In 2023, the competition in the smart car market will become more and more fierce, and OTA upgrades will play an important role in the second half of automotive intelligence. On January 16, Zhao Changjiang, general manager of BYD's Denza Sales Division, said on media social platforms that the Denza N7 represents the strongest model in the second half of intelligence, and attached the OTA schedule of the Denza N7.
Source: Weibo
In addition to software upgrades, OTA can also bring upgrades in many aspects such as the safety, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent driving of smart cars, so what are the most upgraded functions in OTA upgrades for smart cars in 2023? Which functions have the highest demand? From the perspective of OTA vendors, what challenges does the addition of AI large models bring to OTA upgrades?
OTA upgrades bring intelligent acceleration of intelligent driving, intelligent cabins, and chassis
As soon as 2023 ended, many car companies have announced their OTA upgrade plans for their cars in 2024, such as Tesla's release of version 2023.44.30.8, which upgrades from multiple dimensions of safety, intelligence and entertainment. BYD looks up to the U8 in the future to upgrade multiple functions such as short-distance valet parking, high-speed piloting, throttle anti-misstepping, intelligent driving interactive interface optimization, and intelligent speed limiting.
From the OTA upgrade plans of the above-mentioned car companies, it is clear that the upgrade direction of smart cars in the future can be seen. So looking back on 2023, what are the upgrades of new energy vehicles in terms of intelligence? From the public data of the OTA industry research conducted by the well-known domestic OTA supplier Alabi, we may be able to gain insight into the direction of intelligent upgrading of smart cars in 2023.
Arabi has served more than 40 OEMs and more than 100 models in the automotive field, and has provided OTA support and services for a number of overseas models of Chinese car companies. OTA vendors, as key players in automotive intelligence, can more clearly feel the changes in automotive intelligence and the direction of users' functional requirements.
2023 is a year of rapid development of new energy vehicles in terms of intelligence, and overall, new energy vehicles will usher in upgrades in three major aspects in terms of intelligent upgrading.
First, the frequency of upgrades is higher. According to the data collation of the "Alabi Smart Car OTA Encyclopedia", the frequency of OTA upgrades of mainstream car companies will exceed 100 times in 2023, and more brands will enter the high-frequency state of "monthly update" and "bi-monthly update". In addition, the number of monthly upgrades is also increasing month by month, from the number of upgrades of several models per month at the beginning of 2023 to the number of OTA upgrades in December, which has already been upgraded by 24 brands, pushing 47 upgrades, covering 64 models.
According to the data compiled by the electronic enthusiast network, as of October 2023, Xpeng has carried out 5 NGP upgrades for intelligent driving, and Deep Blue Auto has pushed more than 10 OTAs. In December, Yangwang U8 carried out its first upgrade this year, adding 19 new contents at one time, bringing a better experience in intelligent driving and parking. Tesla's Model Y/Modle 3 completed its 9th OTA upgrade of 2023 on December 12.
The second is the expansion of the scope of upgrades. OTA upgrades cover power, chassis, intelligent driving, intelligent cabin and other content. For example, the Feifan F7 was upgraded through OTA in December, bringing the industry's first crosswind suppression scene and more accurate 4k-level linear control. In September, ZEEKR X added 34 new functions, 72 experience optimizations, and 43 ECU upgrades in the OTA upgrade to achieve full-dimensional upgrades such as intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit. In the upgrade in August, the Ideal L series upgraded the waste blanket air suspension 2.0, providing two suspension styles, "Comfort Magic" and "Sports Magic Carpet", and also became the industry's first suspension OTA. The M9's Turing intelligent chassis also has strong OTA capabilities.
On the whole, in the process of automotive intelligence in 2023, the intelligent level of related functions such as power, chassis, intelligent driving, and intelligent cabin has become the direction of attention of new energy vehicle manufacturers.
The electronic enthusiast network counted the number of OTA upgrade functions disclosed by some car companies, which can also corroborate the data of Alabi: Wenjie M5 added 111 functions from January to October this year, and 137 new functions were added by Ideal, and the OTA version launched by Zhiji in September includes 500+ new functions and optimizations.
