2024 Beijing Auto Show Preview: New Intelligent Driving Technologies Are Ready to Launch

From April 25 to May 4, the 2024 (18th) Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing Auto Show") will be held at the Shunyi Pavilion of the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. After a four-year absence, the Beijing Auto Show, which returns, is themed "New Era, New Automobile", with a total exhibition area of ​​230,000 square meters. Exhibitors include well-known domestic and foreign automobile and parts manufacturers, with a total of more than 1,500.

Over the past four years, the transformation of China's automobile market has been unprecedented. According to the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association, from April 1 to 14, the wholesale and retail penetration rates of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 50%, and the oil-electric market structure is facing a reshaping. The improvement of the electrification "foundation" of new energy vehicles will directly promote the "gear shifting and speeding up" in the second half of intelligence, and intelligent driving is gradually becoming the standard configuration of new energy vehicles.

Facing the first international A-class auto show in China in 2024, intelligent driving-related companies are gearing up to release new products and technologies at the show to lead the changes of the times. In this article, Gasgoo has compiled a list of new intelligent driving technologies to look forward to at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show.

1. Hesai Technology will focus on displaying three laser radars: ATX, AT128, and ET25

At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Hesai Technology will bring a number of high-performance lidar products to the exhibition, focusing on the latest compact high-performance long-range lidar ATX, ultra-high-definition long-range lidar AT128, and ultra-thin in-cabin long-range lidar ET25.

Among them, the newly released ATX is a platform product, built on the fourth-generation chip architecture of Hesai, and has undergone multi-dimensional optimization in terms of ranging, resolution, cost, etc., with the main features of seeing farther, wider viewing angle, and higher accuracy: ATX is 60% smaller in size and 50% lighter than AT128; the maximum detection distance is 300 meters, which is 50% higher than AT128; the horizontal field of view is 140°, which has a wider detection range than the 120° horizontal field of view of similar products on the market; it supports up to 256-line scanning, and the best angular resolution is 0.08°x 0.1°, which is more than twice that of AT128.

Image source: Hesai Technology

AT128 is an ADAS long-range LiDAR specially developed by Hesai for the OEM mass production market. It has a length, width and height of 137×112×48mm, a power consumption of 18W, a global resolution of 1200×128, a detection distance of 200 meters (@10% reflectivity), and a frequency of over 1.53 million points per second. Since the start of mass production and delivery in 2022, it has enabled a number of mass-produced passenger car models to be launched.

Released in April 2023, ET25 is Hesai's first automotive-grade ultra-thin long-range LiDAR for the ADAS front-end mass production market, designed to be placed behind the front windshield. While achieving an extremely thin body of only 25 mm, ET25 also has the characteristics of low noise and low power consumption. The noise when operating in the cabin is less than 25 decibels, and it can increase the ranging capability of 905 nm LiDAR (under the condition of 10% reflectivity) to more than 250 meters.

2. RoboSense will showcase the new generation of medium and long-range LiDAR MX on the M platform

At this auto show, RoboSense will showcase its new generation of medium and long-range laser radar MX on the M platform, which was recently released.

As a platform product, MX can continue to evolve and achieve performance upgrades from generation to generation while maintaining the point cloud scanning form, data interface and other specifications. It can help customers continuously optimize the intelligent driving performance of new models, and the secondary development cost is about "zero", continuously creating a higher-level intelligent driving experience.

Image credit: RoboSense

In addition, MX is equipped with RoboSense's fully self-developed SoC chip M-Core, which uses a large number of mature modules and devices from the M platform, such as 100% use of two-dimensional scanning architecture, core optical paths and optoelectronic devices, thereby ensuring that automotive-grade mass production can be accelerated in a short period of time.

MX is only 25mm thick, has an ultra-quiet operating sound and ultra-low power consumption of less than 10W; the maximum distance can reach 200 meters, the field of view is 120°x25°, and there are 126 lines (RO|regional equivalent to 251 lines). At the same time, the intelligent "stare" function has been upgraded, and the ROI is globally adjustable, bringing a safer and more efficient intelligent driving experience.

