If you don’t drive wisely, you will end up dead | Bloody 2023

The first half is a competition of electrification, and the second half is a decisive battle of intelligence, and intelligent driving must be the top priority.

“As the most determined runners and explorers on this track, we must firmly use technology and talents to accelerate and run faster, so that we can win the absolute advantage in this decisive battle of autonomous driving and occupy the top spot. Absolute high ground.”

“As the leader of the smart car track, we are grateful to everyone who has worked silently for China’s smart cars. No matter whether we face encouragement or doubts, we have never backed down, but have the courage to continue to explore and push forward and lead the next generation. An era.”

"The development of autonomous driving technology is much faster than we imagined. We will achieve a higher level of autonomous driving before 2025."

The three paragraphs at the beginning of the article, which are slightly chicken soup, all come from He Xiaopeng at the celebration party of the Xiaopeng Expressway NGP expedition in April 2021.

To be fair, from Guangzhou to Beijing, more than 3,000 kilometers, Xpeng P7 successfully completed the entire journey through the pilot assistance system. Standing at that point, it was enough to make all participants happy and excited.

But for more ordinary consumers, the perception does not seem to be that strong, and there is not yet a strong binding relationship between intelligent driving and car buyers.

And in 2022, which is coming soon, China's entire new energy market is turbulent, and the speed of electrification transformation is far beyond many people's imagination.

It is precisely based on this background that "big devils" like Tesla and BYD quickly emerged, further confirming and consolidating their industry status.

From a rational and objective perspective, we found that the main topics of concern to consumers who buy cars are still concentrated on: battery life, safety, energy consumption, including price, etc.

The weight that intelligent driving occupies in everyone's mind seems to have not improved much.

“Aren’t those auxiliary driving functions just fancy?”

"To spend tens of thousands of yuan on an immature system, do you think I'm crazy?"

"The steering wheel must be in your own hands."

It is by no means a fabrication. The above-mentioned slightly harsh remarks already reflect the deep-rooted prejudices and doubts of the outside world. How long does it take for smart driving to usher in a real transformation in China's new energy market?

No one dares to give a definite answer.

With such doubts, 2023 slowly kicked off. Just when everyone thought that intelligent driving would experience similar dormancy and silence again, the story plot staged an earth-shaking reversal.

It is no exaggeration to say that the past 365 days have been the first year that smart driving has fully matured in China's new energy market. At the same time, the attitude of car-buying consumers has also undergone a 180-degree turn. From disgust to love, it often only takes a moment.

“With it, the stress of running long distances is relieved to a great extent.”

"So awesome? Completely achieved from point to point."

“I really can’t go back after using it.”

As for the most fundamental reason behind it, it is because intelligent driving has finally matured. Looking at it further, it is closely related to the desperate running, crazy involution and even arms race of several leading players.

In the following paragraphs, I would like to share two paragraphs of my feelings.

During the Spring Festival holiday in early 2023, I drove a NIO ET7 from Shanghai to my hometown of Lanzhou. The total distance was close to 4,500 kilometers. I used NIO’s NOP high-speed pilot assist system to cover about 80% of the distance.

Although there is still a certain gap between self-driving in terms of commuting efficiency, the overall experience is indeed impressive, especially there is no need to be nervous and perform various operations, but you can hold the steering wheel, turn on the seat massage heating, and monitor The road conditions ahead will be fine.

On the other hand, we have to move out the Xpeng mentioned above. You must know that with the continuous iteration and advancement of technology, this new force in car manufacturing has basically completed the "opening up" of the full link from high-speed NGP to urban NGP in 2023.

Just about two months ago, I drove the Xpeng P7i, which has stronger sensing hardware and comprehensive computing power, for a period of time.

Drive out of the community every day, set up the navigation, and after the vehicle merges into Jinshajiang Road, flick the gear lever twice to immediately enter the intelligent driving state.

Next, whether you make an unprotected left turn at the intersection, automatically take the ramp into the inner ring, or switch to the North-South Elevated Highway, and finally get off the ramp to the company near the Central Ring Road, the entire journey of about 13 kilometers can be said to have been processed by the vehicle. With ease.

