smart car Archives - Gizmochina

Huawei insists on not making cars but offering smart car technologies to carmakers

Debasish — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 17:00:15 +0000

SERES, a user-centralized E-Powertrain technology development & Manufacturing company, has announced that it will spend 2.5 billion yuan to acquire the “Wenjie” series of trademarks and related assets from Huawei and its affiliates. According to a report, Huawei has responded that it will transfer the “Wenjie” series of trademarks to SERES and will continue supporting SERES in using its technologies under this trademark.

Huawei’s smart car technologies to enrich the market through its partners

The smartphone maker has always insisted on not making cars, but developing technologies to continue to help car companies to offer good cars to people. Back in 2020, Ren Zhengfei, the CEO of Huawei, stated the company does not plan on making its own cars.

However, rumors were looming regarding Huawei possibly working on a smart car of its own. Since then, the brand has launched various systems that were featured on smart cars from other firms. The company will continue to work with car companies to create and implement excellent smart car technologies and uplift the user experience.

The company reportedly already has transferred some trademarks related to its smart car technologies to companies such as Chery and BAIC. Transferring the trademarks to car manufacturers reflects Huawei’s strategy of gradually offering its smart car technologies to a large number of users. it will not only increase Huawei’s contribution in the field but also improve the connected vehicle technology.

With the transfer of trademarks such as “Intelligent World”, “Enjoy World” and “Wenjie” (translated from Chinese) Huawei’s contribution to smart car technologies is becoming increasingly clear.

SERES said with the acquisition of the “Wenjie” trademark, they will further deepen their partnership with Huawei. The company also noted that it will also use the new technologies outside of China.

The post Huawei insists on not making cars but offering smart car technologies to carmakers appeared first on Gizmochina.

Huawei, BAIC to launch smart cars and sell it in former Huawei stores

Sean — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 09:29:37 +0000

A new report has revealed that BAIC is working on a smart car that is being co-developed with Huawei. Two companies have partnered up for sometime now and it appears that the collaboration will bring another new smart car in the automobile market.

For those unaware, the two companies had jointly developed cars in the past, with the car maker building the actual car while the Chinese tech giant developed the supporting technology and networking infrastructure. Now, a new report has revealed that the upcoming smart car model from this joint venture will be launching sometime in the year of 2024 and will be sold in select former Huawei stores.

The news arrives from sources close to the matter (Via ITHome) that claimed that the car is based on BAIC’s existing platform but with a different brand name. Similar to last time, the smartphone maker will provide technical solutions such as smart driving thanks to the HarmonyOS for the vehicles cockpit. This will likely also include smart car control for the upcoming car.

For those unaware, Huawei had launched the BAIC Group’s Arcfox Alpha S EV that had also featured the HarmonyOS platform. The Arcfox Alpha S was announced back in 2021 and featured autonomous driving as well. So, we can also expect the upcoming smart car model to also feature self driving technology too.

Sony Honda Mobility could integrate PlayStation 5 in its electric vehicles

Jeet — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 04:13:26 +0000

It’s been quite some time since Sony launched its latest generation of PlayStation gaming console — Sony PS5. In fact, the company is gearing up to launch a new slimmer version next year.

Amid rumors of a new version of PS5 getting launched, it is being said that Sony, in partnership with Honda, could end up using the PlayStation 5 in the upcoming smart cars for the entertainment console.

Izumi Kawanishi, President of Sony Honda Mobility, which was established in September, has said that it is technically possible to integrate PlayStation 5 platform in their cars. However, he has not provided more information about this integration or if they have actually tried doing it.

He says that the companies plan to use music, movies, and gaming to build electric cars built around a premium entertainment experience. He further added that “Sony has content, services, and entertainment technologies that move people. We are adapting these assets to mobility, and this is our strength against Tesla.”

Kawanishi says that Tesla isn’t providing any content services, which could mean that the company is planning to focus more on the entertainment part for the upcoming cars.

For those who are unaware, Sony Honda Mobility is planning to launch its first electric vehicle model in the North American market by the year 2025. The ultimate aim of this joint venture is to launch fully self-driving vehicles in the market.

XPeng debuts City Navigation Guided Pilot as an Advanced Driver Assistance System

Jeet — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 01:05:09 +0000

XPeng, one of the leading smart electric vehicles maker in China, has announced that the company has launched the pilot program City Navigation Guided Pilot (City NGP), making it the first Chinese auto company to launch such a high-level Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) functions for complex urban driving scenarios.

The system is now available in the area of Guangzhou, China. The ADAS platform is made possible by XPeng’s combination of sensors to deliver a 360-degree fusion perception through cameras, LiDAR, millimeter-wave radars, and high-precision positioning units.

A cohort of Guangzhou-based XPeng P5 customers can now access City NGP through over-the-air updates before launching to other cities. To ensure sufficient knowledge of safety procedures, City NGP requires a seven-day familiarization period, and 100 km of driving before its functions can be used on all available roads.

When City NGP is activated with a set destination, the vehicle itself can perform the full range of driving tasks. The driving tasks include cruising at a safe distance from leading vehicles, changing lanes due to navigation or vehicle overtaking decisions, handling merging/splitting roads, getting around stationary vehicles or obstacles, and maintaining an appropriate speed.

It can also automatically detect and react to traffic lights, make lane change decisions and inform drivers, take a left or right turns, navigate through intersections, roundabouts, viaducts, and tunnels, as well as avoid obstructions.

The approach of XPeng is contrary to Tesla, which has abandoned LiDAR in favor of one single vision perception. Tesla FSD continues to expand and improve through the beta phase, but the company has been deferring the wide release, keeping the customers waiting for it to make good on its promise of fully-autonomous driving.

XPENG Motors becomes the first Chinese EV company to enter Sweden

Jeet — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 08:10:06 +0000

XPENG Motors, the China-based electric vehicles manufacturers, has become the first Chinese EV company to enter Sweden. This marks the second European market for the company after entering Norway.

The smart car-making company is currently setting up its first store in Sweden and images of the store have leaked on Reddit. As for the location, the experience center is located in Westfield Mall of Scandinavia.

The development is in line with the company’s plan for overseas operations. A few weeks ago, XPENG Motors had revealed that it was planning to enter more European markets in the year 2022 to boost its exports.

The company had previously announced that Xpeng Experience Center will open in Sweden in the first quarter of 2022, i.e. somewhere between January to March. Based on that timeline, we expect the store to open doors in the coming weeks.

Elvis Cheng, Nordic Region Manager for the company claimed that Westfield Mall of Scandinavia is the best place to reach many people in the country. The company will be providing test drives of its models at the location.

