Practice Science And Technology Self-Reliance And Self-Improvement, Zero Running Car Self-Developed Chip To Seize The Intelligent Driving Track

The development of China's new energy vehicle industry is on the rise. Under the stimulation of multiple favorable policies and with the development plan of new energy vehicle industry (2020-2035), China's new energy vehicle industry is expected to further develop into a fast track.

In the past October, the sales of new energy vehicles continued to pick up, and the new force of China's car making has become an important growth pole. Among them, the number of sales of zero running vehicles in October was 1743, up 66% month on month. Since its launch in May, the sales volume of its main sales vehicle zero running T03 has been increasing rapidly. In October, the sales volume of 1681 units per month has exceeded 1000 for the first time, with a total sales volume of 5358 units.

Not only is the sales momentum good. At the "autonomous chip? Smart driving future" intelligent driving chip industry development forum held on October 27, zerorun also released the first domestic AI intelligent driving chip with full independent intellectual property rights - "Lingxin 01". This means that from hardware to chip, zero running has completed the industrial layout of intelligent driving solutions based on independent intellectual property rights, and is in the forefront of domestic automobile enterprises in terms of technology independence, innovation and application.

"The core technology must be in our own hands. Technology should be put in our own hands just like food. Technology can't be bought, won't be obtained, or won't come." Wu Wei, director of the mechanical equipment department of the Industrial Development Department of the national development and Reform Commission, said at the intelligent driving chip industry development forum.

Among a large number of new forces in domestic car making, zerorun has determined its own R & D route early. As a technology-based vehicle enterprise, zerorun has been promoting product optimization with innovative technology. Facing the future trillions of smart car market, it hopes to further consolidate its core competitiveness by building independent research and development chips.

Zhu Jiangming, founder and chairman of zero running automobile. Information map

Intelligent, building moat of automobile industry

The rapid rise of Tesla has promoted the development of intelligent and electric automobile industry in the world. The market value of Tesla has exceeded the $400 billion mark, which is more than the sum of the market value of Toyota and Volkswagen.

Why does Tesla have such a high valuation? In addition to the electric and automatic driving technology which is in the forefront of the global automobile industry, the core reason behind it is self-study ability.

Driven by the stimulation of Tesla and the great changes in the automobile industry, a number of new forces of automobile manufacturing have been born in China. They regard Tesla as the target of learning and challenge, and especially emphasize the intelligence. Whether it is Weilai, Xiaopeng, ideality, Weima and zerorun, all of them regard the improvement of intelligent level as the key to build enterprise moat.

The "new four modernizations", represented by intellectualization, networking, electrification and sharing, are reshaping the global automotive industry. As Wu Wei said, mastering the core technology of the era of intelligent vehicles will be the key to development.

For the intelligent driving system, the chip is like a "brain". At present, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and others occupy the main market share of intelligent driving chips in the world, and occupy certain advantages in the future market competition.

However, most of the chips and software algorithms of the new car manufacturing enterprises are from abroad, and their independent innovation and R & D capability is slightly insufficient. The typical representative of the choke neck is the chip.

"In the future, if the smart car achieves a certain scale, its overall performance and function cost should be maximized. The key is to have its own intelligent driving chip. For smart cars, intelligent driving is a commanding height and a key breakthrough point. " Zhu Jiangming said.

Zhu Jiangming said that as the first intelligent driving chip with independent intellectual property rights in China, the CPU processor of Lingxin 01 adopts "xuantie c860" of pingtouge semiconductor company of Ali, and integrates high-performance AI neuron processor. The overall energy consumption ratio is lower, the openness is stronger, and the security is more reliable.

It is understood that the chip will be carried on the zero running C11, the first pure electric high-end SUV of zero running vehicle. At the same time, the zero running C11 will also adopt the automatic driving solution with independent intellectual property rights. Not only the chip, core parts and vehicle electrical architecture are independently developed by zerorun, but also can quickly respond to the adjustment and Optimization in the intelligent driving system; at the same time, the user can also To enjoy the fast iterative OTA and software optimization function. The new car is scheduled to appear during the Guangzhou auto show in November this year.

Autonomous chip, intelligent driving can overtake in a corner?

As a young car making force, although the popularity of zero running is not so loud, it has its own unique strategic direction and technical background of technology-based companies. Therefore, some people compare zero running to "Huawei" among the new forces of car making.

In 2015, Dahua Technology Co., Ltd., Zhu Jiangming and other founders jointly invested in the establishment of zero running automobile. Zhu Jiangming, who was born as an engineer, has made clear the importance of mastering the core technology for zero running cars. With nearly 30 years of R & D and manufacturing experience, he pays more attention to the efficiency of capital utilization and technology investment. From the perspective of public data, the R & D cost rate of zero running vehicles in 2019 is as high as 50%.

