Xpeng Motors releases digital car keys, how to promote security upgrades?

Information security is one of the biggest challenges and difficulties in building smart cars.

On September 27, at the Yunqi Conference, Xiaopeng Motors officially released the "digital car key with financial-level security". According to Yiou Auto, the biggest highlight of this digital car key is that it uses IFAA (Internet Financial Identity Authentication Alliance) financial-level security technology, and its security reaches the financial level. At the same time, Xiaopeng P7 will be the first smart car to combine IFAA financial security technology with the Internet of Things scenario.

According to Ji Yu, vice president of Xpeng Motors, the company has been aware of the importance of information security to the development of smart cars since its inception, and began to conduct in-depth research in this field. It also established a digital car key focus group with IFAA to develop digital car key security standards. "As a standardization organization, IFAA chose to cooperate with Xpeng Motors to jointly promote the formulation of digital car key security standards, which is a high recognition of Xpeng Motors' strength in the field of smart car information security."

In addition to its strong security, in terms of functionality, Xpeng Motors' digital car key not only has the key sharing function, but can also unlock the car, start the vehicle, remotely control the vehicle, remotely park the vehicle, etc. It can be adapted to 36 IFAA alliance terminal manufacturers including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO.

At present, as consumers are more sensitive to information security, it is urgent for smart cars to upgrade their information security. In terms of digital car keys, financial security level is the best solution, but there are many challenges to reach this level. Ji Yu said that first of all, the car must have overall security level support, and the hardware architecture of the whole vehicle must have security capabilities; secondly, in terms of protocol and device ID authorization, there can be a higher security level standard to connect it with the whole car.

Ji Yu also mentioned that the absence of network is one of the most important challenges. In many cases, cars are parked in underground parking lots and places where the operator's signal is weak. Xiaopeng Motors' digital car key uses Bluetooth technology and can be used normally in an off-network environment.

In fact, many car manufacturers on the market have already used apps to unlock the car, but in Ji Yu's opinion, these are not really smart car keys. The definition of a digital car key is that it can not only open the car door, but also drive the car away. These so-called digital key apps only realize part of the key's functions and cannot drive the car away because their security level has not yet been met.

Ji Yu frankly said that we are currently in the stage of transformation from functional cars to smart cars, just like the transformation from functional phones to smart phones. There will be many concerns about information security in the early stage, but the concerns have not yet occurred. In the automotive field, this problem can be solved with the help of the original wireless Internet information security specifications and technologies. The real core issue is whether companies pay enough attention to it and whether they are willing to invest a certain amount of cost.

Ji Yu further explained that Xiaopeng Motors has a dedicated chip to ensure safety. Its vehicle-side safety is based on the on-board security chip PSU (Programmable Security Unit) as the core of the star structure, connecting the entire vehicle system. From key presetting to self-flashing process, PSU is designed in accordance with financial-grade security standards, and has hardware-level strong certification in every link. "These are very real costs invested by Xiaopeng Motors. The core is this issue. Are people willing to invest the cost and pay enough attention? So this is a solvable problem."

In April 2019, during the Shanghai Auto Show, Xpeng Motors officially released its second-generation smart car and smart electric coupe P7. He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, is full of confidence in this car. The financial-grade secure digital car key will be a major selling point of the P7. The new car will begin to be delivered in the second quarter of 2020.

In 2019, in addition to the decline in subsidies and fierce competition in new energy vehicles , Xiaopeng Motors, which played the "smart" card, was defended by Xiaopeng car owners because of the online release of the upgraded Xiaopeng G3, and the sales of Xiaopeng G3 fell sharply. The rapid iteration and upgrade have caused the old models to be "eliminated", which is a common problem faced by smart cars today. Ji Yu told Yiou Auto that, as Xiaopeng once said, "slow is fast", the iteration and upgrade of smart car functions are faster than those of traditional cars, and a little slower than the previous mobile Internet, and it needs to be suitable for the pace of the industry.   

Ji Yu revealed that Xiaopeng Motors will consider upgrading this digital car key in the future G3 models, but due to hardware and other issues, a simple software upgrade is not possible. The entire P7 series will have financial-grade secure digital car keys, and all future models will also be made standard.

It is understood that Ji Yu is currently in charge of the work related to Xiaopeng Motors Internet Center and AI Product Center, and is also the main product designer of Xiaopeng Motors' intelligentization. He has worked for Tencent, Alibaba and other companies. As a typical Internet person, he clearly feels the essential difference in culture in the automotive field. Ji Yu believes that smart cars must eventually be the result of the integration of the technology industry and the traditional vehicle industry. It is in a brand new track and market, and the integration of automotive intelligence is more difficult than pure technology research and development.

At present, new car manufacturers have entered a life-or-death situation of competition and elimination. Car companies must not only consider product costs, but more importantly, race against time to launch more products that are competitive in price and quality to seize market opportunities. Xiaopeng Motors, which focuses on "intelligence", has also shown its sincerity in car manufacturing from product planning to implementation. Continuously adding new technologies and integrating innovation will be an important help for it to survive the muddy situation.