Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | Xiao Han
When it comes to the first Internet celebrity in the electric vehicle industry, Tesla CEO Musk deserves it; but to name a second Internet celebrity, Musk's good buddy- Volkswagen Group CEO Diess is one of the best candidates.
Just last week, Dies launched an AMA (Ask Me Anything) text live broadcast on the Reddit forum, which attracted a large number of netizens in the United States to watch, and the number of questioners reached 1200.
On the same day, Diess selected nearly 30 key questions to answer netizens, which mentioned that L3 level autonomous driving must be lidar sensing, and also said that Volkswagen Group invests 2 billion US dollars (about 12.65 billion yuan) for carIAD software department every year for software research and development. The reason why Volkswagen Group pays attention to software research and development is to become an important participant in the future autonomous driving competition, and to compete with Chinese and American autonomous driving companies.
When talking about model planning, Dies hinted that the long-discontinued Beetle model may be revived in the future, and it is still a pure electric version.
In addition, he also revealed the latest OTA plan for the US ID.4 model, which will add plug-and-play, Auto Hold and other functions this summer.
Des's answer to the netizens' questions was brief, but it showed the latest progress in the electrification and intelligence of the Volkswagen Group, and revealed the ambition of the Volkswagen Group in the field of autonomous driving. Among the overseas traditional car companies, there is no second CEO who can get as close to users as Diesse.
In the face of long-term competition in the future of smart cars, how will the Volkswagen Group respond? As the CEO of one of the world's largest car companies, can Diess win the era of smart cars?
First, L3 autonomous driving must be lidar Very important to Sino-US competitors
Before the event, Dees took a photo of himself holding a poster in one of his offices, which read, "I'm Herbert Dies, welcome to ask me any questions."
▲Volkswagen Group CEO Diess
On the wall behind Dies hangs renderings of Volkswagen's upcoming all-electric model ID.Buzz, as well as a picture of a hand-drawn concept car. On the cabinet below, there is also a book called CHINA that is very obvious, which shows the importance attached to the Chinese market within the Volkswagen Group.
The furnishings on the desk seem to reveal that Dies is still a "fruit powder", putting two iPads for office use, one of which is the iPad Pro in the back, and there is a pair of AirPods headphones on the desk charging... The whole office is very simple and modern.
In the AMA text live broadcast launched by Dies last week, more than 1,200 netizens left messages under the topic initiated by Diess, and the question with the highest number of likes was about L3-level automatic driving.
Discussions initiated by Dies on Reddit
A netizen named Andylol404 asked Diess, how do you and Volkswagen Group view lidar technology, and what conditions do suppliers need to meet before Volkswagen Group consider loading?
Diess replied that lidar technology is relatively expensive at this stage, but it is also a component that can provide the only perceived redundancy for 360-degree cameras. In L3 autonomous driving, redundant perception is necessary.
Later, some netizens asked whether lidar would become an important component, and Dees made a positive answer: "L3 level automatic driving definitely needs lidar perception." ”
The Volkswagen Group's choice of autonomous driving route is the same as the mainstream practice in the industry, using multiple sensors to achieve multiple perceptions. The Honda Legend, the L3 self-driving model that has been mass-produced at this stage, and the Drive PILOT, the Mercedes-Benz L3-level autonomous driving system that has just been approved on the road, are all equipped with lidar sensors.
▲Mercedes-Benz L3 automatic driving scene
However, many netizens also discussed that this seems to run counter to Tesla's pure visual route, especially Musk himself firmly believes that automatic driving should be pure visual perception.
Also a leading German car company, Mercedes-Benz has obtained a license for L3 autonomous driving in Germany at the end of last year, but the Volkswagen Group does not seem to have made significant progress. Some netizens sent a sharp question to Dies: What does Volkswagen compete with Mercedes-Benz?
Dees's answer seemed more rounded and rounded, but there were several key points. "Autonomous driving has fundamentally changed the way the automotive industry competes," he said. Transferring takeover responsibility from the driver to the car is a gradual process. This starts with a highway with good weather conditions, and then expands into complex environments, weather conditions, and different cities around the world. We are building capabilities to be an important competitive force in this race. ”
There are also netizens who ask, Tesla FSD and Xiaopeng Automobile City NGP and other L2 level automatic driving functions have surpassed the solution of Volkswagen Group, lagging behind the main players in the two major markets of China and the United States, how does Diess view this problem?
Dies said: "We attach great importance to our competitors in China and the United States.