He Xiaopeng, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of the company has said that apart from Sweden, the company also has plans to enter two more European markets this year — Denmark and the Netherlands. It will also put in efforts to expand its presence in Norway.

XPENG Motors is currently building its EVs in Zhaoqing, China and is in the process of setting up new factories in Guangzhou and Wuhan. Once these new units as up and running, the company will have a production capacity of more than 400,000 units. With double-shift, it has the potential to roll out up to 600,000 electric cars annually.

Apple Car to reportedly launch as a fully autonomous electric vehicle by 2025

Jeet — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 02:20:57 +0000

Apple’s most-awaited self-driving electric car was in the news a few months ago and now once again, the upcoming vehicle from the technology giant, which has not yet been officially announced, is in the news, hinting at the Apple Car roadmap.

A new report coming from Bloomberg, citing sources aware of the development, claims that the upcoming Apple Car — an electric vehicle with support for a fully autonomous self-driving feature — will debut by 2025.

It is being reported that this Apple Car project from the Cupertino-based tech giant, which is called Project Titan, being headed by Kevin Lynch, will be a fully automated self-driving offering without any pedals or steering.

Earlier, it was claimed that the company was stuck between two different developments paths — a traditional EV with some enhanced driver-assist features, or a more sophisticated EV capable of truly autonomous driving with no input from its passengers. It now seems that the technology giant has chosen the latter option.

However, there’s a possibility of Apple adding some kind of an emergency takeover mode for the car, which is still being discussed internally. It is said to have open-concept seating and a larger iPad-like infotainment system.

The company has still not locked in the business model for this project. The Bloomberg report hints about Apple considering to have its own fleet of self-driving cars operating like Uber or Lyft instead of selling the cars to individuals. However, it is more likely that Apple will sell its car to individuals.

Apple is reportedly not looking to develop a proprietary charging system for the car as the company could make it compatible with the “combined charging system” or CCS standard so that it is possible to charge the vehicle at most public fast-charging stations.

Huawei’s Smart Car joint venture to launch its first car AVATR E11 on Nov 15

Sean — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 10:18:42 +0000

Earlier this year, Huawei, CATL, and Changan Automobile had announced their new smart car joint venture. Now, the jointly created high end smart car brand is gearing up to launch its first car model, the AVATR E11 later this month.

The official Weibo (a Chinese microblogging website) account of AVATR was officially created earlier today (8th November 2021). On the social media platform, the company announced that it will be launching the new smart car on November 15. For those unaware, the AVATR brand is a joint venture between three leading brands that bring together their different expertise. Huawei will offer smart connectivity through its Huawei Inside in-vehicle smart car solutions while CATL is a global leader for lithium ion battery development and manufacturing.

Lastly, Changan Automobile is a major carmaker in China, and the three brands together plan to release high end smart cars that are electric. Notably, the joint venture is also expected to further boost China’s electric vehicle market. Looking at the Weibo post, the newly established brand has announced the online launch event for November 15, with the AVATR E11 being the first car model from the company.

The E11 is a new medium sized SUV smart car, as per official notes. It boasts CATL’s battery technology along with HI support from the Chinese smartphone giant. Reportedly, this vehicle has an overall length of 4.8 meters and is full electric vehicle. Unfortunately, finer details regarding this car is currently unknown, so stay tuned for more updates as we will be covering its launch.

Oppo announces Carlink smart car solution, aims to ship in 15 million cars by 2022

Sean — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 09:55:09 +0000

Following Huawei, Oppo has now also announced its own official smart car solution. The new in vehicle system is dubbed Carlink and the company aims on shipping the technology in about 15 million cars by next year.

The Chinese tech giant made the announcement during its OPPO Developer Conference 2021 event. Wu Henggang, the President of the brand’s software engineering division stated that the company has built the Carlink smart car solutions for smart travel. The new technology seeks to bring a new travel service experience that will be seamless while being interconnected across multiple terminals with hardware and software level optimizations.

The senior official also added that the company is targeting to ship the new system in 15 million cars by the year 2022. Notably, the Oppo Carlink is an all scenario mobility solution that will be available for not just four wheel cars but even two wheeled vehicles like scooters. It will offer functions like digital car keys, vehicle management tools through a smartwatch, and even an in car smart screen solution as well. The brand added that it has already started working with more than 70 partners that include automobile makers, two wheeler manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, and other automobile based service providers as well.

The President further added that Carlink is a part of the brand’s efforts in the smart car segment, in which it aims on developing and even accelerating the arrival of automotive solutions. Henggang also said that the smartphone and car systems are two independent systems that usually have no means of interaction. But now, Oppo seeks to change this by partnering up with various brands in the automobile industry and have launched the Open Alliance for Intelligent Connected Vehicles to establish a unified industry standard. Other members include major names like Vivo, Xiaomi, SAIC, Changan Automobile, and Geely.

Foxconn acquires Lordstown Motors’ Ohio EV factory in a deal worth $230 million

Jeet — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 17:23:50 +0000

Foxconn, the company known for manufacturing Apple iPhones, is buying an automotive factory from EV maker Lordstown Motors for around $230 million.

As per the deal, Foxconn will be building Lordstown Motors’ electric pickup truck at the plant. Further, the EV maker will remain a tenant there and has also agreed to “provide Foxconn with certain rights with respect to future vehicle programs.”

Additionally, Foxconn is also buying $50 million worth of Lordstown Motors shares. The startup has been struggling and had talked about the need to raise money quickly in order to survive, despite going public last year.

With this deal, Foxconn has now entered the automotive factory space and now has a significant presence in the United States. It seems that the Taiwan-based company will now try to establish itself as a global electric vehicle manufacturer.

The companies hope to complete a purchase agreement by 31st October and complete the deal by April 30. Foxconn has said that as part of the deal, Fisker Inc. will be allowed to make vehicles with the Taiwanese conglomerate in the Ohio factory.

Lordstown Motors had purchased a 6.2-million-square-foot facility from General Motors in 2019. Recently, it was planning to rent out space at the factory in an effort to make money amid a serious cash crunch.

The EV maker is facing lots of trouble. Its CEO was forced out after he was caught exaggerating pre-orders for its electric truck. The company has now lowered its initial production goals. The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched probes into Lordstown Motors, and the company is going through financial crises, with only have enough money to survive through mid-2022.

Samsung in talks with Tesla for manufacturing next-generation self-driving chips

Jeet — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 03:08:18 +0000

Samsung Electronics is reportedly in talks with electric carmaker Tesla for the next-generation self-driving chips based on the South Korean giant’s 7-nanometer (7nm) chip production process, as per the new reports.

