160,000 car owners have been "abandoned"! Once the main engine factory encounters a reshuffle, the after-sales of smart electric vehicles becomes a "sinkhole"

Every reporter: Huang Xinxu Every editor: Sun Lei

Recently, a test car of the M5 intelligent driving version of the world suddenly increased its speed when reversing, and then "ridden" on the roof of the BYD Dolphin behind the video. The focus of controversy among netizens is why the AEB function (automatic emergency braking system technology) of the M5 has not been involved.

In fact, with the deepening of the degree of automotive software, it is often exposed to the discussion of whether the assisted driving system intervenes in the driving process of a vehicle or whether the user's operation is compliant; In particular, entering the industry reshuffle period, some new car-making forces have encountered difficulties in their operations, and many consumers have begun to worry about how to ensure the system upgrade service of smart electric vehicles. If smart electric vehicles cannot be upgraded normally, will they become "bricks" like mobile phones and other electronic products? This series of problems have become a new focus in the wave of change in the automotive industry.

"In the future, if the after-sales service of some smart electric vehicles is suspended, who will take over, this is indeed a question. It would technically work to assume that some OEMs are willing to disclose some technical information so that a third-party business like ours can receive and continue to provide services to car owners. However, from the perspective of user data privacy, whether this is compliant is not well defined, and this is all a problem to be discussed and solved. A staff member of an intelligent driving company told the "Daily Economic News" reporter.

The AEB feature is once again controversial

Recently, a video circulating on the Internet showed a test car of the M5 intelligent driving version of the Wenjie suddenly increased its speed when reversing, and then crashed into the BYD Dolphin behind it. After that, the rear wheel of the M5 "slew" on the roof of the BYD Dolphin.

AITO Auto officials then replied to the above incident, saying: "After background data analysis and confirmation with the test drive user, the user mistakenly used the accelerator pedal as the brake pedal and caused the accident. According to the data of the accident vehicle, after the vehicle was engaged in R gear, the accelerator pedal was pressed 100% to the end twice for a total of 4 seconds, with an acceleration of -5.83m/s², during which the maximum speed of the drive motor was 3180 rpm, the maximum torque was 300N·m, and the maximum speed was 32.82km/h. At present, the vehicles of both parties have been repaired by test drive insurance. Fortunately, no injuries were caused as a result of the accident. ”

Image source: AITO Automotive Sina Weibo

Despite this, many netizens questioned why the AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking System Technology) function of the M5 was not involved in this incident.

As early as September this year, at the launch of AITO's new M7, Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director, CEO of the terminal BG, and chairman of the intelligent vehicle solution BU, once shouted in a high-profile manner that "it is difficult to hit the car if you want to reverse". "Car companies may use some exciting statements and descriptions when they advertise, but in fact, AEB is not omnipotent, and sometimes the vehicle may not recognize stationary vehicles when braking backwards. The staff of the above-mentioned intelligent driving company told reporters.

Specifically, the "omnidirectional collision avoidance system" released by Wenjie includes forward, sideways and backward active safety. In terms of rear-facing active safety, the new M7 can identify all obstacles in the rear and actively brake, in the actual measurement, the child dummy in the left rear, the guardrail in the rear, and the left and right cone barrels can be accurately identified and actively braked.

However, why did the accident of the M5 happen, and whether the M5 is not as good as the M7 in terms of AEB? This has become a common question in the industry.

In fact, according to the instruction manual of the M5 intelligent driving version, the accident of the M5 does not have the conditions to trigger AEB. When the rear-facing automatic emergency braking of the M5 is activated, the vehicle is required to reverse at a speed of about 2km/h~12km/h, and the braking will be automatically applied when it is about to collide with a stationary or slow-moving two-wheeled vehicle or pedestrian (excluding stationary vehicles) behind it. In addition, the feature lists nine limitations, including when the driver is pressing the accelerator pedal, brake pedal or turning the steering wheel sharply, and the presence of a large vehicle behind the vehicle that obscures the detection area of the vehicle's radar or camera.

In fact, AEB is not new. Traditional automotive industry countries such as the United States and Japan have long included AEB in the evaluation system, while Europe has made it mandatory to install AEB systems for newly produced heavy-duty commercial vehicles as early as November 2015.

"In fact, sometimes, we are not afraid that AEB will not be triggered, but we are even more afraid that AEB will be triggered by mistake. For example, in the process of high-speed driving, once the vehicle accidentally triggers the AEB system and causes automatic braking or deceleration, the vehicle behind will not have time to react, which will lead to a series of accidents. The staff of the above-mentioned intelligent driving company said.

