NIO has just had a completely different launch event. And it almost represents a turning point for NIO Motors.
Because at the end of the NIO Technology Day. For the first time, we talked about full-stack technology in its entirety!
NIO Motors has always been known for its brand, users and service. Unexpectedly, it showed its hardcore technological prowess.
“CTO” and “Head of R&D” – Li Bin. First of all, he explained the technical framework of NIO. The biggest highlights are the self-developed LIDAR chip and vehicle-wide operating system.
Then Ren Shaoqing, an AI expert, made his debut at NIO. He talked about intelligent driving.
Of course. The most controversial. Li Bin finally pulled out the “NIO Phone”. The entry model costs 6,499 yuan. More expensive than the latest iPhone 15.
What were the highlights of NIO Tech Day?
How NIO is building a phone for cars?
NIO’s full technology stack was revealed for the first time.
The “NIO Technology Stack” includes 12 technology areas, including chips and in-vehicle intelligent hardware, battery systems, electric drive systems, vehicle engineering, operating systems, mobile connectivity, smart driving, smart cockpit, smart energy, smart manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and global digital operations.
Full Stack Technology Architecture
There are several newly released technologies and products.
First of all, there is the aspect of intelligentization. First, let’s take a look at the hardware. NIO released its first self-developed chip product, the LIDAR main control chip “Yang Jian”, which was officially unveiled. It can provide better support for complex scenes.
Li Bin said this is the first time to run through the process after the chip team was formed. It’s a trial run. It mainly introduces the performance and functions.
In terms of performance. Yang Jian” chip has an 8-core 64-bit processor. It’s more powerful. And it is equipped with an 8-channel 9bit ADC with a sampling rate of 1GHz, which can efficiently capture the raw data from the LIDAR sensor. It will also reduce the power consumption of LiDAR by 50%.
Performance supports functionality. By optimizing the latency of the point cloud processing. Yang Jian” chip can respond faster. The point cloud processing speed is 8m point/s. It can receive raw data and point cloud data simultaneously. It provides better closed-loop iteration for the whole system.
At the same time, it improves the accuracy and reliability of the sensing system. Provides LIDAR with “120 degrees horizontal and 9.6 degrees vertical ROI coverage and 8 echoes processing capability”. Supports more complex driving scenarios. Mass production will begin in October.
In addition, NIO also released ADAM CCC, a cross-domain converged supercomputing cluster, which can realize the sharing of computing power for intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit and vehicle control.
Then on the software side. This time, the release of the vehicle-wide operating system Sky OS.
NIO Link is a “car-centric” connectivity technology. It enables cross-domain power scheduling. Primarily for the car. Enhances the car experience with digital car keys, parking and cabin control.
It’s not just a prelude to NIO’s cell phone launch. It’s not just for NIO’s mobile phone. It’s also for connecting with wearable devices, power stations and charging stations.
With the vehicle-wide operating system and interconnection technology. After completing the closed loop of data, NIO has started to build its own ecosystem. More than 40 apps have been installed in NIO’s app store. The car phone will be updated synchronously.
Li Bin introduced it as “the first vehicle-wide operating system for intelligent electric vehicles developed and released by an automobile company in the industry”. The advantage of this is that it can better integrate all kinds of equipment in the whole car. Efficient and collaborative work.
The full-featured production of SkyOS will be realized on the NT3 platform.
Sky OS strengthens the connection between all parts of the car. The interaction between the car and external devices is enhanced by NIO’s NIO Link.
In terms of intelligent driving, NIO announced that it will provide NOP+ service with enhanced navigation assistance by route from October. NIO announced that from October, it will provide NOP+ service to provide point-to-point intelligent driving experience for users in all areas.
NIO will open the NIO user’s navigation route wish list through its app. Combined with its own operation and road conditions. Gradually open the wish routes for the users.
After the user’s wish route is opened. They will be able to use the NOP+ Enhanced Pilotage Service in the city on the road. They can then share the routes of other users in any town or city. A “network of routes” is realized.
NIO summarizes that it has established a full-stack technology capability of end-cloud integration in intelligent driving. Unifying scenarios. Functional unification and unification with and without map.
In terms of electrification, NIO introduced that it is currently developing a 900V high-performance electric drive platform. NIO plans to establish 4,000 power exchange stations worldwide by 2025. NIO plans to set up 4,000 stations worldwide by 2025, with 90% of them covering China’s power districts. NIO plans to establish 4,000 stations worldwide by 2025, including 90% coverage of China’s power district housing, and to connect the power exchange network to the highways of 19 major cities.
NIO plans to build industrial system digitization and business system digitization capabilities. 80% of manufacturing will be handed over to AI-assisted decision-making in 2025. Improve efficiency.
Why is the NIO Phone more expensive than an iPhone?
A cell phone made by a car factory. Does that make sense?
Especially. NIO also made a price of 7000. Starting price is more expensive than Apple’s latest iPhone 15 phone.
Bingo said it. It makes sense!
It’s a phone made for NIO cars!
Specific features. Based on NIO LinkNIO panoramic connectivity technology. Integrates cell phones with smart electric cars. Equipped with UWB ultra-wideband technology. Completely replaces the car key. And supports 48 hours electroless locking.
On the left side of the body there is a NIO first NIO Link car control key. 30 driver connected functions are directly accessible in one click. For example, it can quickly check the vehicle status and parking position. Unlocking and unlocking the vehicle. Window down and up. Trunk opening. Air conditioning remote adjustment and so on.
