Baidu Apollo grabbed the Beijing Auto Show before the three major departments of IDG's "cockpit map" one by one, which not only refuted the rumors that Baidu was going to withdraw from L2 intelligent driving, but also put on the figure of a veteran Internet manufacturer, and won the "intelligent partner of car companies".
Text丨Zhijia.com Zero sauce
Editor丨Langlang Mountain and Mingzhi Mountain
In various success books that have established a monument for large companies, Baidu is rumored to follow the OKR work model, that is, set goals (O) and necessary conditions (KR) to achieve goals before work, and then complete them one by one.
Wang Yunpeng, vice president of Baidu Group and president of Baidu Intelligent Driving Business Group, officially set the development direction for Baidu Apollo in accordance with this model.
"A good smart driver should be a reliable and good driver, who can drive on any road and park in any parking space. The cost of urban intelligent driving should be low enough, not only in more than 200,000 cars, but also in 150,000 cars can be standard. A good smart map should make the car machine map and the mobile phone map become one, updated synchronously, and easy to use, so that car companies no longer have to worry about product updates, so that car owners no longer need mobile phone holders. A good smart cabin should reconstruct the relationship between people and the car, and become an intimate assistant that car owners can't do without. ”
O is ready, KR is also set, see how Baidu is doing.
01.
Purely visual internal price wars
In a recent LiDAR company press conference, a company executive bluntly stated to the media:
"The purely visual route problem is annoying. ”
We can't complain that the company is not dignified enough, but it is too much of a purely visual agitation.
At present, many car companies, including Jiyue, Xiaomi, Huawei, GAC, and Jihu, have officially announced the pure visual route, DJI, SenseTime and other technology companies have launched a cost-effective pure visual high-end intelligent driving program, and lidar companies have been forced to start launching thousand-yuan products, which is more than ten times lower than just a few years ago.
But some companies are not satisfied, such as Baidu.
On April 22, Baidu Apollo officially released another product of pure visual city pilot assisted driving, ANP3 Pro.
Compared with the figure above, it can be found that as a reduced version of ANP3 Max, the Pro version reduces one NVIDIA DRIVE Orin (254TOPS) chip, reducing the number of millimeter-wave radars to three, but it can still cover parking, high-speed, urban and other global travel scenarios, and realize full functions such as city pilot assistance, high-speed pilot assistance, automatic parking/remote parking, valet parking AVP, AP/ADAS and so on.
Wang Liang, Chief R&D Architect of Baidu's Intelligent Driving Business Group (IDG) and Chairman of the IDG Technical Committee, once specified four frameworks for high-end intelligent driving products:
point-to-point pilot assisted driving on urban roads;
The intelligent driving function should cover a wide range of time and space, and it needs to be open throughout the country, and it can be enabled on road sections with navigation;
Users should have a sense of security when using intelligent driving, and be able to trust and rely on the system;
It can continue to evolve iteratively at high frequency.
At present, the Max and Pro versions of ANP3 have complied with the above framework, and the Pro version can be loaded into the vehicle in nine months, and the hardware cost of the whole solution has entered the level of 10,000 yuan.
"The ANP3 Pro can be installed in new energy vehicles in the price range of 15-250,000 yuan, and the Apollo ANP3 MAX equipped with two NVIDIA DRIVE Orin (508TOPS) can support new energy vehicles with more than 250,000 yuan. This also means that the ANP3 high-end intelligent driving products can cover nearly 60% of the current market demand. Wang Liang said.
But this is not all the highlights of Pro, and more importantly, the chip computing power of the Pro solution is still negotiable.
According to Baidu's Apollo "Chip X Plan", as long as the chip computing power meets 100 TOPS (dense computing power), you can experience ANP3 Pro's leading high-end intelligent driving capabilities, and flexibly support the needs of customers in different vehicle configurations.
This is comparable to the computing power of DJI's current "7V+100TOPS" solution, and according to DJI's information, the cost of this "system" is about 7,000 yuan.
This means that there is still room for the hardware cost of Baidu's high-end intelligent driving solution to fall.
At the 2024 Electric Vehicle 100 Conference, many guests have expressed similar views, that is, the 7-150,000 level is the market for electric vehicles and smart cars to compete for.
Up to now, the user penetration rate of the Max solution has reached 90%, and the average daily pilot assisted driving mileage has reached 48.2%, and the lower price Pro version is bound to further expand the models equipped with high-end intelligent driving functions to achieve an inclusive level of intelligent driving experience.
