The Xiangjie S9 luxury executive sedan, which will be officially launched in August, has begun to be booked and toured nationwide. Recently, a friend who has been in contact with and tried to sit in the car confided that the Xiangjie S9 model continues the tonality of the M9 and upgrades again in terms of luxury. In particular, the application of "enjoyment and intelligence" technologies such as in-vehicle projection has reached a higher level.
After a year, the on-board projection is iterated again
It is reported that Xiangjie S9 inherits the M9 projection application system. Including AR-HUD, digital headlights and in-car projection screen, it constitutes the standard three-piece set of "projection on the car", involving DLP projection technology, LCOS projection technology, laser display technology and other advanced technologies.
Among them, the large screen of car projection entertainment in the rear seat of the car is another "large-screen entertainment" in-car audio-visual product in the world after the M9, which will greatly enhance the multi-functional audio-visual experience value as the "boss" of the luxury car. And compared with the M9, the new generation of vehicle large-screen projection experience continues to upgrade.
On the one hand, the design of the Xiangjie S9 focuses on ride comfort. Xiangjie S9 has the industry's first sedan rear zero-gravity seats, supporting 12-way electric adjustment design including 2-way electric headrest adjustment and 4-way electric leg rest adjustment, the maximum waist angle can reach 108°, the knee angle can reach 128°, with the 429mm ultra-wide leg rest design, the boss seat can be described as "Ge You Lie" more comfortable! Such a good posture simulates the feeling of watching TV on the sofa at home! Therefore, large-screen audio-visual must be arranged.
Therefore, on the other hand, the Xiangjie S9 automotive-grade projection system is equipped with an industry-leading brightness, color gamut, automotive-grade projector and a 32-inch lifting projection screen. The new generation of automotive-grade projection continues to improve in brightness, performance, volume, and noise control. With the breakthrough integration of one-key cinema mode and one-key super privacy mode on the rear armrest screen, it can create an "audio-visual super space" in the rear, which can not only entertain but also socialize and work on the large screen.
Optimistic about the development of the vehicle market and compete for 100 million market opportunities
"Compared with the current market size of 20 million projectors in the world, the vehicle market has huge potential!" Industry insiders point out that 90 million cars are consumed globally every year, and the number is growing. Among them, even if only one-third of the future will achieve a high degree of digitalization and audio-visualization, combined with the characteristics of projection in multiple directions such as car lights, HUD and entertainment, the demand for hosts in the vehicle projection market will exceed "100 million units".
For the development of the vehicle projection market, the huge potential of the number is only one aspect, and on the other hand, "higher requirements for vehicle regulations". On-board projection should adapt to the special environmental needs of the vehicle. For example, the operating temperature range of consumer components at home is 0°C~70°C, and the working temperature of automotive-grade passenger compartment components is -40°C~85°C. Another example is the high vibration of the vehicle environment, which requires higher vibration stability and life of the equipment.
On the M9, the large on-board projection screen provided by Guangfeng must at least pass the impact test of -40°C and 85°C cold and hot 488 cycles; 96 hours of salt spray environmental test; 1m height bare metal drop test; Shock test to meet 50G peak acceleration; 1000 hours of working at 85°C for the life test of the whole machine; Meet the 25-day gas lamp test, simulating the solar radiation test in the full solar band; Equivalent to 4850m altitude environment, 16 hours of operation of low pressure test...... and so on for demanding tests. These are things that traditional consumer-grade projection and commercial projection do not have.
In addition to meeting the quality requirements of automotive applications, in-vehicle projection also has special functional requirements. For example, far-field display capabilities. The M9 is equipped with the industry's first 2K automotive-grade LCoS AR HUD, which can display a 70-inch screen at 7.5 meters and a 96-inch screen at 10 meters. This special effect necessarily requires a special optical design to achieve.
"In-vehicle and digital cinema projection are two technological peaks in the projection display industry." Industry experts said that as a leading enterprise in mainland laser display, Guangfeng Technology has made huge breakthroughs in these two fields. However, compared with the global demand for digital cinema projection is only more than 20,000 units per year, the future market potential of the vehicle is much greater.
According to reports, at present, the domestic vehicle projection industry has absorbed a large number of enterprises to participate. Among them, including the global leader in laser display, Guangfeng Technology and Hisense Video, also include XGIMI, one of the pioneers of the global intelligent projection category. In addition, HiSilicon's 3LCOS solution, Yishu Technology's LCoS laser display, and SiTek's LCoS automotive display technology ...... and so on are also powerful players in car projection. It can be said that the domestic vehicle projection industry has realized: a comprehensive rise, the rise of the whole chain, and a good situation of enthusiasm for the car.
Make efforts to develop independent core technologies and core "core" industrial chains
In terms of vehicle projection technology and products, the layout of mainland enterprises is very different from traditional consumer projection and intelligent projection.