The report, coming from Korean Economic Daily, claims that both the companies — Tesla and Samsung, have discussed chip design multiple times and have also exchanged chip prototypes for the upcoming Hardware 4 self-driving system from Tesla.

If Samsung gets the contract from Tesla, then the company is expected to start production using the 7nm process. This is likely to happen as Samsung is already producing Tesla’s current-generation Hardware 3 computers.

Samsung is manufacturing 5nm chips but will be using the 7nm process to manufacture chips for Tesla’s Hardware 4 self-driving computer to ensure higher production yields and stable functions of the chip when installed.

While the timeline for the production of the Hardware 4 is not yet known, but we expect it to get started in a couple of months given that Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed during the AI Day event last month that the new hardware for its self-driving technology for the Cybertruck will be released in about a year or so.

Samsung is currently the second-largest contract chip manufacturer in the world, just behind TSMC. While Samsung holds 17.3 percent of the market share, Taiwan-based TSMC is miles ahead with a massive 52.9 percent market share.

In the past few years, the South Korean giant has picked up pace when it comes to chip manufacturing and is trying to catch up with TSMC. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset is being manufactured by Samsung and the company is also opening its doors to other companies and other types or non-smartphone chips.

Chinese EV maker Nio considers production in Europe; ET7 launching in 2022

Jeet — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 07:14:49 +0000

Nio, the China-based smart electric car maker, has started selling its ES8 SUV in Norway and is gearing up to launch another model in Germany. The Chinese company has confirmed that its new ET7 will be available in the German market in late 2022.

The Nio ET7 car has entered trial production at the company’s Hefei plant as the firm is set to start deliveries in China in early 2022. William Li, Chairman of Nio, said that the “very high” interest from German customers prompted the firm to commit to a European roll-out.

Nio ES8 SUV

Along with announcing the launch of ET7 in Europe, Nio is also considering building its electric vehicles in Europe. Li said, “I believe if we have a lot of sales in the European market, we can also explore the other possibilities to work with other supply chain partners. I understand that in Europe, there is manufacturing capacity. We can also explore the possibility to work together with other OEMs and discuss joint manufacturing.”

While the company has not yet revealed any potential production partners but Lotus Technology could be on the list. After investment from Nio, Lotus Technology said that the partnership could pave the way for both companies to “explore opportunities for mutually beneficial industrial co-operation”.

Nio ET7

The Nio ET7, unveiled in January this year, is claimed to offer a maximum range of 620 miles (on the Chinese NEDC cycle) from its largest, 150kWh battery and a twin-motor powertrain pumping out 644bhp and 627lb-ft for a 0-62mph time of 3.9sec.

It also features a raft of advanced driver assistance features that, the company says, enables autonomous driving. ET7 is available for pre-order in China and will be arriving in the German market in the last quarter of 2022. The 70 kWh version of ET7 is expected to have a price tag between €59,000-69,000.

The company had previously suggested that it could soon launch its cars in the United Kingdom but there’s no timeline for it yet.

Xiaomi Automobile officially registered; Lei Jun is leading the team of over 300 employees

Jeet — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 04:48:14 +0000

Earlier this year, China-based technology giant Xiaomi announced that it’s entering the electric vehicle business and since then, the company has been trying to find a partner in the auto manufacturing sector.

Now, the company has officially announced that the industrial and commercial registration of the Xiaomi Automobile Co. Ltd. has been completed. The firm has been set up with registration capital of 10 billion yuan and Lei Jun, founder, Chairman, and CEO of the Xiaomi Group is leading this new entity.

Since the announcement of Xiaomi entering the smart cars sector about five months ago, the company claims that it has built a team of around 300 members for the smart car business from more than 20,000 applicants. It’s not yet done with the hiring process and is looking to invite more people to join the team.

The Chinese company has been in talks with several car manufacturers for a partnership but nothing has been materialized so far. But in the recent development, it was reported that Xiaomi is looking to acquire a stake in China Evergrande’s Electric Vehicle unit.

A few weeks ago, Lei Jun visited the SAIC headquarters, adding the company to the list of other auto manufacturers that he visited, including BYD, Great Wall, Wuling, and some other well-known car-making companies.

In the past few months, Xiaomi’s management has had 85 industry visits, in-depth exchanges with more than 200 automotive industry veterans, four internal management discussions, and two formal board meetings.

Xiaomi is aiming to offer high-quality smart electric vehicles to its users globally to enjoy ubiquitous smart life, says Lei Jun. Although the initial investment of the company is about 10 billion yuan, it is set to invest around 60 billion yuan over the next 10 years as the business grows.

Xiaomi to build its electric car from the ground up; announcement could happen next week

Jeet — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 06:01:53 +0000

Earlier this year, in the month of March, Xiaomi officially announced the commencement of its smart electric vehicle business. It was also confirmed that the new division will be led by the company’s founder and CEO Lei Jun.

Since the official announcement, the Chinese smartphone maker has been in talks with several car manufacturers for a partnership but nothing has been materialized so far. But in the recent development, it was reported that Xiaomi is looking to acquire a stake in China Evergrande’s Electric Vehicle unit.

Now, the latest report coming from Science Innovation Board Daily claims that Xiaomi will be building its own car from scratch, and details about the same will be officially revealed by the Chinese company next week.

A well-known tipster Digital Chat Station has also revealed that the company has been in contact with a world-renowned auto parts and emission technology supplier and is also working on a design plan.

Xiaomi has put out a statement denying rumors of negotiating with the China Evergrande Group to buy a 65 percent stake. The spokesperson adds that the company has talked with several carmakers but has not made any decision regarding any partnership for its electric vehicles business.

While Xiaomi is refuting rumors, China Evergrande Group says that talks with Xiaomi to sell its EV unit are at a very early stage. Earlier, the company had announced that the group was in talks with potential investors to sell part of its stakes, including its EV and property management units.

Last month, Lei Jun, founder, CEO, and chairman of the Xioami Group visited the SAIC headquarters, adding it to the list of other car-making companies that he visited, including BYD, Great Wall, Wuling, and some other well-known automakers.

At the time, it was revealed that in the past 75 days, Xiaomi’s management has had 85 industry visits, in-depth exchanges with more than 200 automotive industry veterans, four internal management discussions, and two formal board meetings.

Xiaomi aims to offer high-quality smart electric vehicles to allow users globally to enjoy ubiquitous smart life, says Lei Jun. For this new wholly-owned subsidiary to work on the electric vehicles and related business, the company plans to invest around 10 billion yuan (~$1.5 billion) over a period of 10 years.