This may also be the reason why dees posted a very thick book called "China" in the photos. In fact, Volkswagen Group not only needs to understand the competitors in China and the United States, but also needs to understand the real needs of users.
Second, users are very satisfied with Volkswagen L2 investing $2 billion per year to develop software
Speaking about the L2 level autonomous driving system that has been mass-produced and put on the car, Diess said that U.S. customers like the Travel Assist L2 level autonomous driving system on the ID.4.
Diess said that when he drives long distances and high speeds, he likes to turn on Volkswagen's L2 self-driving system and uses it often.
Mobileye and Volkswagen have jointly developed the Travel Assist system, which is mainly composed of front-view monocular cameras and millimeter-wave radar, he said. Since 2020, the Volkswagen Group has been continuously collecting road data to continuously improve system performance.
According to previously announced information, models based on Volkswagen's MEB platform use the same L2 level autonomous driving system, including the vision processing chip Mobile EyeQ4, as well as Continental's 77GHz forward millimeter wave radar, and HELLA's angle millimeter wave radar.
Although this system is not the most advanced technology in 2022, the availability of the L2 autonomous driving of the Volkswagen ID. series is indeed not bad. Previous tests of the car have found that after the Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.3 models turn on L2 autonomous driving, the driving experience is better than that of models that use the same sensors. Among them, when the lane keeping assist is turned on, the Volkswagen ID.4 steering wheel control is very stable, and the car follow-up experience is very smooth under the complex road environment.
▲Volkswagen ID.4 performs L2 level autonomous driving in complex urban roads
Why is the L2 autonomous driving experience of the Volkswagen ID.Pure Electric model better with the same perception camera? What Dees calls "constantly collecting road data" is a key move.
In fact, as early as 2017, the Volkswagen Group and Mobileye reached a partnership on crowdsourced maps, a technology called REM (Road Experience Management, Road Experience Management System) by Mobileye.
Left: Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua, Right: Volkswagen Group CEO Diess
In practice, Volkswagen equipped with a Mobileye camera is able to collect lane markings and road information, which can be uploaded to the cloud in a compressed format. From a large amount of actual data of car perception, coupled with precise positioning, Mobileye's high-precision map is generated. In this way, the continuous optimization of map data can make the vehicle travel more stable.
Moreover, Dies also confirmed that most models built on the MEB platform will continuously optimize Mobileye's crowdsourced map to continuously optimize the driving quality of L2 autonomous driving.
In addition to automatic driving, in-car intelligence is also an important part of intelligent cars. Some netizens asked whether ID.3 is compatible with intelligent voice assistants such as Google Home, Alexa, and Siri, which allow users to control the vehicle by voice at home, such as battery warm-up before going out.
Dies replied that in some countries, some models can use Amazon Alexa voice assistants, but from the perspective of the global market, Volkswagen Group prefers to provide users with voice assistants with brand attributes, such as hello, ID.! Hello Audi!
The netizen named Alexjkz did not buy it, and then replied to Diess that the voice assistant provided by the car brand is not easy to use now, because the car company does not have the expertise to develop voice assistants, nor does it have the scale of competition with large technology companies. He suggested that car companies should directly integrate voice assistants developed by technology companies.
The ultimate area of competition for smart cars mentioned above is actually software.
In 2020, the Volkswagen Group established the CARIAD software subsidiary, which will increase the proportion of self-research software of the Volkswagen Group. At present, CARIAD has established the Volkswagen Cloud with Microsoft, and has established an autonomous driving platform and an autonomous driving development framework.
Some netizens asked Diess how CARIAD develops software and how do departments cooperate?
Diess replied: "We are improving the self-sufficiency of automotive software in three ways, namely organic growth, large-scale acquisitions and external cooperation to build our own intellectual property technology and can recruit more technology talent." ”
Last year, CARIAD hired about 1,000 new software engineers, Dies said. In order to obtain more intellectual property rights, in January this year, Volkswagen Group CARIAD and Bosch reached a partnership to build an L3 level autonomous driving platform and will explore and evaluate L4 automatic driving. In order to improve image recognition capabilities, CARIAD acquired HELLA's camera software business as early as 2020 (then known as Car.Software).
Diess said Volkswagen invests $2 billion (about 12.65 billion yuan) a year in software research and development. At present, the software developed by CARIAD can be deployed to the models of the Volkswagen Group through OTA updates, and new models and new functions are prepared together with the car brand.
