The ongoing 18th Beijing Auto Show has attracted great popularity and has even become the focus of attention in the global automotive industry. The huge potential and rapid development of the Chinese market have made it a "gladiatorial arena" for the world's top automotive intelligent computing solution provider. A number of leading computing solution companies have set their sights on Chinese brands and actively promoted the mass production of their new products in the Chinese market. This trend not only highlights the strong attractiveness of China's automotive consumer market, but also reflects China's growing influence and competitiveness in the global automotive value chain. With the active participation of domestic and foreign enterprises, China's auto market is gradually becoming an important engine to promote the development of global automotive intelligent technology. In the continental automotive industry, Horizon is a special existence. Founded in 2015, Horizon is the first batch of start-up companies in China to invest in automotive intelligent chips, after more than 8 years of iteration and rapid development, Horizon's journey series of chips has become the mainstream choice of Chinese car companies for intelligent driving computing. A few days ago, Horizon officially launched Journey 6, realizing the key leap from single-point to serialization of product research and development, and opening a new chapter in the intergenerational upgrading of the Journey series.
Stronger performance, equipped with BPU Nash intelligent computing engine optimized for Transformer
IDC pointed out in the Intelligent Driving Capability Assessment, 2024 that the mature application and engineering practice of the Transformer architecture in the field of intelligent driving have greatly enhanced the perception ability of the algorithm. The decision-making and planning module is gradually changing from rule-oriented to model-oriented, which provides development space for improving the vehicle's ability to make independent decisions and cope with complex road conditions. At the same time, the concept of end-to-end algorithms is becoming more and more mature and gradually moving towards industrial application. The Journey 6 embodies this trend, and it is equipped with a new generation of BPU Nash architecture. As the fourth-generation BPU architecture of Horizon, the BPU Nash architecture uses deep learning to accelerate computing innovation, through the combination of algorithms, compilers, and architecture design, while combining software and hardware to achieve ultimate optimization, data-driven automatic verification, continuous optimization of computing density and energy efficiency, and the optimal solution of algorithm efficiency, flexibility, and hardware efficiency. The BPU Nash architecture is designed for large-parameter transformers and large-scale interactive games, which can significantly improve the processing power and efficiency of intelligent driving computing solutions. It is also with the support of the BPU Nash architecture that the Horizon Journey 6 in-vehicle intelligent computing solution has become a solution to meet the requirements of different price points, multiple scenarios, and multiple cost-effective and performance requirements. By breaking the inherent algorithm boundaries between perception, decision-making, and planning, Transformer enables each module to no longer pursue the optimization of a single link in isolation, but to work together around the final path planning accuracy and collision avoidance. As a new generation of products that conduct in-depth exploration and practical deployment of end-to-end algorithms, Journey 6 will lay the foundation for further efficient assisted driving and even autonomous driving.
Full-level expansion, a variety of computing solutions to meet the needs of mass production in all scenarios
From all-in-one machines to domain control, from active safety to full-scene intelligent driving, the Horizon Journey 6 series can cover all levels of intelligent driving applications. As a serialized in-vehicle intelligent computing solution, Journey 6 has a unified hardware architecture, a unified tool chain and a unified software stack, with the characteristics of same-generation, intergenerational compatibility and system optimization, and relies on a platform-based scalable computing architecture and a consistent, complete and mature intelligent driving mass production development platform to support the efficient development and flexible deployment of upper-layer applications, helping car companies achieve "one step faster" mass production efficiency. The Journey 6 series has launched a total of six versions, including Journey 6B, Journey 6L, Journey 6E, Journey 6M, Journey 6H, and Journey 6P, which can flexibly configure computing solutions for different intelligent driving scenarios, all of which can provide the optimal solution that takes into account both performance and cost.