Lei Jun spotted at SAIC headquarters after visiting multiple car companies over the past few weeks

Jeet — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 05:35:14 +0000

A couple of months ago, in March this year, Xiaomi officially announced the commencement of its smart electric vehicle business which will be led by the company’s founder and CEO Lei Jun.

Since then, the smartphone maker has been in talks with several car manufacturers for a partnership but nothing has materialized so far. Lei Jun has been visiting automakers and the latest company added to the list is SAIC.

Lei Jun, founder, CEO, and chairman of the Xioami Group visited the SAIC headquarters and some users shared photos of the same online. So far, he has visited BYD, Great Wall, Wuling, and some other well-known automakers as the Chinese tech giant is gearing up for its Smart Electric Vehicles business.

For those who are unaware, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited is a multinational automotive design and manufacturing company headquartered in Shanghai.

Lei Jun said that in the past 75 days, Xiaomi’s management has had 85 industry visits, in-depth exchanges with more than 200 automotive industry veterans, four internal management discussions, and two formal board meetings.

Explaining the intention for Xiaomi to build cars, he emphasized the company aims to offer high-quality smart electric vehicles to allow users globally to enjoy ubiquitous smart life. He further added that “I am willing to bet on all the reputation and achievements of my life to fight for Xiaomi cars!”

For this new wholly-owned subsidiary to work on the electric vehicles and related business, it plans to invest around 10 billion yuan (~$1.5 billion) but over a period of 10 years. It’s likely that the upcoming smart car from the company will be a consumer product and will be targeted at the mass market.

Huawei aims on improving travel experience in self driving cars: Patent

Sean — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 12:51:00 +0000

Huawei has just recently published a new patent, which was related to the control system of autonomous vehicles. While smart cars with self driving technology are already available, the company seeks to improve the overall driving and travel experience.

According to the patent titled “Smart Car Control Method, Device and Control System,” the Chinese tech giant is working on a smart car control system that could improve the autonomous technology behind self driving cars. As per an ITHome report, the patent also describes a system for controlling smart cars, which is capable of improving the comfort for passengers as well as the driving experience of the self driving smart car.

This system would control the smart car’s driving mode, its driving style, to reach the speed of the vehicle at an optimal level. Once it reaches this optimal speed, it would also shift the driving mode to maintain it. In simpler terms, it would effectively work in real time to make the experience smooth and comfortable for the passengers riding in the vehicle, including the one behind the wheel.

Unfortunately, this is still a patent at the moment so finer details regarding this smart control system are currently unknown. Furthermore, it is also unclear if the smartphone maker is actually working on such a product or is just covering all bases. So stay tuned as we will be providing updates when additional information or any notable development surfaces regarding this technology.

Huawei patents Automatic Parking Interaction Method with touch-based interface

Jeet — Fri, 21 May 2021 09:26:44 +0000

Huawei, the China-based tech giant, has filed a new patent application for “a method and device for automatic parking interaction” that has a publication number CN112824183A.

The patent summary describes an automatic parking interactive method provided by the embodiments of this application that is applied to a smart car, which can improve the user’s interactive experience and convenience for parking.

Basically, the onboard system will display the virtual top view of the parking lot on the central control panel, and then the user can use the touch-based control to move the vehicle to any of the virtual parking spots. After getting confirmation from the user, the vehicle will automatically be parked at the location.

The system requires multiple surround-view cameras for the system to work properly. It can be subdivided into a parking space adjustment module, a top view stitching module, a perception module, and a path planning module. The focus of this patent is to improve the intelligent interaction experience of the automatic parking system, making it easier for users to use such new functions.

A few months ago, the company had filed a patent application for a vehicle navigation method. The patent document describes the navigation method, device, system, and additionally, it is also inter-connected to the field of intelligent driving technology.

This navigation method includes retrieving images taken by multiple cameras and getting location information of the target vehicle based on the images taken by multiple cameras to generate a navigation route and push it to the user’s smartphone.

Ever since Huawei has started facing issues with the mobile business, the company has changed its strategy to focus on futuristic technologies, including next-generation communication, electric vehicles, smart cars, and more.

Huawei to sell cars from 200 experience stores by July end, targets 300K car sales in 2022

Sean — Wed, 19 May 2021 07:17:14 +0000

Huawei is apparently planning on selling cars from 200 of its experience stores by the end of July 2021. It is also reportedly targetting a shipment goal of 300,000 units for the next year.

For those unaware, the Chinese tech giant has been expanding its presence in the automobile industry in recent times. While it doesn’t directy manufacture vehicles, it does offer both hardware and software based solutions for smart cars to other car makers. This has it build connectivity based solutions along with self driving technology as well. Now, the brand is planning on selling cars from its 200 experience stores and is also expecting to expand to more than 1,000 stores by the end of this year.

According to latest news media from China (Via iFeng), the company’s CEO of Smart Car Solutions BU, Richard Yu, has set a goal to sell 300,000 cars from its stores by the next year. The report arrives as Huawei has partnered with various car makers like BYD, BAIC, Mercedes-Benz, and Changan. At the moment, the company sells the SERES SF5 from its flagship stores in China. So, this move is in line with its plans to include cars in its stores.

The report also added that the SERES SF5 has already seen over 6,500 bookings within the first month. As Huawei is growing the smart car offerings in its stores, the company might soon branch out to include cars from other brands like Mercedes-Benz as well sometime in the future. But, that is just speculation so take it with a pinch of salt for now and stay tuned for more updates.

Roborock applies for “Rock Smart Car” trademark

Sean — Mon, 17 May 2021 11:28:36 +0000

Roborock has recently applied for a new trademark. The application is for a “Rock Smart Car,” which is for an international classifaction in the means of transportation. This trademark is still under the status of “application for registration” and has yet to be granted.

Looking at the trademark application title, it is clear that the company is working on smart car and related technologies. Unfortunately, it is unknown what technoogy the company is actually working on, but it could be to provide hardware or software related solutions to automobile manufacturers that are building smart cars. In other words, it could be a self driving based technology or simple connected devices like smart screens that are housed in the vehicle.

Furthermore, this also marks another Chinese brand entering the smart car market. In recent times, there have been various rumors and reports surfacing regarding Chinese vendors branching into the automobie industry. This included the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei and others as well. Notably, the CEO and Founder of Roborock also has experience within the industry as he established an independent car company, called Stone Motors, which has even worked with automobile giant, Mercedes-Benz.

Although, an ITHome report stated that Stone Technology has stated that the new project that has been trademarked will not be directly reated to the company. On the other hand, Roborock has mainly been known for its offerings for smart home appliances, with vacuum robots being its most popular products in the market within the Xiaomi Ecological chain. So stay tuned, as we will provide updates regarding any notable developments regarding this matter.

