Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The car built by Baidu finally shows itself! It's not a concept car, it's not a meta-universe, it's a real production car.

This morning, some netizens photographed a test car in disguise on a street in Shunyi, Beijing. From the outline, headlights and other details, we can tell that this is the mass production version of ROBO-01, the first model of Jidu Motor.

▲ concentrated ROBO-01 mass production edition

Last year, Baidu and Geely set up a joint venture (Jidu Automobile) to build cars, which attracted close attention and discussion in the technology and automotive circles. This summer, Jidu released a concept version of its first model, the ROBO-01, which caught people's eyes with special designs such as open doors and lidar.

However, because it is a concept version, the product features on display at that time can not represent the real achievements of Baidu car-building, and even caused some complaints and controversy.

▲ ROBO-01 concept car

Today, the mass-produced version of ROBO-01 finally shows its true body. So, can the lidar for opening the door and lifting be preserved? Is it really a car robot that retains 90% of the design elements of production cars, as Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu Automobile, said?

Although the concept car is dressed in thick camouflage, through frame-by-frame analysis, we still find a lot of key information to reveal the ten key details of ROBO-01.

01. Before the return of the new B-pillar to the physical rearview mirror, Jidu officials said the ROBO-01 concept car was as much as 90% similar to its final production version. Now, the ROBO-01 mass production version basically achieved, but due to laws and regulations as well as cost process and other limitations, or abandoned some of the advanced design of the concept car.

As can be seen from the video, the biggest difference between the test car and the concept car is the return of the B-pillar.

▲ concentrated ROBO-01 mass production edition

ROBO-01 's concept version of the front door uses a butterfly wing door, the rear door uses a horse-drawn rear door, the opening and closing angle of the front and rear door is relatively large, and the vehicle uses a B-column-free design, so that the entire passenger cabin appears to be integrated, making it very convenient for front and back passengers to get on and off the vehicle.

At that time, car things speculated that such a door opening and non-B-pillar design was cool, but safety was a top priority for mass production, and the non-B-column design would reduce the overall strength of the side of the car body, making it difficult to pass the safety crash test. and whether there is a B-pillar may become part of the 10% gap between the concept car and the mass-produced car.

The opening process of ▲ ROBO-01 concept car

In the test car, the vehicle's B-pillar returned to the car, confirming previous speculation that the rear door was opened backwards, which could not be confirmed from the video.

But the car found that the lower edge of the back door of the test car is part of the wheel eyebrow, and the two are integrated, while the rear wheel eyebrow and the door of most open-door models are independent of each other (including the ROBO-01 concept version).

Rear door styling of ▲ ROBO-01 production car

Therefore, it is speculated that the future mass production version of ROBO-01 will not retain the opposite door design, but will use the conventional door opening method. And there is no obvious bulge on the side of the test car, so it may not use a mechanical door handle, but instead use the same electric door on the polar krypton 001.

▲ opposite the back door of the open-door model

In addition, because the test car has returned to the shape with a B-column, the side-assisted driving camera of the vehicle also adopts the same layout of Tesla-embedded in the B-column, which can better reduce the wind resistance coefficient and provide a better side view.

▲ side front assistant driving camera

In addition to the difference in the B-pillar, another big difference between the concept car and the test car photographed this time is that the latter is equipped with a physical rearview mirror. The reason for this change is simple-because current laws and regulations do not allow vehicles without physical rearview mirrors to hit the road (sales).

The rearview mirror of the ▲ test car

Interestingly, the rearview mirror shape of the test car is more "homely" and does not seem to have a special design for aerodynamics or overall appearance. The car speculates that the test car may be temporarily equipped with a rearview mirror for road testing, and the future mass production version of the rearview mirror may be quite different.

02. The lidar moved to the front bar interactive headlights can be retained. In addition to the return of the B-pillar, the lidar of the concept car has also disappeared.

Previously, in the ROBO-01 concept car, two lidars were located on both sides of the front cover and were designed to rise and fall. When the vehicle turns on autopilot, the lidar will rise, and when the function is not turned on or parked, the lidar will be lowered back under the front cover.