Facing the low-end intelligent driving market, Journey 6B reshapes the new active safety experience with the ultimate cost performance, and is committed to creating the industry's most cost-effective active safety all-in-one solution. Based on the Journey 6B, Horizon and Sony jointly released the world's first 17 million high-performance forward-looking perception solution, making active safety farther, wider and clearer. At the press conference, Horizon announced that Journey 6B has received intent to cooperate with a number of international and domestic Tier1s such as Bosch, Denso, NavInfo, Fretek and Youjia Innovation. For the mid-end intelligent driving market, Horizon Robotics has launched the optimal solution for the cost-effective solution of inclusive urban areas - Journey 6M, and the optimal solution for high-speed NOA for the ultimate experience - Journey 6E, and provides AEC-Q104 automotive standard compliant SiP modules and Matrix 6 domain control reference designs to achieve lower power consumption and better system cost with ultra-high integration. At the press conference, Horizon officially announced that it had reached cooperation with a number of Tier1, software and hardware partners, and announced that by the second quarter of 2024, more than 50 ecological partners will launch quasi-production-grade products based on Journey 6E/M. Facing the high-end intelligent driving market, Horizon Robotics has launched the Journey 6P, which is designed for a new generation of full-scene intelligent driving, with six product commanding heights, including high integration, high computing power, high efficiency, high processing capacity, high access capacity and high security, and is the culmination of advanced processor technology. With the support of powerful computing performance, a single Journey 6 flagship can support full-stack computing tasks such as perception, planning and decision-making, and control, which will redefine the computing efficiency of NOA in all scenarios.
The combination of software and hardware creates more efficient and flexible products and ecosystems
From PC to mobile Internet, the combination of software and hardware plays a key role in every industrial transformation. In the era of intelligent driving, the combination of software and hardware is also the ultimate game and a necessary path to achieve universal value. Dr. Kai Yu, Founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, said: "The combination of software and hardware intelligent computing technology will enable every vehicle to have environmental awareness, human-computer interaction and decision-making control capabilities, making human life safer and better. Horizon starts with the end in mind, forward-looking layout of full-stack technology combining software and hardware, with software as the traction and hardware as the drive, to create a full-scene, full-ecology software-hardware combination intelligent driving system, and with the ultimate openness to create the ultimate efficiency, to achieve the end of intelligent driving. The newly released full-scene intelligent driving solution SuperDrive, with the Journey 6 flagship version, can create a high-end intelligent driving system that combines software and hardware, so that the easy-to-use urban NOA solution can accelerate the large-scale mass production. With the end-to-end perception architecture of dynamic, static, and OCC (Occupancy Network) in one, and the data-driven interactive game algorithm, SuperDrive can also take into account the scene pass rate, traffic efficiency, and behavior anthropomorphism in complex road environments, such as congestion confluence, intersection interaction-dynamic Driveline, courtesy to cyclists, congestion lane change, urban roundabout traffic and other scenarios, all of which can bring users an elegant and calm intelligent driving experience. At the press conference, Horizon officially announced the first batch of 10 mass-produced cooperative car companies and brands of the Journey 6 series, including SAIC Group, Volkswagen Group, BYD, Li Auto, GAC Group, Deep Blue Automobile, BAIC Group, Chery Automobile, Xingtu Automobile, VOYAH Automobile, etc., as well as a number of Tier1, software and hardware partners. It is understood that the Journey 6 series will start the delivery of the first front-installed mass production model in 2024, and is expected to achieve mass production delivery of more than 10 models in 2025. At the same time, SuperDrive will enter into partnerships with a number of top Tier1 and automotive brands in the second quarter of 2024, launch a standard version of the production plan in the fourth quarter, and deliver the first production partnership model in the third quarter of 2025. It is worth mentioning that Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, appeared at the horizon press conference and gave a speech, the picture shows Wang Chuanfu (left) and Yu Kai (right) on the stage, leaving a key moment of electrification + intelligence in China's automobile industry.
"The first half of the car is electrified, and the second half is intelligent, has become the consensus of the industry," said Wang Chuanfu. According to him, up to now, more than one million BYD cars have been equipped with Horizon's Journey 2, 3, and 5 series intelligent driving computing solutions, and BYD Group is already Horizon's largest mass production partner.
Write at the end
As the core driving force for the upgrading of the automotive industry, the rapid iteration of intelligent driving will significantly improve the level of industrial development and promote the rapid penetration of intelligent functions. Horizon is based on promoting the implementation of intelligent driving full-scenario solutions, and its latest breakthroughs and progress have also allowed the industry to see its huge potential in the field of intelligent driving. In the future, with the accumulation of intelligent driving data and the improvement of the technical framework and effect of visual large models and multi-modal large models, the ability of intelligent driving is expected to reach new heights. The accumulation of Horizon in full-stack development and the influence of the industrial chain will help it embrace the rapid development of the industry in the future.