Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | Xiao Han
Auto East April 12 news, this morning, the automatic driving company Millais Zhixing announced that it has obtained hundreds of millions of yuan of financing from the A+ round, which is also the first round of financing completed by Millais Zhixing in 2022.
The A+ round of financing obtained by Mo Mo Zhi Xing was led by BoC Group Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "BOC Investment"), and the first trip holdings followed the investment, and the funds raised will strengthen the investment in R&D and the construction of the talent system for autopilot.
After announcing the completion of the A+ round of financing, Che Dongxi contacted Gu Weihao, CEO of Miller Zhixing, for the first time, and exchanged views on the valuation after the A+ round of financing, mass production plans and other issues.
Gu Weihao revealed that the valuation of Zhixing has reached billions of yuan, becoming an autonomous driving unicorn company.
In 2022, Zhixing expects to ship more than 100,000 sets of assisted driving systems, covering about 70 projects in 34 models. In addition, this year, Zhixing will also install products on models of multiple brands in addition to Great Wall Motors.
Obviously, Zhixing has become the first autonomous driving supplier in China. At the same time, before that, only Tesla, Xiaopeng, Weilai, Ideal and other car companies launched pilot assisted driving, and Zhixing was the industry's first supplier of mass production pilot assisted driving.
There is even a view in the industry that The Ultimate Wisdom Is China's Cruise. In the U.S., Cruise is backed by General Motors, and the progress of autonomous driving and the company's valuation are among the best in the industry. The development of autonomous driving by Great Wall Motors also has a considerable strength in research and development and mass production.
First, tens of thousands of vehicles or will be the first mass production city L2
After completing the A+ round of hundreds of millions of yuan of financing, one of the main tasks of Zhixing is to increase investment in autonomous driving research and development, and the focus of this year's annual year is to mass-produce urban NOH.
Gu Weihao, CEO of Momo Zhixing, revealed that according to the plan, the NoH intelligent pilot auxiliary driving system of Mola Zhixing City will be mass-produced in the second half of this year, and the first model is a high-end version of Weipai Mocha. The perception hardware of this car is different from the previous vehicles and will be equipped with 2 lidars.
▲Gu Weihao, CEO of Zhixing
At the same time, the NoH of Zhixing City will also be installed in other models of Weipai, and it is expected that at least two models will be mass-produced this year to carry this system.
In terms of shipments, Chi Heng expects that the shipment of HPilot assisted driving system will exceed 100,000 units this year, covering 34 models. According to the model modification plan, Zhixing will implement about 70 projects this year.
In addition, Gu Weihao also revealed a heavy message - that is, this year's HPilot assisted driving system will be extended to a number of brand models outside the Great Wall.
For car owners who have already purchased the HPilot 1.0 assisted driving system, The Company will continue to roll out software updates, after which it may unlock more new features through paid methods.
Since last year, the products of The Company have been successively installed in passenger cars, and there have been 6 models of Wei Pai Mocha, Tank 300 City Edition, Wei Pai Latte, Wei Pai Ma Qiduo, Haval Divine Beast, Tank 500 and so on, which are equipped with the automatic driving solution of Zoe Zhixing, and the number has reached tens of thousands.
▲List of products of Zhixing
Just last month, the Tank 500 model was launched, equipped with an upgraded version of the HPilot 2.0 system. Compared with HPilot 1.0, the terminal HPilot 2.0 has a stronger computing power, and also adds the "parking integration" driving and parking intelligent scene integration solution, including smart cruise, autonomous lane change, intelligent cornering, smart dodge, automatic emergency braking and other functions.
As of March this year, the mileage of assisted driving by users at the end of the year has exceeded 6 million kilometers. The total number of passenger cars equipped with the HPilot driver assistance system is expected to exceed 1 million in the next two years. In mid-2022, the noh of the city of Noh will also be officially listed.
▲Roadmap for autonomous driving of passenger cars
According to the planning of Millima Chi Heng, in the second half of this year, Mo Mo Zhi Xing will deliver all-scenario NOH, and launch haomo Self-Driving HSD (HAOMO Self-Driving) in 2023.
In the field of terminal unmanned logistics vehicles, Miller has reached in-depth strategic cooperation with many leading enterprises such as Meituan, Wumei Multi-point, ali Damo Academy and so on.
Second, a total of three rounds of financing last year became an autonomous driving unicorn
Bocchi Investment, the lead investor of the A+ round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, is the main platform for Bank of China to engage in direct investment business, and is one of the leading state-owned background investment institutions in the field of logistics, chips and autonomous driving in China. First Town Holdings is a Hong Kong listed company under Shougang Group, with a business layout of parking travel and infrastructure real estate fund.
After the completion of the A+ round of financing, Zhixing has officially launched the B round of financing at the same time.
In fact, at the end of last year, Zhixing has completed two rounds of financing, Pre-A and A rounds, and has become an autonomous driving unicorn enterprise.
In February 2021, the company completed hundreds of millions of yuan of Pre-A round of financing, including Shougang, Meituan, Hillhouse Capital, etc.
In December 2021, Miller received nearly 1 billion yuan in round A financing, with investors such as Meituan, Hillhouse Venture Capital, Qualcomm Venture Capital, First Trip Holdings, and Jiuzhi Capital, becoming the first autonomous driving unicorn company in China to achieve large-scale mass production.
In order to win the "data war on automatic driving", Zhixing announced the establishment of an autonomous driving data intelligence system MANA last year, Chinese named Snow Lake.
In terms of architecture, MANA has four major plates, namely TARS, LUCAS, VENUS and BASE. Among them, BASE is the bottom layer of the entire system architecture, including data base, data fusion, PoseidonOS, etc., and all the data about automatic driving must go through the bottom layer.
There are three major sections in the upper layer, of which TARS represents the prototype algorithm developed by Zhixing, including perception, planning decision-making, map positioning, and simulation engine. LUCAS represents the process of perception, calculation, verification and other processes of vehicles in reality, that is, the large-scale generalization of automatic driving. VENUS is a data board that can evaluate the quality of algorithms with reference standards.
▲Mana, the intelligent system of automatic driving data of Zhixing
In addition, Zhixing will also establish a MANA supercomputing center to achieve more efficient data mining.
Conclusion: The ultimate wisdom line accelerates the layout of automatic driving
Through three major categories of products, passenger car assisted driving products, terminal unmanned logistics distribution vehicles and intelligent follow-up robots, Zhixing has achieved a fairly extensive layout in the field of automatic driving. At the same time, Zhixing has also become the first supplier of mass production of pilot assistance systems in the industry, breaking the tradition that only car companies develop themselves. The upcoming mass production of the noH of the Zhixing city may also set a record for the first in the industry.
Obviously, the ultimate Zhixing, which is backed by Great Wall Motors, already has the meaning of the Chinese version of Cruise. It is also in this way that Great Wall Motors, as an independent brand traditional car company, can move forward steadily in the era of electric and intelligent, and achieve technological leadership.