The rising process of ▲ lidar

Judging from the actual video taken by netizens, although the front cover of the test car is covered with black cloth, the surface as a whole is relatively flat without any protuberance.

Suspected lidar in ▲ red box

And, as can be seen from the video, there is a rectangular component with a black reflective surface on both sides of the front bar of the vehicle and under the headlights. In addition, some netizens also took a picture of polar krypton 001 with lidar from Jidu Shanghai R & D Center, and its layout is relatively close to the test car photographed this time.

The shape and position are almost exactly the same, considering that the two cars are already based on Geely SEA platform and belong to brother models, and the extreme krypton 001 test car appears in Jidu Shanghai R & D Center, it is very likely that the lidar of the first car of Jidu is also in this position, and does not adopt the lifting design of the concept car.

Polar Krypton 001 Test car in ▲ set Plant

In addition to the lidar installed on both sides of the bumper, it can be seen from the video that there is a black rectangular component under the front and middle network of the vehicle, but due to the limited angle, it is impossible to accurately judge whether it is a lidar or other sensors.

Suspected lidar in ▲ red box

And this location (below the front middle net) is indeed a more mainstream lidar layout scheme, which often appears on three lidar models, such as the extreme Fox Alpha S HI version and the Avita 11, which has a better perception of shorter objects.

However, in the conventional three lidar scheme, in addition to one lidar under the front and middle network, the other two are arranged on both sides of the fender to realize the blind perception of the front side and the back of the side. On the other hand, if the mass production version of Jidu ROBO-01 is equipped with three lidars in the forward direction, it may cause some waste and cause more pressure on the fusion algorithm.

Therefore, the black object in the red box may also be millimeter wave radar.

Comparison of perception range of different numbers of lidars in ▲

Compared with the single lidar top scheme adopted by Ulai, ideal and other vehicles, this layout scheme obviously covers a wider area and can capture more road information.

In terms of hardware, the ROBO-01 is equipped with a Hesai AT128 semi-solid lidar, which can reach a point frequency of 1.53 million points per second. The lidar has a detection distance of 200m under 10% reflectivity, and the farthest ground line can reach 70m.

Point cloud map generated by ▲ Hosai technology AT128

In addition to lidar, although Jidu Automobile has not yet disclosed the performance parameters and supplier information of other body sensors, it speculates that the ROBO-01, as a model mainly for the 2023 market, the 8-megapixel camera is also a certainty.

In terms of computing platform, ROBO-01 will use two Nvidia Orin-X autopilot chips, a single computing power up to 254TOPS, enough to meet the computing needs of a large number of high-performance sensors on the body.

▲ set degree SIMUCar

Set ROBO-01 inherits the full set of capabilities and safety system of Baidu Apollo high-level self-driving, and re-integrates and develops and verifies it for mass production and C-end users. When the vehicle is delivered, users can experience high-level auxiliary driving functions and achieve out-of-the-box use without futures.

In addition to the lidar, the shape of the headlight group is relatively close to the previously released concept car, showing a "triangle star" style, with interactive AI pixel headlights integrated inside, which can display lights such as give way, autopilot status, traffic signs and other lights according to their perception of the external environment, to help vehicles interact with other traffic participants.

▲ interactive headlights

In addition, for example, the self-driving indicator located above the wheel arch of the concept car is also retained in the test car, and the light group will show purple when the vehicle is on autopilot. It is used to inform pedestrians and vehicles outside the car whether the car is currently in a state of self-driving and to further improve driving safety.

▲ driving assist indicator

The line of sight from the front to the rear of the car, as a whole, the rear shape of the test car is not much different from that of the concept car, and the designs such as double spoiler, high and low pilot brake lights are all retained, which also make the whole car look sporty from behind.

Rear styling of ▲ test car

03. Interior decoration as if the spaceship will carry Qualcomm's strongest cabin core in addition to the appearance, the change of interior design can not be seen from the test car video captured by netizens.

