Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | juice
Entering the era of smart cars, one of the biggest headaches for traditional car companies, especially joint venture car companies, is how to create an excellent intelligent network system.
In this regard, Although Ford is not a pioneer, the layout is indeed fast enough. In 2019, in cooperation with Baidu, the localized SYNC+ intelligent networking system was launched in eight months, and with the launch of popular models such as the new pure electric vehicle Mustang Mach-E and EVOS, SYNC+ also iterated to the second version.
As competition for smart cockpits becomes more intense, it is crucial for joint venture brands to attract more and more users, especially "Gen Z" users, through smart cockpit products.
This afternoon, The car came to "Fook Tron Valley" in Shanghai, where Ford China's Intelligent Connected and Digital Experience Team (ECDX) and Ford China Design Center are located. In the afternoon, The car communicated with the R&D personnel and experienced the prototype of Ford's next-generation intelligent network products.
▲"Fuchuang Valley" located in Shanghai
Driving software development through user experience and then driving hardware iterations has become the core thinking of Ford to build a smart cockpit. Relying on this thinking, Ford has created a more powerful software ecosystem based on the 27-inch central control screen on the EVOS model and the Qualcomm 820A chip, and even added a game center to the car. Facing the advent of the era of high-level autonomous driving, Ford has also developed an intelligent cockpit system based on voice control, which has both curved large-screen interaction and AR HUD support.
Since many intelligent networking software and hardware are still in the research and development stage, photos are not allowed at the event site. But through the long experience on the ground and the in-depth dialogue with the engineers, we can already see the future of the Ford smart cockpit and are getting closer to us.
First, join the game center to control the car machine without hands
Today, to build a smart car, we must consider the target consumer population. In China, the "Z generation" has become the main group of car buyers, and meeting the needs of this part of the population has become an important issue for major car companies.
In January 2021, Ford established the Enterprise Connectivity and Digital Experience (ECDX) team in Shanghai to rapidly develop and deliver smart cockpit products. In order to facilitate research and development, this team works together with the Ford China Design Center, which was established 10 years ago, to design and build smart cockpit products in Shanghai's "Fook Tron Valley".
▲"Fuchuang Valley" work area
According to Fang Yuliang, vice president of Intelligent Networking and Digital Experience at Ford China, the number of ECDX teams has increased threefold in the past year, including some of them working in Shanghai's "Fuchuang Valley" and a group of teams in Nanjing Ford China Product Center. Moreover, more than half of the talents in the ECDX team come from domestic technology Internet companies.
In 2019, Ford and Baidu joined forces to create a SYNC+ system and mass-produce the car, which achieved 100% network connection of Ford's models sold in China that year.
▲SYNC+
In 2021, Ford EVOS and pure electric SUV Mustang Mach-E came on the market, and the SYNC+ system was upgraded to the second generation. In addition to the 27-inch 4K large screen, Ford's two cars also apply FNV electronic and electrical architecture to support the vehicle OTA. At the same time, Ford also mass-produced and installed C-V2X technology.
This afternoon, we happened to see Ford's smart cockpit plan for 2022 and beyond.
Ford first used the 27-inch central control screen on the EVOS to create a new generation of smart cockpit. What is more interesting is that the cockpit system has been greatly upgraded, but the hardware has not changed at all: the 27-inch central control screen resolution reaches 4032 * 756, and the chip is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A. This also left a thought for EVOS owners and people who pay attention to the next generation of Mondeo, and the beta system seen today is likely to be a mass production version in the future.
▲Ford EVOS smart cockpit
In terms of UI design, Ford has made a major overhaul of SYNC+2.0, the entire home page is designed with cards, navigation, music and other commonly used and often need to click control functions placed on the left side, convenient for drivers to click, weather, news and other information flow cards and do not need to be clicked often as far as possible on the right side of the screen, the overall design is very user-friendly. Overall, Ford's system is somewhat similar to the card layout of the BMW iDrive 8.0.
During the navigation process, based on the map information, the car machine will show the user the surrounding restaurants, shopping malls and other places. At this time, if the co-driver and crew click on a location, they can also link vibrato to directly play a short video from this location, and they can also share the address to the main driver with one click. This feature is quite useful for the co-pilot.