Third, ID.4 will usher in the OTA is developing a new car of 20,000 euros
In the AMA Q&A, Dies also revealed that volkswagen ID.4 in the US market will usher in a major OTA update. The OTA update is mainly divided into three functions, namely plug and charge, AutoHold, and higher power DC fast charge.
Dies revealed that he and Elke Temme, senior vice president of charging and energy at Volkswagen Group, tested the plug-and-play function, which is very convenient to use, and will soon update the OTA to users.
He also said that this year will also update the reverse power supply function to all ID. pure electric model OTAs equipped with 77kWh capacity batteries. This feature was originally powered only by vehicle-to-home, and when there was a power outage in the home, the vehicle's reverse-powered electricity was able to drive appliances such as dishwashers.
In terms of charging network construction, Electrify America, invested by Volkswagen Group, provides public charging services for USERS in the United States. Dees gives an example, not long ago, the Porsche Taycan broke a world record: driving from the west coast of the United States to the east coast, in addition to the travel time, its charging time is only 2 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds. The Entire Use of Electrify America Charging Stations provides the Porsche Taycan with up to 350kW of charging power.
▲ Porsche Taycan
Among the traditional car companies, Volkswagen Group is the first large-scale self-built charging station enterprise, and the three major markets of China, the United States and Europe have a wide layout, which is also an important reason for the increase in sales of pure electric models of Volkswagen Group.
Diess also revealed Volkswagen ID. Pure Electric's plans for future models.
Some netizens asked Dies, can the discontinued Volkswagen Beetle be made into a pure tram?
Dies said that in the history of Volkswagen, the mini car is undoubtedly the most exciting. Based on the MEB modular platform, models that generate emotions in the user's mind may be remanufactured.
This is also believed by many to be hinting that Volkswagen will build a pure electric Beetle.
In the field of luxury cars, some netizens asked Whether Diess will use the pure electric platform to restart the flagship product line of Volkswagen Phaeton?
Diess replied that volkswagen groups are building luxury electric vehicles, such as Audi and Bentley brands.
Perhaps this also means that in the future, users may not see the Volkswagen brand luxury pure electric model.
In addition, Dies also revealed that the previously unveiled ID.Vizzion concept car is about to be mass-produced and delivered, and ID.Buzz Bus will also release a mass-produced version of the model in the near future. It can be said that the Volkswagen pure electric car team is gradually realizing mass production delivery from concept cars.
▲Volkswagen ID. Buzz concept car
Diess also said Volkswagen is developing an entry-level electric car that costs about 20,000 euros (about 143,800 yuan). He said bluntly that the price was one of the challenges of this car.
In the future, Volkswagen will reduce the complexity of its product lines and focus its research and development on the car-making platform. Based on the MEB platform, models of Audi, Skoda, Cupra, Volkswagen and other brands have been created, and 70% of the components of these models can be shared.
In response to Volkswagen's definition of "travel company", some netizens asked, why is it defined? Will we develop vehicles other than cars in the future?
Dies replied that the new car is a mixture of multiple modes and mobility services such as buying, sharing, and leasing. This requires autonomous driving technology, an in-car user experience, a software platform for sharing, leasing and mobility sharing, and fleet management capabilities, so mobility companies are a relatively complex concept and a new opportunity for the Volkswagen Group. The Volkswagen Group is very active in all areas of mobility.
How the automotive industry will develop in the future, some netizens directly let Dies predict the automotive market in 25 years.
Dies replied that the span of 25 years is difficult to predict. With rapid advances in technology, he guesses that all cars can safely drive themselves and achieve zero accidents. At the same time, the electrification of vehicles achieves zero emissions, travel is very comfortable, and passengers can take them anywhere. In addition, there will be niche brands in the automotive market that target the needs of different users. The car will remain an important means of transport for the future, while being able to achieve complete safety, convenience and sustainability.
Conclusion: Volkswagen is building another empire in the field of pure electricity
In the field of fuel vehicles, volkswagen group is the leader of global car companies, but volkswagen group ambition is not only in the fuel vehicle market, the electric vehicle market is also volkswagen wants to dominate.
As the most resolute car company in the electrification transformation of traditional car companies, Volkswagen Group has launched a variety of pure electricity to the global market and built its own charging stations in major markets, the purpose of which is to replicate the vehicle sea tactics of the fuel vehicle era. With the strong family foundation of the Volkswagen Group, it is building an empire again in the electric vehicle market.