However, after the mass production version cancels the B-pillar, lidar transposition, and adds a new physical rearview mirror, if Jidu Automobile wants to achieve a 10% difference between the mass production car and the concept car, the interior cannot be changed too much.

Previously, the car has been invited to shoot the interior design of the ROBO-01 concept car, and its biggest highlight is that the control screen uses an ultra-wide "fish screen" running from the main driving position to the secondary driving position, without any partition, showing vehicle appearance, navigation information and co-driver entertainment content from left to right.

▲ ROBO-01 concept car interior

The vehicle instrument display is very simple, the overall shape is a concentric ring, the middle shows the current speed of the vehicle, the gear position and other information, the ring shows the current power output. On the right side of the ring, the current electricity and mileage of the vehicle are displayed.

In the middle of this "fish screen" is a real-time rendered 3D map, not a traditional two-dimensional plane map, which can display lanes, vehicles, buildings, navigation and other information, the effect is very cool. The rightmost side is the passenger entertainment display screen, which can control the playback of music, movies and other entertainment content.

Display effect of ▲ car and machine

As a "car robot", the car-machine system of a vehicle is equivalent to the brain of a robot. If you want to really achieve the above cool skills, you must be smart enough.

In terms of cockpit chips, ROBO-01 will be launched with Qualcomm 8295 chips, using 5nm process to build, AI computing power can reach 30TOPS.

Previously, among Qualcomm's third-generation Snapdragon digital cockpit platform, the flagship chip SA8155P (8155 chip for short) was the most mass-produced vehicle model, while the 8295 chip increased the AI computing power by 7.5 times compared with the 8155 chip.

▲ Qualcomm 8295 chip

Thanks to the blessing of Qualcomm 8295 chip, ROBO-01 can meet users'in-car social entertainment, video games, online office and other scene needs, and really become a "car robot".

▲ liftable headrest

The ROBO-01 is designed for four seats with two separate seats in the back, which are very similar to the seats in the re-entry capsule, and the headrest on each seat can be raised and lowered with headrest stereo to ensure that passengers in each seat have the same travel experience.

Rear seat space of ▲ vehicle

In order to highlight the properties of its car robot, the front and rear rows of armboxes are designed with electric retractable design, which can be telescopic when they are not in use, and are also intimately equipped with lighting lights to further improve the practicability.

In terms of sound, two lifting speakers are integrated on both sides of the instrument console, which can provide film-grade surround sound in the cockpit.

▲ retractable armrest box

To sum up, in the future production version of the car, the interior is most likely to change is the retractable steering wheel, also because of current legal and regulatory restrictions.

04. The mass production price will be more than 200000 next summer according to previous public information, the mass production version of ROBO-01 will be SOP in July next year, and there is still a full year to go. But for Jidu Motors, it has actually entered the formal countdown to delivery.

At present, the global automobile supply chain is still in a state of shortage, and the domestic epidemic is also sporadic, which brings a great challenge to the mass production of the first car.

In this regard, Xia Yiping said in an interview with car East and West that although the first model has not yet been mass produced, Jidu has set up a guarantee team in advance in the process of testing samples, which is usually set up on the eve of mass production.

At the same time, in addition to the tight supply, cost control is also a big problem to be faced by the concentration.

"sometimes the cost of a sample is close to dozens of times the cost of mass production, and it is indeed an exaggeration to buy spot goods with cash all over the country or even around the world." Xia Yiping said, "but Jidu Motor will stick to the time point of the product SOP in July next year."

At present, the Jidu automotive engineering team has started the mass production mold casting work, and the first mass production car has officially moved from the model design to the mass production preparation stage.

In terms of the retail price of the whole car, Baidu CEO Robin Li also gave the answer in the Baidu Q1 earnings call-Jidu's target market is family cars, and the product is priced at about 200000 yuan.

If you look at the price range of 200,000 yuan, with Baidu's intelligent technology and Geely's vehicle manufacturing capacity, its products are bound to have a big impact on this price market.

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