Tesla FSD is about to enter China？ BYD withdrew from the autopilot cooperation with Baidu.
The latest development of Tesla FSD entering China
On August 10th, a blogger broke the news on the social platform that the test version of Tesla’s fully automatic driving function FSD has been pushed to the China market, and data will be collected in the "shadow mode" at the initial stage. After the relevant feasibility verification is completed, it will be gradually activated for a small-scale trial.
Although there is no official response to this, there have been new developments in the past two days in response to the FSD’s entry into China. Some media reported that Tesla plans to set up a team of about 20 people in China to promote the landing of FSD in China. At the same time, Tesla will set up a data marking team of about 100 people in China to prepare for FSD algorithm training.
AI perspective
If these revelations are true, it means that Tesla FSD Beta will come to China soon, which is expected to accelerate the intelligent process of China Automobile Company as a whole. However, industry analysts said that Tesla FSD faced two thresholds of qualification and data when it entered China.
In terms of qualification threshold, because Tesla needs to achieve automatic driving through "shadow mode", when the vehicle is driving, the system will automatically detect the surrounding environment and learn the driver’s driving style in relevant sections. This practice may be judged as a map mapping behavior, and it needs to obtain relevant qualifications before it can be carried out.
As for the data threshold, in order to ensure information security, Tesla also needs to set up a data center in China to store and process the China road data collected by the autopilot system locally, and cannot send it back to the United States. However, on August 14th, Tesla officially announced that it had established a data center in China, and the data collected by all Tesla models sold in China would be stored in China.
It is worth noting that many brands in China are developing their own assisted driving systems, including Tucki, Weilai, Zhiji, Ideality, Huawei, Great Wall, etc., which plan to launch products equipped with urban NOA, that is, pilot assisted driving functions.
In the second half of this year, it will be the peak moment for intelligent driving to fight the urban scene.
BYD withdrew from the autopilot cooperation with Baidu.
According to two people familiar with the matter, BYD has withdrawn from the agreement to equip its electric vehicles with Baidu autonomous driving technology and chose to develop its own smart car software. According to people familiar with the matter, BYD decided to suspend cooperation with Baidu because it believes that autonomous driving technology has no prospect in the mass market in the near future.
AI perspective
BYD initially agreed to use Baidu’s technology in its electric vehicles in March 2022, including navigation and automatic parking service function. This cooperation is regarded as one of the major changes of Apollo, Baidu’s autonomous driving department. Subsequently, Baidu said at the third quarter performance meeting held in November 2022 that the cooperation with BYD was a sign of "the growing interest of automakers in their autonomous driving solutions". Obviously, the cancellation of this agreement will be a huge blow to Baidu’s autonomous driving business.
Although the development of autonomous driving business is quite bumpy, the latest progress has been made by Baidu’s Jidu Automobile. Insiders said that they are no longer called Jidu, but extremely yue. The first model of the original Jidu automobile "Jidu ROBO-01" was renamed as "Extreme Yue 01" and entered the latest batch of new automobile products public announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It can be understood that Extreme Yue 01 has obtained the qualification for marketing.
It is reported that Jiyue is a newly established automobile sub-brand under Geely Holding, and the main body of the company is Hangzhou Jiyue Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., which was newly established on August 9 this year. It is worth noting that the shareholding ratio of Baidu and Geely has changed: Baidu holds 55% of the shares, Geely holds 45%, and Baidu dominates; Now, from the perspective of the new company "Extreme and Yue", Geely holds 65% of the shares, Baidu holds 35%, and Geely dominates.
Baidu’s change from a major shareholder who took the lead in building a car to a technology provider who participated in building a car means that Baidu founder Li Yanhong has given up building a car and returned to his original heart in 2018: "Baidu will not build its own car, will not open its own production line and design its own engine, and only do research and development of autonomous driving technology that it is good at."
Vice President of Weilai Hardware: In the next 1-2 years, some key self-developed chips of Weilai will be mass-produced.
Recently, Bai Jian, vice president of Weilai Automotive Hardware, said that in the field of intelligent hardware, starting from NT1, Weilai’s domain controller circuit and structure will be designed by itself and entrusted to the foundry for production. Even in OEM production, the test fixture and test software development of the production line are self-developed and transferred to the foundry for use. In the next 1-2 years, some key self-developed chips of Weilai will be mass-produced.
Feifan Automobile Releases "Three Electricity" Technical System
On August 14th, Feifan Automobile held the theme communication meeting of "Feifan Energy Day" in Beijing. At the meeting, Feifan Automobile released its "Three Electricity" technology system. At the same time, Feifan Automobile’s first power station in Beijing was launched. In terms of battery, Feifan CTP battery structure adopts "double-layer lying" battery layout. With this layout, the batteries are distributed in the cells in pairs, and the contact area between batteries is reduced by 70%, thus avoiding the chain reaction of battery thermal runaway.
In terms of power exchange, during the power exchange process of Feifan Automobile, the vehicle is constantly powered on, and the power exchange time is only 2.5 minutes. In terms of power exchange layout, SAIC and China Petrochemical, China Petroleum, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and Shanghai International Automobile City Group jointly invested to establish Jieneng Zhidian, and completed the layout of more than 10 cities and more than 50 power exchange stations by the end of 2023.
Huawei’s patent for integrated structure of battery and car body was announced, which can integrate battery into car body.
Tianyancha App shows that on August 15th, the patent of "Integrated Structure of Battery and Body and Electric Vehicle" applied by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. was announced. It is shown that the patent is an integrated structure of battery and car body, including car body frame and battery pack, the car body frame has two threshold beams arranged in parallel and an accommodation space between the two threshold beams, and the battery pack includes a shell, as well as battery cell components and beams arranged in the shell, and the beams are connected with the shell.
Beiqi New Energy Huawei Zhixuan new car positioning C-class pure electric smart car, unveiled next year.
On August 15th, some media learned from insiders of Beiqi Blue Valley that the first new car after the cooperation between Beiqi New Energy and Huawei was positioned as a C-class pure electric smart car, which will be officially unveiled next year. According to this source, the new product is defined by Huawei, and BAIC New Energy is responsible for providing chassis architecture and vehicle production. The new car will enter Huawei’s sales channel, and the brand name has not yet been determined.
With an investment of 50 billion yuan in the next three years, Dongfeng Group expects its net profit to drop by 75% in the first half of the year.
On August 14th, Dongfeng Group announced its share disclosure, and it is estimated that the net profit returned to the mother in the first half of 2023 will decrease by about 75% year-on-year. According to the plan, in the next three years, Dongfeng Motor will invest 50 billion yuan to vigorously develop new energy vehicles, high-computing digital bases and materials technology.