Today's car intelligence is not achieved overnight, but is the result of gradual iteration.
Driven by the intelligence of the car, the function of OTA is somewhat important, which can remotely realize the software update of the vehicle and update the function of the vehicle, which is promoted by the new energy models in the era of electrification. Traditional car companies have not stuck in their own hands and kept up with the needs of electrification, so we can also see that many fuel vehicles have OTA functions at this stage.
Recently, Buick announced an OTA upgrade to the eCruise Pro Advanced Driver Assistance System. What was upgraded? What's left unanswered after that?
What features have been updated? Is it new technology?
Before launching Buick's OTA update, let's talk about the underlying logic of OTA, which we have already experienced on many pure electric models and even earlier applications of mobile phone products. OTA = over-the-air download technology, our smartphones will prompt the push of the update system every once in a while, which is the OTA function we were exposed to in the early days.
Applied to the car, the logic is to realize the data transmission, software download, code update and other operations of the vehicle module through the OTA manager of the vehicle network module. The functions implemented through OTAs are based on the intelligent hardware configuration of the product itself.
The updated Buick model has the following intelligent hardware configuration:
Single Mobileye EyeQ4 chip with a hashrate of 2.5TOPS;
1 x ultra-wide-angle forward camera, 4 x high-pixel panoramic cameras and 1 x 2-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera;
12 ultrasonic radars + 5 millimeter-wave radars.
The basic OTA logic and the intelligent hardware configuration of the vehicle have been clear, and the new feature of this major update is the ILC driver command lane change function; the optimized function is the LCC lane center intelligent cruise, and the TJA traffic congestion assistance system steering wheel off hand detection time.
Buick's new ILC technology is not particularly new to the industry, but it is not a small breakthrough for Buick.
Tesla added automatic lane change for the first time in Autopilot in 2019;
In 2019, Xiaopeng Automobile added the automatic lane change assist (ALC) function to the XPXPILOT 2.5 system;
Among the several models launched by Geniseis in mid-2021, it comes with automatic lane change assist;
NIO added the Automatic Lane Change Assist (ALC) feature to the NIO Pilot after NIO OS 2.0.
Similar to the Buick ILC automatic lane change assist function technology, probably around 2019 has been added to the mass production car, after several years of market verification, has been regarded as a more mature technology, the underlying logic is through the front and rear cameras to observe the front and rear lanes, identify the lane line, and then through the front and rear radar to confirm the speed and orientation of the front and rear vehicles, and finally through the algorithm to confirm whether the vehicle can be suitable for automatic lane change.
As for whether Buick's ILC function is good or not, according to the feedback, the information we get is that the system can clearly confirm the target lane line, the operation logic is clear, and the lane change process is intelligent and safe; there is no suitable scene lane change within 10 seconds, and the lane change will be automatically abandoned.
The new technology can't be talked about, but Buick has passed on two messages after this update. First, traditional car companies are no longer the previous waterfall software development to leave a certain amount of redundant space, and the second is the ability to provide the same mainstream functional technology as pure electric models through OTA upgrades. The next thing to see is what kind of redundant equipment traditional car companies leave for vehicles when building cars, and what functions can be updated through OTAs later.
With the same configuration as Weilai, how many "new" features can be learned?
Looking closely at the Buick models that have undergone OTA updates this time, the intelligent hardware configuration used and many products under the NIO brand belong to the "same" configuration. For example, NIO ES8/ES6, these products use the following intelligent hardware configuration:
7 cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars and 5 millimeter-wave radars.
What functions can be achieved with nio pilot all-round package:
Automatic Assisted Navigation Driving Function (NOP);
Highway/Traffic Jam Pilot;
Turn signal controlled lane change (ALC);
Driver fatigue warning, automatic vehicle summoning, road traffic sign recognition, automatic speed limit adjustment and front-side oncoming traffic warning functions.
Buick and NIO both use chips from the same supplier, and the computing power is 2.5TOPS, WEILAI can achieve several functions through NIO Pilot that Buick has not yet implemented, the main functions are three, automatic navigation driving function, high-speed automatic driving assistance and vehicle automatic summoning.
With the above three features, does Buick have the ability to provide such a feature upgrade on subsequent OTAs?
First of all, the most likely to achieve the "high-speed automatic driving assistance", this function has been applied on Cadillac, another brand of GM, Cadillac CT6 equipped with Super Cruise landed in the Chinese market in 2018, the supplier of high-precision maps is Gaode Map; the function realization mainly relies on forward camera + radar + high-precision map + algorithm, in theory, Buick GL8's existing perception hardware has met the conditions for the realization of this function.
The second is the "vehicle automatic summoning" function, first of all, this function on Weilai is only to use the App to control the vehicle straight forward /backward, in order to cope with the problem of getting on and off the car in a narrow space, do not support the remote control parking out/ parking function. At this stage, it is not difficult to achieve this function, the mobile phone Bluetooth link vehicle Bluetooth module, the signal is transmitted to the body control module and the ECU through the CAN bus, so as to finally achieve a certain range of remote control vehicle in / out. Such functions like Changan Automobile, Weilai, Aian and other brands of models have been used, the difference is in the fully automatic parking F-APA, remote parking RPA and autonomous parking ADP, the difficulty of this type of technology is the redundant design of the brake. In theory, according to the existing hardware perception device of Buick GL8, it can fully support the implementation of this function.
Both of the above features are relatively easy to solve, and the "auto-assisted navigation driving function" after that should be difficult for Buick to give users OTA in a short period of time. In addition to supporting highway sections, this function also includes assisted driving under urban highways (loops, etc.), sensing hardware + algorithm is the premise, behind which there is also efficient data collection ability + long-term model training to make the function perfect and easy to use. So, Buick's OTA won't push this feature for a short period of time, but it's fully capable of making this feature.
summary
The OTA of traditional car companies is not a new thing, Buick's OTA after the function has achieved the same intelligent function as pure electrical products, and under the premise of sensing the same hardware, Buick's function has room for improvement, there are relatively simple and relatively time-consuming costs.
Of course, this time, we are the focus of the traditional car company OTA on the intelligent driving assistance function, in addition to these functions OTA can also bring better interactive interface experience, voice recognition, regular function updates and BUG fixes. But then again, there is a big difference between the relationship between traditional fuel vehicles and pure electric models to treat new and old models. So even if traditional fuel vehicles can bring more new features through OTAs, will they be willing to play with new concepts like the pure electric market?