and intelligent driving assistance functions. At the same time, ZEEKR also said that when the satellite technology is more mature, it will use the large screen on board as the carrier, and consumers can view the world's high-definition satellite street view images in the car at any time, experience the satellite flight perspective, and receive real-time remote sensing image hot spot push.
I believe that many netizens heard that car companies launched satellites, and the first thing that came to mind was Musk's "Starlink". As the world's leading brand of pure electric vehicles, although Tesla is not directly integrated into Starlink, the upgrade of its automatic driving assistance system is technically combined with Starlink. With the continuous improvement of Starlink networking, we have also seen new technical benefits brought by satellite communication. It can be said that satellite communication has become the direction of technological breakthroughs in many industries including automobiles in the future.
However, it should be noted that Geely's future travel constellation and Starlink are actually located in two subdivisions, and there is no obvious intersection in business. The technical focus of "Constellation" is to provide commercial-grade centimeter-level high-precision positioning, and to collect and process big data on roads and locations, which is mainly used in the automotive industry. Starlink, on the other hand, focuses on providing satellite network communication and is not directly connected to intelligent vehicles. Musk also did not directly synergize Starlink with Tesla's models. Therefore, Geely Satellite is taking a new track, and the expansion of satellite technology is not a gimmick, but will bring a new breakthrough to the intelligent innovation of automobiles.
However, Geely's future travel constellation and Starlink are both low-orbit satellites. Therefore, Starlink has significant advantages in launch technology, operational experience, and quantity scale. This is also a gap that we need to see and face upon. Geely also needs to "strike while the iron is hot" and form a "constellation" of considerable scale as soon as possible.
In addition to Geely, Wenjie may also rely on Huawei to enter the satellite field. BYD and Changan, the two major new energy brands, have also begun to involve in the business of automotive satellite communications. 2024 may become the first year of technology for independent car companies to "break the sky".
Geely's "chess" move is right. The intelligence of automobiles is not limited to energy electrification and interior technology, but must be detached from the concept of car manufacturing. Smart cars should be mobile smart terminals. The continuous formation of Geely's future travel constellation can improve the driving safety and smart travel experience of automobiles, which is worthy of recognition. Although it is not on the same track as Starlink, we should also face up to the gap and fully learn from experience. With the improvement of satellite communication, the intelligent ecology of future automobiles is still waiting for netizens.