Wang Liang is very optimistic that "our 100,000 models are just around the corner."
According to reports, ANP3 Max will continue to explore industry-leading technologies such as L3 assisted driving, end-to-end large models, and unmanned valet parking.
However, compared with the cost performance, Wang Liang proposed at the press conference that "within L3, lidar is a transitional solution." "It was clear to the market that he was a staunch fan of pure vision.
He believes that in the current high-end intelligent driving solutions for both urban and high-speed intelligent driving, removing lidar is the best choice. The right time to add LiDAR is defined at the L4 level, Robotaxi.
With the current Jiyue 01 using this technology route showing strong urban NOA capabilities, Baidu's bet in the field of visual perception is gaining more and more followers, and from this point of view, lidar companies do face a certain amount of uncertainty.
02.
Large models can also understand driving better
In the cockpit link, Su Tan, general manager of the intelligent vehicle business department of Baidu Intelligent Driving Business Group (IDG), officially released the cockpit expert model empowered by "Wenxin Yiyan" - Smart Cabin Model 2.0.
"From the traditional interaction of remote control to the cockpit intelligent twins that can actively serve, the leapfrog intelligent cabin experience brought by the intelligent cabin model 2.0 is a major evolution. It will empower the car to think proactively and respond to the needs of the user, creating a truly human-centric driving experience. Su Tan said that on the basis of Wenxin Yiyan's powerful language processing capabilities and in-depth understanding of the automotive field, the Smart Cabin Model 2.0 will equip each car with a "caring assistant" to make the user's driving journey safer, more efficient and more enjoyable.
As a cockpit expert model empowered by Wenxin, the Smart Cabin Model 2.0 adopts a new MoE architecture, which can support localized deployment and a dedicated development tool chain to support car companies to efficiently customize brand features and create differentiated competitiveness based on the smart cabin experience.
It is worth noting that the smart cabin model 2.0 has completed three major upgrades:
First of all, experience the new upgrade, the new cockpit agent is like an intimate assistant on the go, which can naturally communicate, understand deeply, and think actively. Navigation agents and vehicle agents tailored to the cockpit can not only better understand complex commands, but also have certain social attributes, understand the user's "unspoken meaning", and become an intelligent assistant with emotion and intelligence.
Secondly, the architecture is newly upgraded, based on the MoE architecture concept, to create a device-cloud integration of multiple expert models, and to develop a vehicle-specific scenario experience, which improves the response speed by 300%, reduces the call cost by 200%, and realizes the minimum user data migration to the cloud.
Finally, the smart cabin large model 2.0 will streamline and instrumentalize the AI application development paradigm of the smart cabin, reduce costs and improve efficiency in the whole link, and help OEMs efficiently build brand-specific large models and characteristic applications through proprietary data training, exclusive scenario development, and exclusive resource access.
In addition, Baidu Apollo also provides a set of cockpit AI application models for car companies, including car consultants, personalized spaces, AI maps, self-driving travel assistants, AI Q&A and other applications, supporting out-of-the-box, rapid launch, and rapid transformation.
03.
Baidu Maps beats Baidu Maps
The debate between Lei Jun and Yu Chengdong on "whether smart cars should have mobile phone holders" has turned a hidden question to the surface:
The biggest opponent of the in-car map is the mobile map.
In the past, it took at least 2 years for the car map to be released from project initiation, and in stark contrast, mobile phone navigation developed very quickly, and it was updated and iterated every three or five times.
The better Baidu's mobile phone map is, the worse the car map will be, and the loop will be.
And the V20 of Baidu Maps released this time officially opened this cycle.
The new generation of V20 version of Baidu Maps has four core capabilities: hand-car integration, true lane-level navigation, map agent, and hand-car interconnection.
Let's briefly explain these four competencies.
The integration of hand-car, that is, the full function synchronization of the mobile phone and the car machine, the four functions that users demand the strongest personalized voice package, real lane-level navigation, real-time traffic lights, and real-time maps will be fully on the car in the future.
Breaking through the barriers between mobile phones and vehicles means that the navigation engine and retrieval engine are fully upgraded to the lane-level navigation engine and map agent engine, the traditional road-level SD data is fully upgraded to POI data, and the POI data is fully connected to the content service ecosystem.
After the integration of hand-car is realized, Baidu Map will become the only mobile phone map and car machine map in the world that is permanently updated synchronously with the same version of mobile phone and car machine.
The lane-level navigation feature was first launched in Xpeng Motors' high-speed intelligent driving track-level pilot, and after two years of mobile phone research and development, Baidu will also push it to the car in the V20 version.