This enlarges the perspective. I believe that it is not just me. Throughout 2023, more and more car buyers will feel the convenience that smart driving brings to life.

Kaesong, Wutu, and can be used nationwide... Keywords that once felt far away are no longer just rhetoric on PPT, but have become reality one after another.

For example, at the Xpeng X9 launch conference on New Year's Day this year, He Xiaopeng officially announced that "Xpeng's XNGP intelligent assistance system's urban smart driving capabilities have covered 191 additional cities on the basis of covering 52 cities across the country at the end of December last year, bringing the total number of cities covered. Reached 243 cities.”

At the Wenjie M9 launch conference on December 26 last year, Yu Chengdong said, "HUAWEI ADS high-end intelligent driving system will support urban roads nationwide by the end of 2023."

And it is officially announced that Huawei has achieved full coverage of national highways and urban express NCA. According to the official announcement from Wenjie, the urban smart driving navigation assistance NCA function has completed nationwide internal testing and will be fully launched before the Spring Festival.

Two days later, Jiyue, which is backed by Baidu, announced that urban PPA smart driving has added three new cities: Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, and plans to gradually cover more than 200 cities across the country this year.

In contrast, in mid-December last year, Zhiji, a subsidiary of SAIC, announced that its IM AD smart driving function has achieved nationwide high-speed NOA coverage, radiating high-speed sections in 333 cities across the country, and covering elevated sections in 59 cities.

The urban NOA function of Zhiji LS6 will be launched one after another before the Spring Festival. The urban commuting mode is planned to cover 100 cities across the country in 2024, and it is expected to achieve autonomous driving in most scenarios by 2025.

As for NIO and Ideal, two of the industry's "top leaders" who dominate the voice and attention, their strategic investment in intelligent driving in 2023 will also reach a very scary level.

The former is confident that by the second quarter of 2024, it will complete the verification of 400,000 kilometers of urban pilot routes, covering more than 230 cities. This means that by then, 96% of NIO users’ resident cities will be able to connect to the network.

After the latter's Max version is upgraded to OTA 5.0, full-scenario intelligent driving will cover all highways and urban ring roads across the country, as well as urban roads in 110 cities.

Even BYD, which once paid little attention to this, is making secret efforts in 2023 to prepare for a turnaround. Including Tesla FSD, which has yet to be seen, its entry into China will continue to accelerate in 2023.

In short, it is still the same point of view, "The past 365 days have been the first year that intelligent driving has fully matured in China's new energy market."

What deserves more attention is that the presence or absence of smart driving functions and the actual experience are slowly affecting the decision-making of car buyers.

After all, numbers don’t lie.

According to data revealed by Yu Chengdong, the new M7 that will become popular in 2023 is the smart driving version, accounting for 60% of the 100,000 orders after its launch, and the urban NCA option rate reaches 75%.

Coincidentally, the 2024 Xpeng G9, which has experienced rebirth, has sold over 15,000 units within 15 days of its launch, of which the Max version accounts for more than 80%. In December 2023, of the 5,405 vehicles sold, the Max version also accounted for more than 80%.

In addition, in 2023, the popularization of high-end intelligent driving functions in increasingly affordable models has become a general trend in China's entire new energy market.

For example, the starting price of the Baojun Cloud Lingxi Edition is only 125,800 yuan, but it is equipped with the "Lingxi Smart Driving 2.0" jointly created by Baojun and DJI, and the high-speed NOA can cover the whole country. The Xpeng G6 and Zhiji LS6 mentioned above are also the vanguard in the "smart-price ratio" dimension.

Precisely based on this background, it is foreseeable that new energy models with more than 200,000 yuan, if they want to become the so-called "hot models", must have no shortcomings in intelligent driving.

For new energy models priced below 200,000 yuan to become so-called "hot models," smart driving also needs to be the icing on the cake.

To sum up, it’s like the title of today’s article: “Driving without wisdom is a dead end.”

In 2024, everyone will definitely face a more fierce war. Because the first half is an electric competition, and the second half is an intelligent decisive battle.

In the end, only the strong will get the cake, while the weak only deserve to disappear in the long river of history...