At the 2023 China Automotive Software Conference hosted by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Zhu Xichan, a professor at the School of Automotive Engineering of Tongji University, believes that consumers themselves need to be cautious about automotive software, and in his opinion, sometimes radical consumers may use L2+ intelligent driving as L3, they may be distracted during driving, play with mobile phones or even lie down to sleep, and this mentality is easy to lead to accidents. On the contrary, the low-tech ADAS function is safe because no one uses it for autonomous driving.

It is not very likely that the car will become a "brick". 

In fact, in the era of smart electric vehicles, the intelligent functions of vehicles are increasingly dependent on the cloud. Many vehicles need computing power support for OTA upgrades, autonomous driving functions, and entertainment experiences. Considering the power consumption and redundant space of the vehicle's local computing power, many car companies will rely on cloud computing to provide computing power.

Image source: Visual China

In this context, software has increasingly become the soul of the car. Therefore, many smart electric vehicle customers have begun to worry that if there is a problem with the after-sales of the car software and cannot be upgraded normally, it may lead to the situation that the car becomes "brick".

A self-proclaimed WM W6 owner has been quite distressed recently, and he has encountered many times this year that the car APP cannot be logged in, the car machine interface shows no network, and the mobile phone key service is suspended.

In fact, this is not the case. According to the statistics of the China Automobile Dealers Association, at present, domestic new energy vehicle companies that have filed for bankruptcy or have not produced for a long time are probably involved in more than 160,000 existing car owners, including about 110,000 WM Motor.

"Because each company is different, it is difficult to define how many people are needed for a certain sales scale. If the system built by this company at the beginning has a lot of bugs, it is true that there will be more problems later. Generally speaking, when there is a problem in the enterprise and the number of software teams is reduced, the normal maintenance of the vehicle system may indeed be affected. A software engineer of his own brand said.

However, a number of automotive software staff told reporters that even if some manufacturers suspend services due to poor management, the situation of "bricks" of vehicles generally does not occur.

"Generally speaking, the electronic and electrical architecture of the whole vehicle may be divided into the power domain, chassis domain, cockpit domain/intelligent information domain, autonomous driving domain and body domain under the 'distributed' domain. The cockpit domain is mainly responsible for the vehicle's entertainment information system, and its upgrade is separate from the upgrade of the vehicle's auxiliary driving, body electronics and other functions, and generally does not affect each other. Therefore, the manufacturer's inability to maintain service does not mean that the vehicle will become brick-like, but more likely that some of the vehicle's entertainment and other experiential functions will be limited. There should not be too many problems with the safety of the vehicle itself, and it can still drive normally. A staff member of a foreign-funded software company told the "Daily Economic News" reporter.

However, with the deepening of automotive intelligence, the electronic and electrical architecture of the whole vehicle is developing from distributed to centralized. "Even under this trend, the functions of the intelligent entertainment system and vehicle safety are generally controlled separately, and the normal operation of the vehicle will not be greatly affected, and consumers do not have to worry too much about this. The staff of the above-mentioned foreign-funded software company said.

Is it possible for a third party to do maintenance?

If the OEM can no longer provide services due to operational problems, how to ensure the after-sales service of smart electric vehicles? This has become a problem for the current automotive industry.

Image source: Photo by Liu Guomei, National Business Daily (data map)

"If the proportion of self-development in the software systems of an OEM is relatively large, his system may be relatively closed. If there is a problem with the OEM, it may be relatively difficult for other OEMs or third parties to take over and make some modifications and maintenance in the vehicle system. However, if the electronic and electrical architecture of the vehicle is jointly developed by many suppliers, these suppliers may be familiar with the system, and it will be more convenient for them to take over after-sales services such as upgrades and maintenance. The above-mentioned independent brand of software engineering told reporters that the form of after-sales service taken over by a third-party company is still just an immature idea.

However, at present, in the industry, the electronic and electrical architecture of OEMs is mostly the product of research and development with suppliers.

"Generally speaking, we will provide some basic functions to the OEMs, and we will work with the OEMs' software team to develop some customized functions according to the requirements of the OEMs. In daily situations, the upgrade and maintenance of vehicles at the software level need to be done together with the OEM. The staff of the above-mentioned intelligent driving company told reporters.

In this model, OEMs often choose to buy out software services from software vendors in a lump sum.

"But our ideal state is to prefer users to use a long-term subscription model, and we can also provide software upgrades for consumers on a daily basis. If some OEMs have problems and they are willing to publish some technical information, then we, the third-party companies, can also provide services for car owners from a technical level. However, from the perspective of user data privacy, it is not yet known whether this move is compliant, and how to solve these problems in the future needs to be further discussed. The staff of the above-mentioned intelligent driving company added to reporters. 

National Business Daily