Therefore, since its establishment, zerorun has independently developed three major vehicle platforms and three core technologies of "three electric" system, intelligent network connection system and automatic driving system. It has also proved to the outside world in three years that zero running is the second manufacturer in the world with complete independent R & D capability of intelligent electric vehicles after Tesla.

As a car manufacturing enterprise with it background, zero running automobile has rich hardware manufacturing experience, embedded software ability, better understanding of the combination of software and hardware, and has a complete grasp of the core hardware platform and algorithm technology of intelligent driving, and realizes the autonomous full coverage of key technologies of intelligent driving perception, decision-making and execution level.

As early as 2018, zerorun announced that it was jointly developing the first domestic AI intelligent driving chip "Lingxin 01" with Dahua shares. As a giant in the field of security, Dahua shares has full experience in the field of chips. However, it is not easy to develop a chip for intelligent driving.

Zhu Jiangming said that compared with chips in the field of security, the chip of vehicle gauge level needs better conditions in terms of reliability and other aspects. At the same time, intelligent driving needs to process more data information and needs stronger data processing ability.

"Lingxin 01", which took three years to build, has some unique advantages.

"Because Dahua was born as a video player, our chip has a special understanding of the memory bandwidth, the entire video data stream, and various internal requirements. Therefore, although our chip only has 4.2t computing power, it may surpass the 10t level of others, because we have broken all necks, and all data streams are the most smooth and effective." Zhu Jiangming said.

At the same time, Lingxin 01 chip can realize the combination of multiple pieces to form a computing platform through the PCIe cascade technology, providing more powerful AI computing power, and supporting the access of 12 cameras to realize 360 ° panoramic view, automatic parking, ADAS domain control and nearly L3 level automatic driving functions.

Zhu Jiangming said that in addition to taking the lead in the application of the zero running C11, the S01 and T03, which are already on the market, will also use "Lingxin 01" when making model changes in the future. Moreover, "Lingxin 01" will also be open to other enterprises in the future.

"Looking forward to the future, zero running goal will continue to increase investment in software and algorithms in the future, and can overtake comprehensively in the field of intelligent driving." Zhu Jiangming is full of confidence in the software capability of zero running cars.

How can new car manufacturing enterprises survive?

For Zero run, "Lingxin 01" will be an important support for its products to participate in market competition. Both Zhu Jiangming and the whole zero running car are full of expectations for the C11 model.

"With the launch of C11, I believe it will bring you more surprises. In the past few years, we have been laying the foundation for the research and development of core components, including the "Lingxin 01" chip. In the future, we need to make efforts in the product end. The C11 has the potential to become a blockbuster. " Zhu said.

"At the same time, zero running T03 also gives us full confidence. The user's good feeling and word-of-mouth have been deeply demonstrated in the sales volume in September and October. Many orders come from old users, which makes us believe that our vehicle R & D system, core technology and production quality are mature, and zero running can provide users with first-class experience." Zhu Jiangming said.

According to the research and development of the electric control department, the company will carry out the research and development tasks of the electric control department, carry out the research and development of the electric control department, carry out the research and development tasks of the electric control department, carry out the research and development of the electric control department, and carry out the internal cooperation with the electric motor department. At the same time, zero running will further deepen the production and marketing coordination work, and the marketing team will lean to the front line to comprehensively improve the marketing and service ability of zero running.

Of course, there is still a long way to go for zero running. Since the beginning of this year, the field of new car manufacturing has shown obvious polarization. The head enterprises have developed steadily, but many enterprises have been eliminated due to the explosion of thunder.

Zero running, which adheres to the "long-distance running strategy", has been playing steadily, adhering to the rigor and pragmatism of it people. In the past five years, zero running automobile has invested 3 billion yuan to complete the core layout of intelligent electric vehicles, self-developed three electric systems and intelligent systems, and built Jinhua automobile factory and three power plant Look, the financing of zero running car is less than one tenth of that of Weilai and one third of that of Xiaopeng, but it has completed very solid research and development achievements. This is closely related to the team's experience of continuous technological entrepreneurship. It ensures that a new car goes on the market every year with steady progress and pays more attention to long-term development. It is a long-term activist.

According to the official data of zero running, as of September 30, 2020, the number of zero running patents has reached 896, including 420 invention patents, accounting for more than 50%, 413 utility model patents and 63 appearance patents. However, the number of patents of most new car manufacturing enterprises is around 500. Such achievements are among the best.

In any case, there is a sufficient foundation for the R & D of basic core components. On this basis, the advantages of zero running will gradually appear in the future, and a solid moat will be built, and the first echelon of new forces of car building will be pointed at.