True lane-level navigation not only supports high-speed roads, but can be opened in cities across the country, with lane-level navigation accounting for 95%; at the same time, intelligent lane recommendation is realized, and lane-level route recommendations are carried out according to lane-level positioning, lane-level road conditions and traffic lights, saving 1 minute for each trip; safety reminders cover 320,000 accident ODDs, allowing users to drive more efficiently and safely.
"In the past, lane-level navigation was launched because of high-speed intelligent driving, and most car companies also opened intelligently in the state of intelligent driving, because intelligent driving was born, bound to intelligent driving and sold, and in the future, it is necessary to pay hundreds of dollars to buy intelligent driving to use 3D map navigation. We hope to break the restriction that only people can use smart driving, and everyone should be able to use it with zero threshold. ”
Map agent, that is, a large model that is more suitable for travel tools. Under the reconstruction of the large model, Baidu Map Intelligent Twin can realize free natural language Q&A, initiate navigation in one step, and wake up the content travel service of the whole network in one step to meet the needs of large model interaction.
Hand-car interconnection, this is an experience scene that often appears in Xiaomi or Huawei press conferences, that is, "one pull" or "one push" on the mobile phone, and the car machine will enter the corresponding page. However, the premise for this feature to be valid is that you must use the corresponding brand of mobile phone. Baidu Map's "handcar interconnection" breaks through the restrictions of mobile phone brands, and any mobile phone map associated with an account can achieve a better and more natural navigation handcar interconnection experience than pulling it.
In addition, the handcar interconnection will launch an AI voice remote control on the map, as long as the Baidu map V20 seconds become a smart car. It doesn't matter if there is no voice function on the mobile phone, all interactions and instructions can be synchronized in real time to get results in the car, synchronous display, and the mobile phone will become the new sound area of the car. If the performance of the car is not good, it doesn't matter, the mobile phone can become a new brain in the car, helping the car optimize positioning, it doesn't matter if the navigation ability is poor, the mobile phone can make up for the car's ability, so that the low-performance car has high-performance navigation capabilities and experience.
A more figurative understanding is:
"With Baidu Maps V20, Huawei mobile phones can also be interconnected with Xiaomi's cars, and Apple mobile phones can also be interconnected. ”
The above four functions will be arranged and combined in the four versions of Baidu Map V20 basic version, 3D leading version, 3D flagship version, and SR intelligent driving version. The upgraded Baidu Map V20 car machine provides a "mistake must be compensated" commitment: Baidu Maps will compensate for map problems that occur during user use, including lane-level navigation errors and inaccurate estimation of high-speed tolls.
In addition to the release of new products, Shang Guobin, vice president of Baidu, officially announced the cooperation with Tesla at the press conference, and Baidu Maps real lane-level navigation will soon be launched in Tesla's world.
At the same time, Baidu Maps announced that it has also launched cooperation with Huawei Intelligent Cockpit, and Baidu Maps V20 3D Leading Edition will soon launch smart cars, "HI mode" models and more component models in cooperation with Huawei Intelligent Cockpit.
In addition, Baidu Map V20 SR Intelligent Driving Edition is also about to be fully launched on Jiyue, helping Jiyue to achieve the same set of data in the national cockpit, as long as Baidu Map lane-level navigation can go to the place, Jiyue PPA can be opened.
04.
Talking about "Intelligent Partner of Car Companies"
At the beginning of the press conference, Wang Yunpeng opened the mode of refuting rumors in a righteous and solemn manner:
"Recently, there have been rumors that Baidu has given up on the intelligent driving L2 business, and today I want to officially clarify: the rumors are not credible, not only did we not give up, but also to do better. The strategy of insisting on being a 'technical partner' of intelligent car companies has never changed. ”
The radish ran too fast and left Apollo behind in terms of volume.
However, whether it is the "Chip X Plan" in the field of intelligent driving, the interconnection of handcars in the map, or the application model of cockpit AI, Baidu as an "intelligent partner of car companies" provides further applicability solutions for car companies to make technical explorations, relying on the above technologies, Baidu may have the ability to cover more than 100,000 new model markets and huge stock markets at the same time in the future.
Baidu in the smart travel market, not only has a good hand, but also a hand of nuclear bomb-level technology, but it is a little regrettable that its lack of skills in promotion has been stolen by many rising stars and more daring companies.
However, the world cannot be flooded by traffic forever, and the tide will eventually recede, and the swimmers will be ridiculed and the long-termists will be left at the table.