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XPeng P5 Smart EV announced; powered by LiDAR-equipped XPILOT 3.5 and Xmart OS 3.0

Jeet — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 08:57:46 +0000

XPeng Motors, a China-based electric vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Guangzhou, has announced its third production model named XPeng P5. It is touted to be the world’s first smart car to be equipped with automotive-grade LiDAR technology.

The company has also announced that the car will bring Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) capabilities to city roads for the first time in a production vehicle, which is powered by XPeng’s full-stack in-house developed autonomous driving system XPILOT 3.5.

The P5 is the first vehicle in its class to pack Qualcomm’s Snapdragon flagship SA8155P auto-grade computing platform, which is said to be three times more powerful than the previous generation. It ensures seamless user control and interaction to assist, inform, and entertain drivers and passengers.

It measures 4808mm in length and has a wheelbase of 2768mm. The company adds that the car’s sleek aerodynamic profile is complemented by a neat fastback with an unobtrusive ducktail. There’s also a 1.493 sqm transparent panoramic canopy glass roof that offers uninterrupted views.

The car also comes with double-prism LiDAR units that are capable to distinguish pedestrians, cyclists, and scooters, static obstacles, and road works, in challenging scenarios such as night and low-light conditions, backlighting, and alternating light and dark illumination in tunnels.

This new electric vehicle is positioned as a family-friendly car and comes with some cutting-edge technology along with superior user-centric and intuitive in-car features. The XPILOT 3.5 system powers smart driving and the latest Xmart OS 3.0 delivers smart interaction, a combination that the company believes will be a gamechanger.

XPeng’s proprietary XPILOT 3.5 architecture comprises 32 perception sensors (including 2 LiDAR units, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 13 high-resolution cameras) and 1 high-precision positioning unit (GNSS + IMU), integrated into 360° dual-perception fusion to provide sufficient redundancy across the perception sensors to handle challenging and complex road conditions.

The Xmart OS 3.0, the company’s in-car operation system offers an advanced digital cockpit for next-generation user-vehicle interaction. It supports full-scenario all-voice interaction, answering complex needs of driver-vehicle and passenger-vehicle interaction.

The XPeng P5 will be featured at Auto Shanghai 2021 on 19th April 2021 with more details of its specifications, performance, pricing, and availability.

Huawei to invest $1 billion to develop EV and Self-Driving technology

Jeet — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 10:42:28 +0000

Huawei is going through very rough times as the United States has imposed several sanctions on the company, restricting the Chinese giant in various businesses. It shut down its high-end chip production and is also losing marketing share in the smartphone business.

While its telecom and mobile business is suffering, the company is moving ahead to establish itself in the next major thing — Electric Vehicles and Self-Driving Technology. In line with this, Huawei will invest about $1 billion for the development of such technologies under its brand, reports Bloomberg.

Huawei is now aiming to take on the likes of Tesla and Xiaomi, among others with its own self-driving car technology. The company has already clarified that it has no plans to make its own car but will supply its tech to carmakers.

It has already partnered with three automakers — BAIC Group, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Eric Xu, the rotating chairman of Huawei also revealed that the cars launched will carry the Huawei name as a sub-brand.

Huawei’s autonomous-driving technology has already surpassed Tesla’s in some aspects of technology. For instance, the company’s cars have cruised for more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) without human intervention.

Commenting on this, Eric Xu said: “The smart car business unit receives one of the heaviest investments from Huawei. We will invest more than $1 billion in car component development this year. China adds 30 million cars each year and the number is growing. Even if we don’t tap the market outside of China, if we can earn an average of 10,000 yuan from each car sold in China, that’s already a very big business for Huawei.”

Huawei has already launched smart car connectivity products and the company’s info and entertainment technology can already be found in Mercedes-Benz sedans. It has also teamed up with companies like BAIC BluePark New Energy Technology Co. to develop smart car systems and the first model under the partnership — the Arcfox αS HBT will be unveiled at Auto Shanghai in April.

Apart from Huawei, other tech giants like Apple and Xiaomi are also targeting the automobile industry as companies race to make vehicles more environment-friendly, autonomous, and connected goes on. According to the report from Canalys, EV sales in China may climb more than 50 percent this year alone.

Faraday Future’s upcoming FF 91 to be powered by NVIDIA Drive Orin platform

Jeet — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 09:58:35 +0000

Faraday Future, a California-based company that is working on a smart car project for the last few years, has announced that the company will be using the NVIDIA Drive Orin platform for its flagship FF 91 luxury electric vehicle.

With the selection of Drive Orin SoC, the carmaker is hoping to leverage the continuous improvements and performance leaps across generations of the NVIDIA DRIVE platform. The upcoming FF 91 plans to achieve advanced highway autonomous driving capabilities and advanced parking and summon features when it goes on sale in 2022.

Faraday Future – FF 91

NVIDIA DRIVE Orin contains 21 billion transistors and integrates the NVIDIA Ampere GPU architecture, 12 Cortex-A78 ARM 64CPUs, along with deep learning and computer vision accelerators. It is claimed to deliver 254 trillion operations per second of performance.

Faraday Future is targeting more advanced autonomous driving and parking features on its future FF 81 and FF 71 vehicles, which are expected to be available in 2023 and 2024, respectively. They will also be powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Orin as the company is looking to offer high-performance and energy-efficient compute capability.

Coming to the FF 91, it will come with an industry-leading 1,050 horsepower, the largest battery pack of 130 kWh equipped with submerged liquid battery cooling technology. It can go from 0 to 60 in less than 2.4 seconds and will have a unique rear compartment intelligent internet system.

Faraday Future is currently preparing to merge with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp., which is expected to happen in the second quarter of 2021. The FF 91 is planned to be launched within 12 months of the closing of the merger.

Huawei and Arcfox launches luxury sedan as it eyes market for 5G-equipped smart electric cars

Jeet — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 05:08:17 +0000

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.

Huawei not building cars but will help automakers, with 30 upcoming smart components

Sean — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 12:24:00 +0000

Earlier today, Huawei announced its financial report for last year, where it revealed its modest growth of 3.2 percent of net profits in 2020. The company even addressed the recent rumors regarding it working on building its own car, which it said again is not the case.

As per the Chinese tech giant, the company is working on smart connected vehicles, but is not building its own car. Rather, it will be helping other automobile manufacturers in building smart connected vehicles. Furthermore, the company also announced that it would also be working on developing next gen computing and communication based technologies. These products will be used in smart connected vehicles, with the company planning on launching more than 30 of smart components.