▲ A new generation of Mondeo smart cockpit
In sync+ next-generation intelligent networking system, all-scenario voice assistants will become standard. As long as it is a location on the screen that supports tapping, you can control it with a single word. The narrator did not have touch-sensitive actions during the whole process of explanation, and completed the choice of navigation and music. For example, in the navigation interface, after the voice input, the car machine usually gives several alternatives, at this time the car machine system will only listen to the answers of "first" and "second", but you can directly say the keywords in the alternatives to SYNC+ next-generation car machines, and the actual operation is more intuitive.
In addition to voice assistants, Ford also added popular apps such as Tencent Aiqu Listening, WeChat, Douyin, and Watermelon Video to the car machine, and created its own app store.
The screen, which extends to the co-pilot, also integrates the Ford Game Center, which was developed with the Cocos engine and has mini-games like Cut Fruit. Interestingly, on some games that require continuous taping, voice control can also be used. For example, let the virtual characters in the game run faster, you can quickly say "Run, Run, Run," and the live experience is very interesting.
In addition, we also see a future product, this intelligent cockpit system has a curved "fish screen" that runs from A to B pillar, and this screen is not for users to touch. The real touch screen is still on the center console, with a rectangular screen of 16:9.
According to the introduction, this product will be equipped with L3 or higher level of autonomous vehicles, whether it is intelligent or experience to a higher level.
The car-machine system will actively judge the road conditions and start driving autonomously. If you encounter road congestion on the way to the appointment, the car recommends sending a message to the person who is going to the appointment. While driving on the road, ar HUD can amplify intersection traffic lights, mark crosswalks, and point to destinations. After arriving at the parking lot, you can also directly guide the way to the drop-off area, and the vehicle can open the ADP function to achieve valet parking.
Finally, Ford also demonstrated a simulation of a smart cockpit, which developers test and validate in the simulator on a daily basis.
Second, collect the needs of "post-00s" users The Chinese team feeds back overseas
After a series of visits and experiences, we can basically summarize Ford's idea, that is, to make the car a smart life cabin.
Ford's Smart Living Pod is divided into five main themes: gathering space, mobile workstations, music creation studio, adventure partners, and esports centers.
Why is it defined this way? Meng Xia, senior manager of innovative design in Ford China, said that this is the conclusion reached by Ford after digging deeper into the needs of "Generation Z". More specifically, Ford will collect the needs of many "post-00s" users, because this group of people like surprises, companionship and social content. Ford has even done workshops many times for this and "post-00s" users.
▲Shanghai "Fuchuang Valley" work area
In the process of developing new features, thanks to the collection of previous customer information, coupled with EVOS's more advanced FNV electrical and electronic architecture, Ford was able to realize user experience to drive software development and then drive hardware iterations. Through workshops, seed user experiments, grayscale testing, etc., Ford's software development is proceeding in an orderly manner.
Talking about the relationship between Ford's Chinese market and the global market, Fang Yuliang introduced that the current domestic customer experience demand far exceeds the European and American markets. Therefore, in China, the ECDX team is not only shouldering the task of software development for domestic models, but also feeding back the shortcomings of overseas markets in the field of intelligent networking.
He also said that Ford's domestic team will have a lot of say, because whether it is software, user experience or UX design, the domestic team is leading the global team.
When it comes to the smart cockpit experience, Meng Xia believes that the smart cockpit experience should be divided into two aspects: ability and feeling. If the user experience is not good, it may be because the system itself is too weak, or it may be that the user is too troublesome to use.
Fang Yuliang added that a few years ago, when the large-screen smart car machine began to rise, many car machine systems imitated tablet computers and added a large number of square App icons. It turned out that this arrangement was very much affecting driving safety, because people were looking at the small words below the icons, resulting in inattention.
Therefore, no matter what function is developed, Ford wants to develop it in a realistic use case, rather than considering a single use case.
Conclusion: The intelligence of joint venture car companies is accelerating
In 2016, Ford's sales in China peaked, and then there was a downward trend year by year. The reason behind it, the advent of the intelligent and electric era, must be one of the reasons for the decline in sales. Therefore, accelerating intelligence and electrification is a thing that traditional car companies must do.
Today, Ford is accelerating its run in the joint venture car companies, and last year, the mustang Mach-E, a pure tram that benchmarked tesla Model Y, and a rare 27-inch car machine screen in fuel vehicles, mass-produced EVOS. When the "Z generation" becomes the main force of car purchase, the intelligent investment of joint venture car companies over the years will usher in rapid returns, and will also make century-old car companies such as Ford shine with new brilliance.