AI technology "alongside", the birth of an intelligent new car: "Black Light Factory" car manufacturing
On September 19th, the first batch of production vehicles of the Geely Geely 01 were officially taken offline at the Hangzhou Bay Smart Factory, and the order volume exceeded 15000 units within 24 hours. As a collaboration between Geely and Baidu, the mass production of this new car is highly anticipated by the market.
When visiting the production workshop, the reporter found that some employees wearing extreme work clothes have a Shanghai accent and need to travel nearly 5 hours a week by car between Shanghai and Ningbo. Xia Yiping, CEO of Jiyue, is also a member of "Twin Cities". "Our technical team is located in Shanghai, the car manufacturing factory is in Ningbo, and the Yangtze River Delta has become a key area that smart cars cannot avoid."
AI big model "get on the car"
In the Geely Hangzhou Bay Smart Factory, the production workshop is constantly operating.
"This is an automobile production factory built according to the standard of 'black light factory', and production is mainly completed by robots or automation equipment according to software system instructions. The workshop manager told reporters that the production line has achieved innovative breakthroughs in fully automatic software self writing technology based on the four major processes of punching, welding, coating, and assembly, and also ensured the intelligence level of vehicle manufacturing.".
During the visit to the production workshop, the reporter found that there are more types of AGV automatic guided vehicles than production line workers, and AGV cars equipped with 5G signals also enjoy exclusive lanes. The lane is about four times larger than the sidewalk, and it is covered with QR codes containing magnetic stripes. The AGV car will travel along the virtual route constructed by the QR code. Due to busy production lines, AGV cars may also experience traffic congestion at intersections. In order to ensure production efficiency, the right of way for AGV vehicles in the workshop is higher than that of sidewalks, and pedestrians must give way to AGV vehicles to ensure timely supply of materials.
"The AGV car is mainly used to transport parts and materials in the workshop. Once workshop workers issue a shortage order, the system will automatically issue a replenishment order, and the AGV car will deliver the materials as soon as possible." The head of the welding workshop told reporters that there are more than 700 robots in the workshop, and the installation process of the new car has achieved 100% automation.
In addition, in the highly automated flexible calibration room, the combination of 11 "intelligent robotic arms+screen targets" can calibrate all intelligent sensors for a new car in less than 3 minutes, greatly improving the accuracy of intelligent driving sensor recognition.
The intelligence of the production workshop is only one aspect, and the "black technology" of the vehicles themselves is also worth paying attention to. It is reported that the Geely 01 is the first mass-produced intelligent car in China to be equipped with the Qualcomm 8295 chip. The 60TOPS ultra high computing power chip makes seamless speech recognition in the car possible. Xia Yiping told reporters that in the past, all chips used in cars had much lower computing power than mobile phone chips. Now, with the emergence of large-scale computing chips in cars, the computing power of cars is gradually leveling with that of mobile phones. "With the Qualcomm 8295 chip and locally deployed voice AI models, smooth voice interaction can be achieved. For example, when a user says more than ten instructions at once, it can remember and execute them all. Even offline, voice interaction can be achieved."
Shanghai has become the main battlefield for the "brain" of automobiles
The manufacturing workshop is located in Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang, and the intelligent "brain" is located in Jiading and Jinqiao, Shanghai. It is not difficult to see from the production chain of Jiyue that the Yangtze River Delta has formed a complete new energy vehicle industry cluster, and there is also a saying in the industry that the "4-hour industry circle" - all aspects of the software, battery, and production of a new energy vehicle can be completed within a 4-hour drive centered around Shanghai.
For Xia Yiping, the experience of the "4-hour industrial circle" is particularly profound. In addition to the CEO of Jiyue, he is also the CEO of Jidu, a technology company focused on automotive AI, providing intelligent driving cabin technology for Jiyue automotive robots. Jidu's headquarters are in Shanghai, and Jiyue's factory is in Ningbo. He not only needs to focus on technology in Shanghai, but also needs to go to Ningbo to focus on production. It takes him more than 4 hours to travel back and forth between the two places, which has become the norm of his work.
"Shanghai's unique advantages in talent, supply chain, and policy have led us to decide to place our technical team in Shanghai." Xia Yiping said in an interview that Shanghai has a solid foundation in the new energy vehicle industry, with the best automotive talents in the country. At the same time, Shanghai also has a complete industrial chain. "Whether it's Hesai LiDAR or Apollo, which makes autonomous driving control units, all suppliers around the upstream industrial chain of intelligent vehicles are basically located around Shanghai. Technology exchange, technology landing, and supply chain integration have become very simple, greatly improving the efficiency of the entire company."
With the expansion of the business landscape, Jidu R&D Center has expanded twice in just two months. In August this year, Building 2 of Jidu Shanghai R&D Center, located in Jiading Industrial Zone, was put into use, integrating R&D design, market development, and operation functions. In September, the Jidu Jinqiao Office was completed and put into use, strengthening cooperation with Jinqiao and its upstream and downstream enterprises in the automotive industry chain. At present, the technical team has more than 2000 personnel and has submitted thousands of patent applications.
At present, the automotive industry has crossed from the era of fuel vehicles and new energy to the current era of intelligence, and Shanghai is becoming the main battlefield for providing automotive "brains" such as chips and software.
In July last year, Mercedes Benz Shanghai R&D Center was launched, with plans to build a vehicle testing workshop, big data processing center, and autonomous driving testing site, aiming to build the company's largest overseas innovation R&D center. In July of this year, BMW Group's new Shanghai R&D center was launched, achieving full process R&D functions for automobiles and full stack intelligent connected vehicle software development capabilities. In addition, Shanghai also gathers dozens of leading automotive research and development enterprises such as Bosch Intelligent Cockpit, Huawei Automotive Business Unit, Pan Asia Automotive R&D Center, SAIC Infineon, Black Sesame, and Enjie.