In the consumer projection market, mainland enterprises mainly rely on the DLP core light valve system provided by United States TI in the mid-to-high-end, and independently develop laser light sources and LED light source components - in essence, they are in a state of "being stuck". On low-end products, 1LCD light valve technology prevails, occupying 6-7% of the domestic and global market, and is the main consumer of traditional projectors. However, the upper limit of the performance of the 1LCD light valve is limited, which greatly limits the upgrade space of local enterprises and the value experience of consumers. From the perspective of sales, the sales of 1,000 units of low-end 1LCD heads can be comparable to the sales of 1 digital projector projection.
In terms of on-board projection, mainland companies are making every effort to develop their own core technologies, including Micro LED pixelated lighting products and LCOS light valve technology projection products.
In terms of Micro LED pixelated lighting, including Guoxing Optoelectronics, Anrui Optoelectronics, a subsidiary of San'an Optoelectronics, Crystal Optoelectronics, Digital Light Core, Xinyuanji, BOE, ...... and more than 10 companies have product layout. Currently, the highest pixel integration has reached 52,800. Micro LED pixel lighting can be popularized to replace DLP pixel headlights in the future, with the characteristics of simpler structure, higher reliability, and thinner.
In addition to replacing digital headlights in cars, Micro LED pixelated lighting products are also developing high-pixel versions. That is, by reducing the brightness and increasing the pixel density, it can achieve compatibility and support for AR HUD applications; Even through the combination of high brightness and high pixel density, it can meet the needs of the large rear projection screen of the vehicle; In the future, its brightness will be further amplified, and it can even meet the needs of consumer projection applications, and in the long run, it has the possibility of replacing 1LCD or DLP light valve in the fields of intelligent projection and laser TV.
In addition to Micro LED pixelated lighting, 3LCOS is also the key core technology direction of local projection on the car. For example, during the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Huawei unveiled the Qiankun XHUD 2.0 augmented reality head-up display system, which uses a self-developed automotive-grade LCoS chip and optical engine system, with the industry's highest brightness of 15,000 nits and the industry's highest contrast ratio of 2,500:1. Crystal Optoelectronics exhibited the LCOS dual-optical path AR-HUD system at the Beijing Auto Show, and said that the main task in 2024 is to "speed up the car"! The LCOS solution of SiTing Micro adopts the original Q-View technology to achieve the characteristics of high-resolution display, low bandwidth demand and low power consumption, and it is said to be the only all-digital LCOS technology in the world, and the only solution in the world that can realize the field color sequence 4K LCOS technology......
Compared with Micro LED pixelated lighting, which currently focuses on the application of headlights, LCOS technology is more applied to HUD and expands the application of large-screen entertainment in the car. Even, HiSilicon Honghu 3LCOS solution has been used in the home projection market. It is reported that XGIMI will launch a high-end intelligent projection product using this core light valve technology in the fourth quarter of this year, and it may also be XGIMI's first three-light valve projection product.
Judging from the above analysis, mainland enterprises in the vehicle projection market are more "forward-looking and sound" than traditional consumer projection and intelligent projection markets in terms of innovative technology paths and core industrial chain layouts, and there is almost no link that is stuck in the neck of simple overseas technologies and products. Even, the development of vehicle projection technology, especially the core optical valve chip, has begun to feed back to supplement the "industrial chain gap" of the consumer projection market, forming a technical interaction and resource sharing between the two major application markets of vehicle and consumption.
The development of the industry has entered the fast lane, and it is imperative to project on the car
According to the monitoring data of the Gaogong Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, in the first quarter of 2024, 599,600 domestic passenger cars in mainland China were delivered with W/AR HUD as standard, a year-on-year increase of 51.91% - this data will be 2.2543 million in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 42.59%. Among them, in the first quarter of 2024, 122,700 AR HUDs will be delivered as standard equipment, accounting for more than 20% for the first time, and will continue to maintain a rapid growth rate of doubling on the basis of doubling in 2023.
In terms of vehicle headlights, in 2023, the market size of mainland car lights will be about 68.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.94%. Among them, the main growth driver comes from the rise of the degree of intelligence of car lights, and it is estimated that intelligence will promote the value of bicycle lights to rise to 4,000 yuan. Matrix LEDs and pixelated headlights are all important evolutionary directions. In the global market, digitalization is predicted to drive the automotive lighting market from $400-50 billion per year today to $70-80 billion in 3-5 years.
From the above data, it can be seen that under the background of digital intelligence empowerment, the application of vehicle projection is on the road of rapid growth. HUD, digital headlights, and in-car entertainment screens will constitute a market for hundreds of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars in vehicle projection demand in the future. Pioneer models such as the M9 and S9 are also bringing more opportunities for high-end luxury car users to "enjoy future technology in advance".