China-based Huawei Technologies and carmaker Arcfox have launched their first electric car with a full suite of autonomous driving features. This development comes as Huawei is facing a slew of issues because of the sanctions by the United States.

The car, named Arcfox aS HBT is the first to come with Huawei HI which is a complete intelligent automotive solution that is powered by HarmonyOS. It also comes with a lidar chip and 5G connectivity support.

This is different from the HiCar Smart Screen that is already being used in vehicles from China-based carmaker BYD. Comming on the launch of this new car, the company’s spokesperson said that “it is a next-generation, intelligent and purely electric luxury sedan jointly built by Arcfox and Huawei.”

It has also been revealed that the car will be available for purchase from 17th April. The car is capable of level-3 autonomous driving, which allows drivers to safely take their attention off the road under certain conditions.

The Lidar sensor, which is short for light detection and ranging, is supposed to help in this area. It is similar to radar but uses light instead of radio waves, and thus offers higher precision in certain environments owing to the shorter waves.

Do note that Huawei has no plans of making its own car and is only interested in supplying its technology to existing carmakers. On the other hand, its competitor Xiaomi is working on making its own electric car.

After the imposition of restrictions by the United States for the smartphone and telecom business, Huawei started building its alliance in the auto industry last year. So far, the company has signed up with 18 carmakers for a “5G automotive ecosystem”, utilizing Huawei’s HiCar system.

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After the impacts of the US sanctions, Huawei faced a sharp decline in its smartphone business. However, that has yet to stop the company from expanding its horizons. Despite facing impacts of reinforced restrictions the company aimed at diversifying into the automobile industry, and now a report suggests that the company is collaborating with another brand to launch a new smart car.

According to a ChinaStarMarket report, the Chinese tech giant’s HiCar is partnering up with BAIC Blue Valley to launch a new smart car. The announcement was made earlier today (7th January 2021), during a conference. This collaboration had apparently begun early last year, on January 28, and will have both companies jointly launch a new smart car by the first half of this year.

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At the moment, not a lot of finer details regarding this partnership or the smart car is known. But the report also stated that Huawei will be undertaking the research and development behind the upcoming smart car’s software systems and more. Furthermore, the company will also be responsible for the ICT technology and cloud computing systems behind the new smart car.

Previously, the company had similarly partnered with Chinese automobile maker BYD, to launch the world’s first car that features HarmonyOS, under its HiCar initiative, and had even reportedly planned to begin making parts and systems of automobiles as well. For those unaware, BAIC Blue Valley is a Beijing based electric vehicle manufacturer, which has collaborated with other major automobiles brand from across the globe. So, its partnership with a local company, which has experience in networking and software systems, would only help to boost its strength in the EV market.

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At Huawei‘s new product launch conference where the Smart Screen S and Smart Screen S Pro were unveiled, Huawei also announced the Huawei Smart Selection Car Smart Screen. The smart screen carries a price tag of 1699 yuan (~$259).

Huawei Smart Selection Car Smart Screen adopts an 8.9-inch ultra-clear touchscreen with a brightness of up to 700nit and a resolution of 1920×720 pixels. There is no fear of reflections, and it supports the cross-screen transfer of mobile applications. The device is pre-installed with over 30 supported apps including Baidu maps, Gaode maps, and other mainstream navigation apps as well as NetEase Cloud, Kugou, Himalaya, and other music applications.

Huawei’s smart car smart screen is equipped with interactive front and rear pop-up cameras., The rear camera is a wide-angle camera for driving records. It also has a 360-degree adjustable base and supports full-interface voice control and air gesture control. It can be connected to the original car audio system. To realize cross-screen mobile phone applications, it can be paired with a smartphone via WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. It also supports smart home linkage, cockpit games, etc.

During the launch, Huawei’s Consumer Business head Yu Chengdong introduced that Huawei’s HiCar solution has currently cooperated with over 20 car manufacturers, and is compatible with over 150 models, as well as supports over 30 mainstream applications. The company plans to have the solution pre-installed in over 5 million cars by 2021. He also claims that the HiCar solution surpasses the in-vehicle systems of Apple and Android in application richness and experience.

The Huawei Smart Car Smart Screen is priced at 1,699 yuan (~$259) and will be officially launched for sale on January 8, 2021. The product will be open for pre-orders on December 30.

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