Even in the absence of cell phone network can also be unlocked, open the trunk, flashing lights and sirens, vehicle summoning, remote control parking and other functions.
One more word about UWB technology.
The last debut. It is Apple’s AirTag. This is a wireless carrier communication technology. It doesn’t use sinusoidal carriers. Instead, it utilizes narrow, non-sinusoidal pulses of nanosecond magnitude to transmit data. So it occupies a wide spectrum. Low system complexity. Low power spectral density of the transmitted signal. Insensitive to channel fading. Low interception capability. Advantages such as high positioning accuracy.
Generally used in indoor positioning system. NIO Phone using UWB. can be in the huge complex parking lot. You can quickly find your car in a large and complex parking lot.
Even. With NIO’s NAD Autopilot. It is not difficult to let the car drive itself out to find the owner of the car with NIO Phone. It’s not difficult.
At the level of intelligent cockpit, NIO Phone is connected with the car. It realizes the integration of application ecosystem.
This is actually very crucial for the intelligent cockpit. The common pain point in the industry is. Automotive cockpit chips. Need to cooperate with three-party app developers to adapt one by one. So it’s embarrassing. We have a car phone. Not many apps. And no updates.
BYD’s solution. It doesn’t use a car chip. Dislikes a cell phone chip. Make it an Android virtual machine. Ecological openness. But this will inevitably bring concerns about the safety of automobile functions.
The significance of NIO Phone. In addition to allowing users to realize a variety of cool car control and entertainment functions. The more critical role. It will probably provide the technological foundation for the next generation of active and interactive intelligent cockpits.
Configuration. The chip is Qualcomm’s second-generation Snapdragon 8 Advanced. Up to 16GB+1T RAM and storage combination; equipped with 2K resolution 6.81-inch curved screen. Support 1-120Hz variable refresh rate.
The main camera, ultra wide-angle and periscope telephoto are all 50MP.
Packed with 5200mAh battery. Provides flagship long battery life. Supports 66W wired 50W wireless flash charging. And special matching NIO wireless car charger.
Provides ultra-large ultrasonic fingerprint.3D fingerprint recognition. 3D fingerprint recognition.
There are also 10W wireless reverse charging, IP68 waterproof and other flagship features.
It’s a lot of material. But the most important thing. But the most important thing is to use the phone to get a better car experience.
It can be understood that NIO is starting from the car. NIO started from the car to the entire digital intelligence ecosystem. Now it’s cell phones. In the future, there may be tablets, watches, home appliances and so on.
With this combination, NIO car owners will be completely “tied” to their own ecosystem.
“Once used, it’s hard to return”.
It’s the opposite of Xiaomi. People are based on the ecology to build cars. Bin is building an ecosystem based on cars.
We’ll wait for Lei Jun’s car launch next year. How to “respond”.
NIO Turning Point
NIO Technology Day. Two completely different fundamentals.
The most important one. The most important is of course the first time NIO fully unveiled its full range of technologies and self-developed capabilities.
This is the first time that NIO has clearly demonstrated its technological capabilities outside of the “service-oriented, user-driven” car company. It is the first time that NIO has clearly demonstrated its technological strength. It’s one more technology label that the new force should have.
One more thing. This Technology Day. It was also the first time that Ren Shaoqing, NIO’s Assistant Vice President of Intelligent Driving, made a public appearance.
NIO has always been known as a user-driven company. What’s less well known is that it has a real AI scientist in Ren Shaoqing.
He is the author of the famous ResNet – one of the most widely cited papers and algorithms in the AI era. It’s him.
And from the information that’s been made public. It’s also clear where NIO’s “skill sets” lie: electrical and electronic architecture, platformized technology modules. And AI capabilities.
These capabilities. Standing firmly in the first echelon of autonomy. There is even the possibility of exporting them in the future.
The second fundamental. NIO is gradually breaking through the model of “selling cars”. It’s starting to move towards a large technology product ecosystem.
These two points. These two points can be seen as different turning points in the direction of NIO’s future development.
One is the sinking market. NIO through the modularization of the platform. NIO through the modularization of platforms and the construction of AI technology base capabilities. NIO through the platform modularization and AI technology base capacity building for the future of the Alpine, Firefly and other mass-market models. Provides a richer, customizable technology reserves.
The ecological level of the turn. The ecological level of the turn is the future development of the brand NIO a direction – from selling cars. To selling a lifestyle.
Or a style of taste and identity.
One is down-to-earth. The other is looking up at the moon.
Of course. Li Bin and NIO . With this complete release. The most questioned question has been explained to the public.
Why does NIO burn so much money? Why does it continue to lose money? Does it have a future?
Li Bin’s response is simple and straightforward.
First. R&D is an investment in the future. It can’t be considered burning money. It will pay off.
Second. It’s a big investment in the short term. It’s a loss. But in the long run. It’s all necessary to build barriers and moats. Need to be more long-term oriented.
Third. Stop losing money and start making money. It will be based on the systematization and scaling effect of these technology R&D investments.
At the NIO launch event. Li Bin also talked about Huawei and Hesi’s R&D investment for more than a decade. Inside and outside the words. Li Bin’s meaning is very clear.
I’m with Point. Continuous investment in technology will continue.