200 car owners test while using SAIC Zhiji's new car listing "final step" will be completed by real users

Economic Observation Network reporter Pu Zhenyu Recently, the first batch of 200 beta experience models of Zhiji Automobile's Zhiji L7 were rolled off the production line at SAIC Lingang Intelligent Factory and will be delivered to test users. It is reported that the first batch of 200 Zhiji L7 Beta (software public beta) experience version has met the requirements of laws and regulations on the public road, and will be "cruised" in 9 cities across the country.

The launch of the beta version of the new car is not the first of Zhiji Automobile, the last car company to do so is Xiaopeng Motors. In 2017, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered hundreds of Xiaopeng G3 Beta versions to internal employees for internal testing in Guangzhou, and after iterative upgrading through internal testing, the Xiaopeng G3 mass production version was delivered to ordinary users in 2018.

However, unlike Xiaopeng,which passes internal testing by internal employees, Zhiji's test users come from mass consumers. Zhiji Automobile related people told the Economic Observer Network reporter that the Zhiji L7 Beta Experience Edition will openly recruit internal test users from the Zhiji L7 angel wheel and A round users (that is, the first and second batches), and then let users experience the test vehicle in real scenes.

In other words, the "last step" before the L7 production version is released will be completed by real users. Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, said that the development process of smart cars should be redefined, and Zhiji Automobile called this ordinary user participation in the new car test a "data cooker".

Zhiji Automobile is a high-end electric vehicle brand jointly built by SAIC Motor, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, born in January this year, the brand's first model Zhiji L7 is positioned as a "performance flagship true intelligent car", and will open pre-sale in April 2021, priced at 408,800 yuan. According to the plan, the test drive of the mass production version of the Zhiji L7 will arrive at the store at the end of February 2022, and the test drive of the real car will be fully opened in early March, and will be officially delivered to users in April.

The concept of "cooker" comes from the digital technology circle, headphone enthusiasts often artificially let the newly purchased headphones work for a long time, and make the internal components of the headphones "run in" to achieve the best state by playing specific music.

According to reports, there is no difference in hardware configuration between the Zhiji L7 Beta Experience Edition and the final mass production version, and only some of the data needs to be iteratively optimized. After the new trial version is delivered to the test users, the intelligent performance of the user's contact points and product software systems will be adjusted through the data verification of the real use scenarios in 9 cities, and the optimal calibration of the high-load use scenarios of the mass production vehicles will be carried out on the perception system, domain controller software, and human-computer interaction of the product.

In fact, relying on the real car data of ordinary users to iteratively upgrade vehicles is not a new practice in the industry, for example, Tesla recently pushed the latest beta version of its intelligent driving system for ordinary users - FSD Beta v10.8. In addition, many new car manufacturers in China will also use the data of ordinary users to optimize the intelligent functions of vehicles.

Zhang Kangkang, a senior analyst at The New Energy Research Institute of Qingyan Huake, also told the Economic Observation Network reporter that the "data cooker" is a conventional test, and Zhiji has invented a new term. With the improvement of intelligence, the acquisition of real vehicle use data has become a key part of automobile production, especially automotive software testing.

However, it should be noted that Zhiji Automobile still has an obvious special feature on the timeline - other car companies are after the official listing of new cars, they begin to use the data of ordinary users to optimize vehicles, and Zhiji Automobile has placed this link before the official listing of new cars.

In this regard, Zhiji Automobile related people said that the main starting point for the launch of the Beta Experience Edition is that the intelligence of Zhiji L7 is very high, and there are many technical challenges encountered in the development process. The Zhiji L7 has been technically scrutinized, technically validated and tested, and the 200 vehicles will be delivered to the real use environment, which can further verify whether all the problems encountered in the development have been solved.

Some analysts believe that in addition to improving the user experience of new cars, Zhiji Automobile has another important purpose of launching the "data cooker" model, that is, to promote the landing of its user data rights plan "Rough Stone Valley".

The reporter noted that if users want to participate in the internal beta of Zhiji L7 Beta Experience, they need to publish a tweet with a topic online, and the content of the tweet should mention the concerns of car purchase, including the evaluation and expectation of Zhiji L7.

The reason why Zhiji has made the internal test a "good thing" that only the first and second batch of users can sign up for is because users who participate in the test will receive special benefits. It is reported that the successful registration of "angel wheel users" and "A round users" can get 5,000 "crystals" after participating in the whole test, and "crystal" points can be used for drawing blind boxes, in which the "rough stones" drawn can be exchanged for new rights.

In August this year, Zhiji Automobile launched the user data rights plan "Rough Stone Valley". "Rough Valley" is a mixed reality-based metaverse, the system includes 300 million "rough", users contribute their own driving data and brand co-creation data will get "rough", "rough" can be exchanged for hardware and software service rights.

"Rough Stone Valley" is regarded by Zhiji Automobile as a unique advantage in its participation in market competition. At a recent media communication meeting, Liu Tao said that in the past, many brands relied on user data to make artificial intelligence algorithms and neural network algorithms iterate continuously, but they did not share the dividends of brand growth with users, and Zhiji wanted to be the terminator of "data white plagiarism".

From the perspective of user rights and interests, "Rough Stone Valley" has the greatest attraction to users in the early stage of landing, and its attractiveness will gradually decrease over time. Because, the "rough" output law will follow the "four-year halving" principle, that is, the earlier the user of Zhiji Car buys a car, the greater the chance of obtaining rough by contributing data, and the greater the number.

The principle of "halving in four years" means that the attractiveness effect of the "Rough Valley" program is more focused on the early stages of brand development. In the view of Yan Jinghui, an analyst in the automotive industry, the "Rough Stone Valley" plan reflects the urgent mentality of Zhiji Automobile to quickly cultivate a group of "seed" users, for new brands, from 0 to 10,000, cultivating a group of high-viscosity "seed" users is a difficult thing, and it is also a key step to determine the survival of the brand.