These components will be launched soon and will arrive one after another. The company also announced that it has plans on working with more than 20 hardware makers and 280 application vendors. Notably, it has also announced that it will launch its proprietary HarmonyOS (also known as HongMengOS in China) for smartphones soon. At the moment, HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) is also the world’s third largest mobile application ecosystem.

For those unaware, the company is aiming to leverage its communications and mobile services expertise. We had previously also reported on the company working on diversifying to the automobile industry through its HiCar initiative. So, this news is also in line with its plans to make communication based components and other smart features for automobile manufacturers.

Xiaomi announces commencement of its Smart Electric Vehicle business

Jeet — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 10:30:31 +0000

Xiaomi, which is currently the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer, has been itching to enter the smart vehicles market for some time. Today, the company has officially announced the commencement of its smart electric vehicle business.

The company has revealed that it is setting up a new wholly-owned subsidiary to work on the electric vehicles and related business. Initially, it plans to invest around 10 billion yuan (~$1.5 billion) but over a period of 10 years, the company would have invested over $10 billion for this new category of business.

Further, it has also been confirmed that Lei Jun, who is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Xiaomi Group, will also serve as the Chief Executive Officer for this new smart electric vehicles entity.

Recently, at the fifteenth annual meeting of the China Entrepreneurs Forum, Lei Jun had confirmed that Xiaomi has no plans for the release of an electric vehicle for the next three to five years as it plans to focus on its existing products.

A few days ago, it was reported that the China-based smartphone maker could partner with China’s Great Wall Motor Co Ltd and use its factory for building its own electric car. But both the companies had declined to comment on the matter.

Given the past record of Xiaomi, it’s likely that the upcoming smart car from the company will be a consumer product and will be targeted at mass market. We expect more details related to this new business to be revealed at the Xiaomi Mega Launch Part II event where the company is expected to launch the Mi MIX Fold smartphone.

Baidu gets permission to test self-drivings cars in California

Jeet — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 05:20:47 +0000

Chinese technology giant Baidu, which is better known for its search engine, has a diversified portfolio of products and services. The company is now moving a step closer with its smart car in the United States.

Baidu has received permission to test its fully autonomous vehicles without a safety driver in California. With this, the company has become the sixth one to receive permission to test driverless cars.

The Chinese company had first received permission to test autonomous vehicles, with safety drivers, in 2016. With this new permission, the company can now test three driverless vehicles in Sunnyvale, located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It now plans to start testing its autonomous vehicles — Lincoln MKZ and Chrysler Pacifica, day and night within Sunnyvale. However, the company has not yet revealed a timeframe about when it will actually start testing.

In China, Baidu has been testing autonomous vehicles without a safety driver in Beijing and Changsha since last year. Last year, AutoX, another Chinese company, was given permission to start testing driverless cars in California.

Baidu has been focusing a lot on its automotive business. Recently, the company partnered with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which is China’s largest private automotive group, to make electric cars in China.

TSMC reportedly planning to increase automotive chips pricing by 15%

Jeet — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 04:53:41 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the supply chain for several technology companies and has created a shortage of key components. With the production impacted, manufacturers are looking to raise pricing.

TSMC, the world’s leading contract manufacturer for chipsets, is expected to do the same for its new automotive chips unit, for which the company is likely to cite the global shortage of components as the reason.

As per the report, Advanced Integrated Circuits (VIS), the automotive chipset unit or subsidiary of TSMC is considering increasing pricing by up to 15 percent while other foundries are also looking to do the same.

If the companies decide to increase the pricing, it will be the second round of price increase since last fall. Reports indicate that the price rise could take effect sometime at the end of February or early March.

With the increase in pricing for key components such as chipsets, the overall price of the Smart Car could also get increased, which can slow down the pace of adoption of electric vehicles, which is now gaining momentum globally.

Meanwhile, Samsung has partnered with Telsa to work on developing a new 5nm EUV chip for autonomous driving, which is currently said to be in the Research & Development stage but we should know more about it in the coming months.

Samsung and Tesla partners to make 5nm chip for autonomous driving

Jeet — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 04:30:21 +0000

Samsung has been trying to become a leader in the chipset market and seems to be slowly progressing towards that. With Huawei out of the market, at least for the time being, the South Korean company has an opportunity to make its mark and it seems to be doing that.

As per the latest report coming from Korea, Samsung and Tesla are joining hands to make chips using the 5nm manufacturing process for autonomous driving. With the ongoing expansion and increased adoption of electric vehicles and the shortage of chipsets in the market because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korean giant saw the opportunity and has expanded its semiconductor business into automobiles.

The chipset is being reported to be in Research & Development (R&D) stage at the Samsung Foundry Division and it will be mounted on Tesla’s autonomous vehicles. As said, it is being made using a 5nm Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) process, which only a couple of companies can do — Samsung and TSMC.

Samsung is already a partner of Tesla for producing the company’s current self-driving chips for hardware 3.0 computer. But the chip currently being used is manufactured using a bit older 14nm technology.

The South Korean giant recently reorganized its organizational structure and relocated some manpower in the Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS) which is focusing on autonomous driving technology. If this new development of Samsung and Tesla works out, then Samsung could post a great threat to TSMC, which also entered into this sector last year with a 7nm chip.

Apple and Hyundai Motor expected to reach agreement for Apple Car by March

Jeet — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 15:54:28 +0000

A few days ago, it was confirmed that Hyundai Motor is in talks with Apple for the production of the tech giant’s ambitious project of making its own autonomous driving vehicle, which is currently being referred to as Apple Car.

Now, a new report claims that both the companies — Hyundai Motor and Apple could reach an agreement for the production of the Apple Car by March this year. It also adds that the production could start as soon as 2024.

Both the companies are hoping to produce around 100,000 vehicles in 2024, claims the report coming via Reuters. Eventually, the plan is to reach the production goal of 400,000 vehicles annually.

Further, it claims that the “beta version” of the Apple Car could go into testing as soon as next year. It’s noteworthy that currently there’s no information available about the specification and features of the Apple Car.

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But, it is being reported that the company is planning to use a new special battery technology for the upcoming Smart Car. It was also reported earlier that a part of the development of components for the car will take place at Hyundai Motors’ facilities in the United States.

The timeline of making commercial cars by 2024 seems aggressive and has already been questioned by many, including notable Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Some reports indicate that it will take around 5-7 years for the Apple Car to go into production.

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Huawei HiCar partners with BAIC Blue Valley to launch a new smart car in H1 2021

Sean — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 10:20:00 +0000

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.

HiCar Smart Screen

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.

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.

Huawei HiCar partnership with BYD

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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Apple Car launch could be delayed to 2028 or later, says Ming-Chi Kuo

Jeet — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 06:29:39 +0000

Apple has been working on a Smart Car system for a few years now under Project Titan, reports about which started surfacing online again this month related to the new battery technology and the mass production.

