On April 22, Ziyoujia released the latest information related to the NV cockpit, as the first product of the Ziyoujia brand, NV also reflects the thinking of the Ziyoujia brand on the product in the cockpit intelligence.
Let's first briefly review the cockpit configuration information of the self-touring home:
12.3 inch LCD instrument + 15.6 inch central control screen;
AR reality navigation;
Apple Watch quick unlock feature;
Dual wireless charging up to 15 W;
Support CarPlay, Carlink, HiCar mobile phone interconnection.
As can be seen from the figure, the central control screen of the self-touring NV adopts a vertical screen, the screen is divided into 2 parts, the upper layer is used for navigation, music and other functions, the lower layer is used for the control settings of the vehicle itself, and the bottom also retains 7 commonly used physical buttons. At the same time, in order to ensure the convenience of operation during driving, 6 linear motors are built into the bottom of the screen to provide touch feedback.
Because we have not yet had the opportunity to actually experience, it is difficult to see from the figure whether this set of cars is good or not, so the car itself is not the focus of our article, which we will bring you after the test drive.
However, from the above configuration information, we can find a detail, since the tour home NV has made great efforts in the "interconnection" point, not only access to CarPlay, Carlink, HiCar, the car UI has also made corresponding optimizations, but also support the control of iPhone widgets and even Apple Watch.
Today we will take a plate, under this trend of "going to CarPlay", why would the self-traveler make such a choice, and what careful thoughts did the self-traveler have?
01
It's not just about connecting your phone
Self-tour based on Android Automotive developed NIUTRON OS, the official introduction of the Smart Stacks block mosaic interaction is a focus of this system, based on this interactive self-tourer NV can achieve NIUTRON OS and CarPlay at the same time on this 15.6-inch central control screen to work.
CarPlay can be used at the top of the screen to achieve common navigation, music playback, and text messaging. At the bottom of the screen, THE NIUTRON OS enables the operation of vehicle control functions such as air conditioning, driving mode switching, and assisted driving.
This design can be said to solve a major pain point in the use of CarPlay.
Under the trend of large screen, the physical buttons in the car are getting less and less, and most of the function adjustments are integrated into the control of the large screen, so the most taboo in UI design is the full-screen display of common functions, and many manufacturers do not consider this problem when accessing CarPlay.
This means that the vehicle settings cannot be adjusted in the state of CarPlay navigation, and once there is a need for vehicle setting adjustment, the navigation interface must be temporarily abandoned.
We can also see on the new Mercedes-Benz C-class, Mercedes-Benz also for CarPlay and car control to do a split screen display, but unfortunately, the car control can only adjust the air conditioning, once it comes to the adjustment of other functions, it will encounter the problem we said above.
The self-tourer has made targeted optimizations for this, even if it is necessary to operate the car control, it will not affect the use of CarPlay.
CarPlay's second pain point is that it doesn't support interconnection with the meter. When using the vehicle's own navigation, the navigation information will most likely be displayed synchronously on the instrument or HUD, improving the convenience of user information acquisition.
However, in the car machine and the instrument is not connected to the model, CarPlay can only be displayed on the central control screen singlely, and the self-tourer has also made special optimizations for this, so on the self-touring NV, you can also project the content of CarPlay to the 12.3-inch LCD meter, so as to get a better experience.
In addition, according to the official description of the self-tourer, the interaction logic of NIUTRON OS will be closer to CarPlay, thereby reducing the learning cost of users in the process of use, and at the same time, there will be no strong sense of separation because of the difference in system UI, and from this point of view, I have more expectations for the operation experience of NIUTRON OS itself.
02
Is it right to swim against the current?
As we mentioned above, the current new forces are "de-CarPlay", always hoping to be able to meet all the needs of users with their own car machines, which is also what we hope to see, but the inevitable problem of doing so is that there will be extremely high learning costs.
I believe that every friend who is used to Android is difficult to get used to iOS, and it is difficult to use Android again after getting used to iOS, which is "habit", but the current "smart car machine" can be said to be the era of a hundred flowers, you can see similar designs on some car machines, but you must not be able to use all the car machines according to a logic.
This means that every owner needs to have a certain learning ability and willingness to play the maximum value of this car, I believe that there are many people who may buy a car after 1-2 years, but also find some new features of the car machine, optimistic view is a surprise, but another angle is that it has not played the maximum value of the car machine.
Think back to which device is the most comfortable to use in life?
Yes, it must be this one you have in your hand right now – the phone.
According to the State of Mobile Report 2022 released by mobile data and analytics company App Annie, Chinese users spend an average of 3.3 hours a day on their phones, ranking 17th in the world. Global mobile device usage in 2021 was a record high of 3.8 trillion hours.
I believe that for most of you who have smart phones, you have long been accustomed to the interaction logic in mobile phones, even if different brands, in the era of full screen, the interaction difference of each mobile phone is becoming smaller and smaller. When you change the mobile phone brand, you don't need to spend too much time to learn and adapt.
This is also why more and more car brands are moving closer to their own car machine logic to mobile phones.
The mobile phone interconnection system such as CarPlay is the operating system that is closest to the mobile phone UI.
Concise interface logic, Siri control, account synchronization, third-party car apps adapted to Apple's standards, and custom focus modes have become reasons why many users love CarPlay. And CarPlay provides more third-party music apps and navigation apps for users to choose from.
It can be said that CarPlay has become the first choice for many users, and even some friends around me have an iPhone in the car to use CarPlay.
It is not difficult to understand why NV has made special optimizations while providing CarPlay, and draws on the advantages of CarPlay.
At present, everyone is very accustomed to the operation logic of mobile phones, and mobile phone manufacturers have also given a very good car-machine interconnection program to ensure the use of driving experience, in everyone does not have to change the existing habits of use can be used directly, and all software accounts can be continuously synchronized. This can meet the needs of most users.
The second advantage of mobile phone interconnection is smoothness.
At present, the most leading chip in the car level is Snapdragon 8155, corresponding to the Snapdragon 855 on the mobile phone, but the latest mobile phone has been equipped with 8Gen1 chip, which is 4 generations behind.
The replacement frequency of mobile phones is about 2-3 years, and the replacement frequency of cars is as long as 7-10 years, so the fluency of car chips in the second half of the vehicle life cycle is a problem that all car companies must face.
And as long as you use the mobile phone interconnection, the fluency of your car machine can be directly equal to the fluency of the mobile phone, as long as your mobile phone is not card, the car machine will not be stuck.
03
Write at the end
At the beginning of this year, there were rumors that NIO was planning to establish its own mobile phone brand, and Li Bin also said thoroughly: "Mobile phones are now the most important device for users to connect to their cars. From the perspective of user interests and experiences, we must also study mobile phones and car-centric smart terminal devices."
Such a line of thinking and self-travel home can be said to coincide, in this era of mobile phone interconnection can win the hearts of the people, self-tour NV through its own Smart Stacks block patchwork interaction in the new forces of the car machine to play their own differentiation.
Although we hope that every car can have an extremely easy to use car machine to meet all the needs of the driving process, it is inevitable that the learning cost of the car machine and the fluency problem caused by the non-replaceable chip are inevitable.
Many car companies have cut the mobile phone interconnection function such as CarPlay, and the good point is that they can force themselves to continuously optimize the experience of the car machine system, but it is also equivalent to blocking their own back road.
From the perspective of user experience, perhaps the self-traveling NV that walks on two legs may be the optimal solution of this era.
Author: Jiang Xiaohei
Edit: June 3
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