Qiu Chunchao, CEO of RoboSense, previously said, "MX will achieve mass production of the first project at a cost of less than US$200 (approximately RMB 1,447.78), and will lock the price to around RMB 1,000 as soon as possible, leading the entire industry into the era of RMB 1,000 phones."

3. SenseTime Jueying series original large model unveiled

At this auto show, SenseTime will bring many AI large-scale model products and functional displays covering smart driving and smart cockpits, including the first on-vehicle demonstration of UniAD, a true end-to-end autonomous driving solution for mass production, as well as an AI large-scale model cockpit product matrix with a multimodal scene brain as the core and a new cockpit 3D interaction.

The UniAD solution is a general large-scale model of SenseTime Jueying's integrated perception and decision-making autonomous driving. It can cope with the complex environment of urban areas through data learning and driving, relying only on the visual perception of the camera, without the need for high-precision maps. Not only that, on rural roads without center lines that are difficult to break through with traditional solutions, UniAD can also drive freely, completing a series of difficult operations including turning left at a large angle to get on the bridge, avoiding vehicles occupying the road and construction areas, and detouring running pedestrians.

At the same time, SenseTime will also bring a new generation of autonomous driving large model DriveAGI. Relying on a multimodal large model, this product can enhance the interpretability and interactivity of end-to-end autonomous driving solutions. It has a wider range of applicable scenarios, higher performance, and lower barriers to entry, making the experience perceptible, interactive, and trustworthy.

In the field of smart cockpits, SenseTime has created an AI large-scale cockpit product matrix with "multimodal scene brain" as the core. In this auto show, innovative cockpit applications including "travel doctor", "magic pen" and "child companion" will be fully exhibited.

In addition, SenseTime Jueying will also bring two new cockpit 3D interaction demonstrations to this auto show: 3D Gaze high-precision line of sight interaction and 3D dynamic gesture interaction, to create a natural interaction experience that is more in line with human intuition.

4. Neusoft Group presents a variety of cockpit, software and other products

At this auto show, Neusoft will showcase a variety of smart cockpit and smart communication iterative products; more differentiated and interactive global navigation, AR HUD, NAGIVI and other software products; efficient and complete global full-stack automotive intelligent software services, one-stop vehicle-road collaboration solutions and the latest products and technologies for Internet of Vehicles security.

At the same time, at the "Starting towards A with Intelligent Driving" theme launch conference, Neusoft will launch the newly upgraded 0neCoreGo® global in-vehicle intelligent travel solution 5.0, fully demonstrating how Neusoft empowers Chinese car manufacturers to go overseas around navigation groups, AR HUD and global in-vehicle ecology, and bring intelligent travel experience to global car users.

5. FUTURUS will bring five innovative car HUD products

As a cutting-edge company focusing on the research and development and application of augmented reality display technology in the automotive field, FUTURUS will present five innovative automotive HUD products at this auto show: light field ARHUD, full scene ARHUD, standard version WHUD, full scene WHUD, and full window PHUD. In addition to the traditional bench demo, FUTURUS will also bring two experimental exhibition cars for guests to experience.

FUTURUS transforms the real needs of users into specific product function definitions based on the principle, and also makes efforts in different dimensions such as optical design, software and hardware, and HMI interaction to create a light field AR HUD product based on real-world coordinate system superimposed with virtual information. The light field AR HUD product uses multi-focal light field imaging technology with continuous zoom, combined with spatial motion posture capture and delay compensation algorithms, as well as high frame rate and high performance real-time rendering to achieve precise integration of virtual and real.

Image source: FUTURUS

FUTURUS said that the software and hardware systems of the light field AR HUD experimental vehicle have undergone four years of road testing and continuous optimization, and the AR Kernel® and HMI design solutions have iterated hundreds of versions, with actual vehicle test data exceeding 100,000 kilometers. Data shows that as of December 30, 2023, the cumulative shipments of FUTURUS front-end mass-produced HUD products have reached 310,391 units.