Recently, it was reported that the Apple Car could enter the mass production phase by the end of 2024. However, it seems that the timeline has been changed. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has now stated (via 9to5Mac) that the most realistic timeline is 2028 or later and added that the market is too bullish about Apple Car.

For his claim about the delayed launch, Kuo gives three reasons — uncertainty about the timing, uncertainty about the supplier and vehicle’s specifications, and uncertainty about the competitiveness in the EV market.

For those who are unaware, the autonomous car project of Apple has been in the works since 2014 when the company started the design of its own electric car from the scratch. However, the project struggled to proceed smoothly and at one point Apple decided to just focus on the software part of the technology.

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But, after the return of Doug Field returned to Apple from Tesla a couple of years back, he started overseeing the project and revamped the team. And now, it seems that the company is making significant development in this field.

Kuo also notes that while Apple has several strengths, it doesn’t always work out for the company the way they expect. To highlight this point, he gives an example of Apple HomePod, which has struggled to get market share in the smart speaker space.

It’s also noteworthy that Apple is currently catching-up with the Electric Vehicle or Smart Car field and there are several companies that are in advanced stages of technology development or have started working on the commercial car.

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Apple Car with new battery technology to start production by 2024

Jeet — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 07:17:02 +0000

Apple has been working on several new technologies and one of them is for the autonomous car with which the company has entered another category of products — Electric Vehicles. Now, there’s some major development related to this.

A new report from Reuters claims that Apple is going forward with its self-driving car technology and is planning to start production by 2024. And it’s not just the car but the company is also working on a “next level” battery technology.

For those who are unaware, the autonomous car project of Apple, called Project Titan, has been in the works since 2014 and the company started the design of its own electric car from the scratch.

However, the project struggled to proceed smoothly and at one point, Apple decided to just focus on the software part of the technology. But a couple of years back, Doug Field returned to Apple from Tesla to oversee the project and revamped the team.

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It seems that the development of this project has been significant enough for the company to build commercial vehicles. Reuters adds that Apple’s goal is to make a personal vehicle for the mass market while its competitors like Google‘s Waymo is building robo-taxis to carry passengers for a driverless ride-hailing service.

The report also sheds light on the battery that could be used in the car. A person aware of the development says that a new battery design could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and at the same time, increase the vehicle’s range.

It is not yet clear which company would assemble the Apple-branded car. There’s also a possibility that Apple may decide to go ahead with the software part and integrate its technology into a car made by a traditional automaker.

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Huawei, Changan Automobile and CATL jointly creates high-end smart car brand

Jeet — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 06:54:08 +0000

China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), which is a global leader in lithium-ion battery development and manufacturing, has announced that it has partnered with Huawei and Changan Automobile to create a new high-end smart car brand.

The new brand aims at creating a world-class high-end self-controlled smart electric vehicle platform and launch a range of smart cars, along with a super “human car” as a part of smart life and smart energy ecology.

It is said that the companies formed the partnership about a couple of months ago and will be launching new products as a part of this long-term strategic cooperation agreement. It also aims to jointly promote the development of China’s new electric vehicle industry.

Along with that, they have also announced a new technology named “Ark Architecture” and has said that around 105 models will be launched in the coming five years, which would include 23 new electric products.

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Ark Architecture developed by Changan Automobile Research & Development 4.0 is quite important for the company to improve the basic performance of the smart vehicle using artificial intelligence and Big Data.

It covers all A0-C models and is said to be compatible with eight engine states, displacement covers 1.2-2.0L, compatible with 48V low voltage mixing (LV-HEV), high-voltage mixing (HV-HEV), plug-in mixing (PHEV), three electrification power, matching eight transmission models, and 16 power combination modes.

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Huawei DriveOne unveiled as the company’s first all-in-one electric drive system

Jeet — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 04:40:33 +0000

Huawei, the Chinese giant which is one of the leading companies in the world when it comes to telecom equipment and smartphones, has expanded its product offering in various other categories. The company is now also focusing on IoT and AI. In line with that, it has announced its all-in-one electric drive system — Huawei DriveOne.

The company claims that DriveOne is the industry’s first hyper-converged power domain solution. It integrates seven mechanical and power components — Micro Control Unit (MCU), Motor, Reducer, DC Converter (DCDC), On-board Charger (OBC), Power Distribution Unit (PDU), and Battery Control Unit (BCU).

The system is aimed at achieving simple development, simple adaptation, simple layout, and simple evolution. Huawei has also a self-developed AutoSar system which is offering end-cloud collaborative development that significantly improves development efficiency.

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It is said that DriveONE can minimize the layout of the vehicle power domain, save 220mm in the Z direction, reduce 2 mounting brackets, shorten wiring harness by 5m, reduce 3 connectors, and reduce water nozzles and 2 water pipes.

The system adopts a centralized and flat OTA architecture that simplifies the path and reduces the complexity of versioning while ensuring performance improvement. This shortens 10min upgrade time to 30s and enables one-key speedy upgrades.

Huawei says that it is the industry’s first high-voltage all-in-one electric drive system that can meet the 2C fast-charging experience and offer 200km range in 10 minutes of charging. It is said to be more efficient, more accurate, and more power-efficient than the previous similar solutions.

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Huawei invests heavily into LiDAR technology for Smart Cars

Sean — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 10:09:38 +0000

Huawei is apparently investing heavily in smart car solutions. The Chinese tech giant is working on creating cost effective LiDAR technology, as announced by the company’s auto division head, Wang Jun, as reported by KrASIA.

Huawei HiCar

According to the senior official, “With its advanced 5G technology the company is set to reduce the cost of radar sensors to USD 100 in the future.” At the moment, the average price for the LiDAR sensors hovers around the 400 to 500 US Dollar price range. Thus, Huawei’s investment in the field could help the Chinese brand establish a more prominent role in the intelligent vehicle industry.

Despite not building any cars of its own, Huawei has used its expertise in various fields like telecommunications and ICT to offer parts to various automobile manufacturers at competitive rates. For those unaware, LiDAR basically stands for “light detection and ranging.” It is essentially a sensor that uses light in the form of pulsing lasers to measure the distance from a particular target.

This technology is crucial for self driving cars as it helps the intelligent automobile to detect its own surrounds and act accordingly. While the technology is sought after by many in the industry, there are also those like Tesla that are working on non-LiDAR solutions as well, but the technology still remains the standard at the moment. Wang stated that an optoelectronic technology R&D center in Wuhan that employs more than 10,000 people aims to produce 100 lines LiDAR in short periods of time while reducing costs.

