In the face of Z-era Internet natives, "Centennial Ford" also needs to increase digitalization

Wen | Li Yipeng

Gen Z, who was born with the Internet, is considered a generation that can truly change the world.

A few years ago, everything from gaming to socializing to education was looking for ways to meet the needs of Gen Z. Only products that attract more young people are more sought after. Judging from the highly concerned video platform track, MAU is less than half of iQiyi's BiliBili, and its market value has been 3 times that of the former for a long time.

After pushing the virtual world to video, circle and socialization, the demand from a new generation is also beginning to change the real world. One widely accepted expectation is that the next industry to be dramatically changed by Generation Z demand may be automobiles.

Research shows that Gen Z believes that cars are not just means of transportation in the traditional sense, but have more emotional attributes, as "travel companions" and even "family". The importance of the in-car digital experience has been raised to a new level, and a new generation of consumers expect cars to complete social, esports, streaming, work and other aspects of the demand.

Despite more attention from electrification, digitalization has become a driving force for the evolution of the industry. Not only the new forces that have just joined, but also the century-old Ford Motor Company has begun to bet here.

As early as 2015, Ford announced its transformation into a mobility service provider at CES, and began to make efforts in in-vehicle interconnection technology, consumer experience and big data applications. In 2021, Ford will directly deploy digital R&D teams in China. According to the official, in order to meet the research and development needs of the Chinese market in product digitalization, the team called Enterprise Connectivity and Digital Experience (ECDX) has increased its number by 3 times in one year.

The R&D and deployment of human-computer interaction design, big data, cloud computing, network security, C-V2X vehicle-to-road collaboration system, etc. in China is also not common in joint venture car companies. Fang Yuliang, vice president of intelligent networking and digital experience at Ford China, said in an interview that Chinese consumers' requirements for digital experiences are much higher than those in the European and American markets, which is one of the reasons why Ford has deployed "digital" capabilities locally.

At present, more than half of the members of the ECDX team come from domestic Internet and high-tech enterprises. Digital teams and digital businesses bring an "agile" model with a faster pace of R&D. Fang Yuliang believes that the goal of automobile research and development is no longer to make a better "industrial product", but to make the products that users want. The premise of "software-defined cars" is a user-driven approach to development.

Compared to previous products defined by engineers, insight into user needs has been placed at an unprecedented level. Based on the data burial point of the in-car system, the ECDX team analyzed the user's usage habits and preferences in the early stage of development. In the product design stage, Ford China also added a large number of user co-creation links, using Workshop, lab and other ways to let users feedback the experience to the development team.

Grayscale tests, which were originally only found in Internet products, also appeared on the car. In the iteration of some car-machine versions, the internal beta version is targeted to the seed users, and the optimization before the launch is completed based on the actual feedback. The user opinions of each new version have also become an important guide for future development.

Digitalizing business also brings new ways of organizing. No longer common to the bureaucratic system in car companies, the ECDX team has adopted a project-based approach, based on the core capabilities of each member, individuals can enter multiple projects to play their own role.

In terms of digital experience, Ford China has also chosen open cooperation, especially for Internet companies with mature experience. In 2019, Ford China and Baidu jointly released the SYNC+ system for the Chinese market. According to reports, Ford China will also actively seek cooperation opportunities with more leading domestic technology companies, strengthen cooperation in system development, artificial intelligence, IVI voice, navigation, entertainment content, Internet service ecology and other fields, and improve the product innovation and iteration speed of smart cockpits.

In 2020, Ford officially released a new intelligent networking architecture FNV (Fully-Networked Vehicle) and hit it on Ford Mustang Mach-E, EVOS and other models. Compared to the CAN bus, which has been developed for many years, the FNV is able to connect all the ECU controllers in the car. Packages that take a few minutes to download via the CAN bus only take a few seconds under the FNV architecture.

The emergence of a new electronic and electrical architecture makes the whole vehicle OTA no longer a patent for trams, and the oil vehicles have the possibility of continuous upgrading after launch.

Ford's next-generation smart cockpit

In terms of intelligent cockpit experience, the ECDX team has realized multi-dimensional interaction methods such as AI speech recognition, gesture control, and facial recognition on the sold models. Wake-free multi-wheel interaction and the collaborative experience of the main and co-drivers on the 27-inch large screen have become the "digital selling points" of Ford's Chinese products.

"The digital achievements in China will also be shared with Global," Fang Yuliang said, "but from the overall situation, the Chinese market already has relatively independent and more demanding digital experience requirements." ”

The automotive industry has entered a period of acceleration of three modernizations (electrification, networking and intelligence), and the market's requirements for products have long been more than an excellent industrial machinery product. The original universal evaluation criteria such as acceleration, braking, and handling have been broken by electric vehicles, and consumers have begun to turn their attention to the experience level.

"The future competitive barriers are built by locking in user needs and mining user data." Yang Yi, product manager at ECDX, told 36kr, "The only difference that can be made is the experience, just like Apple has done in its ecology." ”

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