The third is to upgrade to high-quality development, and the OTA experience is getting better and better. The upgrade activities of higher-value, more differentiated, and more optimized experience driving functions pushed by car companies through OTA upgrades. According to the research of Arabi, the evolution of OTA has witnessed the rapid implementation of a number of new technologies such as the rapid implementation of intelligent driving NOA, which has stimulated consumers' strong enthusiasm for smart cars. For example, after the OTA upgrade, Li Auto's AD Max 3.0 supports all-scenario intelligent driving (NOA) and all-scene assisted driving (LCC). The M9 said that it can support the nationwide urban intelligent driving pilot assistance (urban NCA).
With the development of automotive intelligence, the importance of OTA is becoming more and more prominent. In order to become the strongest model in the second half of automotive intelligence, multiple car brands have improved the driving experience, interactive experience, and safety of cars through OTA upgrades. More importantly, under the differentiated competition, major car companies have also launched differentiated functions for different models, such as the coffee life function of the Great Wall, the drift mode of Nezha GT, the private customization mode and so on. This also makes customized OTA one of the development directions of automotive OTA.
How does OTA deal with large models on the car?
In 2023, AI models will become a hot topic in the smart electric vehicle industry, with many Chinese manufacturers releasing self-developed AI models, and at the same time, more professional vertical models in the automotive field are also emerging. Intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving are undoubtedly one of the areas that attract the most attention in the industrial application of large models. Through the application of large models in the field of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, the R&D and iterative upgrading of autonomous driving functions will be accelerated, so that the intelligent development of intelligent electric vehicles has infinite potential.
What role does OTA upgrade play in the process of AI model landing in smart cars? In the process of intelligent vehicle development, OTA and AI model implementation complement each other. OTA continues to iterate while implementing AI large models in the automotive field, and uses more mature technologies to adapt to the current needs of intelligent automotive upgrades. The AI model is accelerated through OTA, and the continuous iteration of OTA provides a safe, stable, and reliable guarantee for the successive launch of AI large models.
"The core competence of OTA is to continuously bring more and better functions and applications to car owners. Ding Yu, vice president of Airabi, said, "As car owners stay in the car for longer and longer, users' demand for car scenarios is prominent, which means that the content that can be presented on the car in the future will be richer and richer." ”
In November 2023, Li Auto launched OTA 5.0, which upgrades the three major platforms of intelligent driving, intelligent space, and intelligent range extension. In terms of intelligent driving, Li Auto has upgraded from the original modular algorithm architecture based on multiple small models and manual rules to an end-to-end algorithm architecture based on large models. In terms of intelligent space, in OTA 5.0, AI Ideal Student has introduced the ability of Mind GPT, a multi-modal cognitive model developed by Ideal Full. The M9 also has a large model blessing.
In January 2024, Jiyue announced that it would carry out the first major version upgrade, and Wenxin Yiyan large model 4.0 will soon be on the car. It is foreseeable that large models have become a mainstream trend in cars, and upgrades will bring more rich functions in 2024.
Does the addition of AI features make it difficult for OTA vendors to upgrade?
He Sicong, vice president of Alabi, believes that the addition of AI functions has increased the demand for OTA application scenarios. OTA is no longer a simple one-way passive downlink of software, but will introduce more scenario-driven software active uplink, which also responds to the current design trend of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), which has higher requirements for the complexity, variability and adaptability of OTA technology itself to deal with complex application scenarios, and also brings difficulties in design and development and software operation.
To this end, He Sicong said: Alaby OTA solution strengthens the ability of vehicle SOA service design. Car companies will take the lead in exploring user usage scenarios, and carry out digital service design of usage scenarios, so as to improve the scalability of vehicle software and hardware. At the same time, the XOTA fusion mode is formed to integrate firmware upgrades, software upgrades, remote diagnosis, and intelligent after-sales services.
Brief summary:
In the era of software-defined vehicles, the development of automotive intelligence is accelerating. Many models launched a few years ago have been criticized for "not keeping up" with the level of intelligence. It is no exaggeration to say that OTA function upgrades have become a gimmick for car companies when new cars are released, and even "easter eggs" for new cars. It is expected that in 2024, the number and frequency of automotive OTA upgrades will further increase, and older models will also be upgraded through OTA and customized OTA to cope with competitors' counterattacks.