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Huawei adds multiple new auto-related technology patents: wireless charging for vehicles

Sean — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 07:41:24 +0000

Huawei has recently added multiple patents. These patents were related to a number of automobile gadgets an electronic components like key access control methods and vehicle-related positioning wireless charging.

According to a report from Sohu, the Chinese tech giant applied for numerous patents for various systems that one would find in a smart car earlier this month. The patent was under the invention category and list a number of different gadgets within the car. These are likely in line with the company’s plans for further expansion into the automobile industry, especially in terms of smart cars and vehicles that support 5G networking as well.

At the moment, Huawei’s smart car solution is currently available in 5 different aspects, namely smart driving, smart dashboard, energy, smart networking, and cloud based services within a vehicle. Notably, the company had also recently announced its first car with HarmonyOS, which was a collaboration with known automobile maker BYD.

Huawei HiCar

Hence, seeing all of these patents could just be Huawei covering all bases or for upcoming technology for its budding automobile components and supporting networking infrastructure business for vehicles. Unfortunately, finer details are still uncertain, so stay tuned for more updates.

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Huawei partners with 18 carmakers to bring 5G smart-connected vehicles to the Chinese market

Sudarshan Ravichandran — Mon, 11 May 2020 14:20:04 +0000

Huawei has been lately focussing more in the smart automotive industry. According to a press release by the company, it has partnered with 18 carmakers in China to release 5G smart-connected vehicles in the coming months.

Baojun RC-6 Interior

Huawei has been working long to become the leading supplier of 5G modules to smart-connected vehicles. The company claims its MH5000 as the world’s first 5G module for vehicles.

This module was developed by Huawei’s HiSilicon division, which is well-know for its Kirin lineup of smartphone SoCs. It is already available commercially on Baojun RC-6, a car built by SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, a joint venture between SAIC, General Motors and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co.

Now, the Chinese telecom giant signs a total of 18 Chinese carmakers to bring more 5G smart-connected vehicles to the domestic market. Here’s the complete list of the partners.

FAW Group
- Hongqi
- Pentium
- Jiefang
Dongfeng Group
- Xiaokang
- Passenger cars
Changan Automobile
SAIC
- Passenger cars
- GM Wuling
GAC
BAIC
BYD
Great Wall Motors
Chery Holdings
JAC
Yutong
Jinkang Seris
Nanjing Iveco
T3 Travel

Recently, it was revealed Huawei to have partnered with STMicroelectronics to design and manufacture chips for smart automotive and mobile devices. If the cooperation goes as planned, Huawei may rope in international carmakers like Tesla and BMW as its clients who are customers of STMicro for years.

(Source, Via)

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Huawei will be venturing into Smart Car Charging Solutions with its new HiCharger DC Fast Charging Module

Sudarshan Ravichandran — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 07:31:49 +0000

Huawei is involved in a number of industries which include smartphones, telecommunications, and even smart TVs. A few days back, the company announced the launch of a new Hauwei HiCharger DC fast charging module on April 24. This new charging module will be used as an energy charging infrastructure solution in co-operation with a number of electric departments in China such as Grid (Beijing) and Xingxing Charging (Changzhou), Nanwang Electric (Shenzhen), China Merchants Sanyou (Beijing), Zhuhai Titan (Zhuhai) and Dalian Robinson (Dalian), and others.

The release of HiCharger DC fast charging module will officially mark Huawei’s entry into the field of charging solutions. The company’s energy product lineup will cover four areas namely data center energy, communications energy, smart photovoltaic, and smart electric.

Out of the which, the Huawei smart electric division is committed to creating high-quality, high-standard automotive electrification solutions, providing components such as charging and power supply, electronic control, and battery management.

If Huawei continues to thrive in the new charging solutions like the upcoming HiCharger DC fast charging module, it could become one of the primary suppliers of smart car charging solutions in a few years from now, at least in its home country China.

In addition to charging solutions, the company has already announced a smart interactive system for cars called HiCar late last year. This feature is baked into the brand’s EMUI mobile software and is available on certain high-end smartphones like Mate 30 series.

(Via)

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Huawei could unveil its first car at Shanghai Auto Show

Jeet — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 08:50:14 +0000

Huawei is facing a lot of issues right now, especially in the western countries with the on-going US-China trade war and the concerns related to the security of Huawei’s telecom equipment. But, the company is still surging ahead.

The company’s consumer electronics business witnessed massive growth in the previous year and Huawei is now dominating the Chinese smartphone market. Going forward, the company is eyeing to take on the automobiles market.

According to a new report, Huawei is all set to unveil its first ever automobile, a car, at the Shanghai Auto Show. The report says that the company’s first car that will soon be showcased is developed in tandem with Dongfeng Motor, a state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wuhan, China.

The automobile will feature in-vehicle communications, support for the fifth-generation wireless network and cloud functions. It will include information query functions, vehicle management, traffic scheduling, as well as equipment management.

Huawei and Dongfeng Motor had penned a 3 billion Yuan (approximately $446 million) deal with the local authorities in Xiangyang, earlier this month in order to develop a smart car, logistics, and transportation cloud platforms in efforts towards 5G-powered autonomous driving vehicles.

During the signing ceremony for the Xiangyang government deal, a model of a mini-bus was showcased. However, there are no specific details available regarding the first-ever Huawei car, which could be unveiled later this month at the Shanghai Auto Show.

(Source)

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Baidu developing a smart car for 2015 launch, confirms CEO

Joel Joseph — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 03:46:10 +0000

Google may be the king of search engines globally but when it comes to the Chinese market, no one can come close to Baidu, the China’s leading search engine company. In fact, many a times, the company is called as “China’s Google”.

Baidu had confirmed last year that it was working on a smart car. But the company’s concept of a futuristic car didn’t replace the driver, instead aided him in his driving. This was the opposite of what Google is trying to develop. Google has been working on its driver-less car for almost five years now and the company has already showed off its prototype without any steering wheels or gas pedals to the media last year.

Today, CEO Robin Li confirmed that Baidu is developing a smart car which it will launch in 2015. This is in line with what we heard last year from the company’s Vice Director of Research, Kai Yu.

While the source does not reveal what to expect from the smart car developed by Baidu, it is said that the car will be fast and will have a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals like regular cars.

In fact, last year, Kai Yu had explained what the company had in mind for a smart car.

“Freedom means the car is intelligent enough to operate by itself, like a horse, and make decisions under different road situations,” Yu said. “Whenever the driver wants to resume control, you can do that. It’s like riding on a horse, rather than just sitting in a car where you only have a button.”

Baidu may also partner up with other manufacturers for launching the new car.

Stay tuned for more information.

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