From 0 to 1, the idea car took four years and five months to come to fruition. On December 2nd, the first batch of the Idea ONE 2020 model rolled off the production line and was subsequently shipped from the Ideal Automobile Changzhou Base. Two days later, the first Ideal ONE was delivered to Han Han, making him the owner of the 001 car.
Speaking of the Ideal ONE, its four-screen interactive system cannot be ignored as it is one of its main innovations and features.
Simply put, the four-screen interaction is a multitasking system. When handling multiple tasks at the same time, it becomes problematic if they are piled up on one screen as it requires too many operations. However, by extending the functions stacked together into multiple screens, multi-screen design can be used.
In terms of design, from the main driver’s side going to the right, the screens consist of a digital instrument screen, a central control screen, an entertainment screen for the co-pilot, and a function control screen at the bottom.
The digital instrument screen provides information about driving safety, focusing on auxiliary driving.
The central control screen integrates entertainment, phone, navigation, and other functions, can be controlled by touch and voice commands.
The entertainment screen for the co-pilot provides entertainment and information and comes with an independent Bluetooth audio source.
The function control screen interacts with the vehicle, supports fuzzy operations, and abandons the multi-level menu.
As Vice President of Intelligent and System at Chehejia, Fan Haoyu puts it, “operating together is the real next-generation interactive experience, and removing steps in the use process can improve the experience.”
Based on this, let’s chat about Fan Haoyu’s Q&A session in the 42 HOW Ideal National Car Owner Group on this topic. On December 7th, some Ideal ONE car owners or potential car buyers raised questions about the Ideal ONE’s car system in the group. Fan Haoyu quickly responded.
Regarding voice control, some members of the group asked if it is possible to open more car control functions such as suspension status and driving modes. Fan replied that in the short term, the voice control functions regarding driving and the vehicle will not be opened due to safety concerns. Since voice commands can be used by all occupants of the vehicle, if other passengers adjust the ADAS settings or driving modes, it may result in safety hazards.The first question that the friend asked was whether there will be voice control related to vehicle driving in the future, and Fan’s answer was that it will not be opened in the short term due to safety concerns. The friend continued to ask, “Can the microphone in the car be used to pick up only the driver’s side microphone instructions?” Fan answered, “The positioning of voice control is to solve high-frequency rigid demand usage scenarios and make it more convenient. It is not to cover all functions. The function of voice control forWhen it comes to the aspect of voice, we have to mention the differences between the 2020 and 2019 models of the Ideal ONE regarding voice commands as well as some feedback. The voice system of the 2020 Ideal ONE has optimized all the bugs on the 2019 PP3 models, and added some new wake-up words, improving the user experience. Now, both the voice recognition rate and the prompt sound for auxiliary driving are good.
It is certain that compared with most car models in the market, its voice commands are relatively user-friendly. The wake-up word for the vehicle is “Ideal Fellow”. You can use it to do some basic operations in the music or map interface, such as “turn the volume up,” “I want to go home,” “next song,” etc. without having to say the wake-up word, and the recognition rate is high.
In addition, both music and maps support activation without a wake-up word, which is convenient for frequently used apps.
Bluetooth adapter
@Tony: For the passenger’s Bluetooth independent audio source, can we not use a Bluetooth adapter?
Fan: We must use a Bluetooth adapter because this is a principle-level issue. The built-in Bluetooth of the vehicle is programmed to act as a guest to receive the sound from the phone’s Bluetooth, but it must also act as a host to send a signal to a Bluetooth headset. This is not practicable in principle. Therefore, we simulated the function by developing an adapter that imitates a host being a single audio source and outputting to the headset. The technology involved is a bit difficult, and no one has done it before. We have just confirmed the final appearance of the adapter yesterday, which is pretty good and compact.
How should we understand this Bluetooth adapter?
Previously, Fan also mentioned that “We have done one thing, that is, double audio output. The passenger can use a Bluetooth headset to listen to the screen in front of him, and the driver can play his own music without interfering with each other.
For instance, when I’m driving and the boss calls to discuss something with me, my wife might find his voice annoying, so she can take out her earphones and adjust it. I think this experience is very interesting, and my family will like it a lot.”
So I can’t help but wonder what this Bluetooth adapter looks like.
@Tony: Will the adapter occupy a USB port for a long time? Does Ideal have a plan to find a suitable location on the mainboard and equip the adapter so that it does not occupy the front USB ports?
Fan: Currently, there is no plan yet. We have not seen a module that can simultaneously support guest and host and work together. We developed the adapter hardware and software by ourselves, which was quite taxing.
@Min Xiaobai: Will this adapter only fit in the front USB A port?The adapter is installed in front row A port, which is either USB or Bluetooth. When using the Bluetooth adapter, it needs to be plugged into the front USB port, which means that the USB port is occupied, for example, when you want to charge your device via USB. How big the impact is, what do you think?
Entertainment and media
@东岳张鹏飞: Will Tencent Video be added later?
Fan: Please stay tuned for OTA updates including Tencent Video. Currently, iQiyi is the ideal on-board platform for video. iQiyi has not opened up its port to Idealseed, and currently, Idealseed can open the video app, but searching for video content still needs to be done manually.
Also, if you are accustomed to using Tencent Video or want to use it, you may have to wait a bit longer. Who knows, maybe it will be available later? Well, you may have to subscribe to two video services.
@江山: Does the car audio have cached music? For example, in an underground parking lot without signal, can you listen to cached songs that were listened before?
Fan: Currently, the songs you have listened to in Idealseed ONE are cached. However, this part of the copyright agreement is still in a gray area. It is not technically difficult, but mainly constrained by music copyright holders. I understand that even QQ Music does not support caching in the car.
So music can be cached, but it’s the copyright issue that’s the bottleneck.
Overall, these are the answers from @范皓宇 to car owners.
The most impressive thing is the last sentence from Fan:
“In fact, from everyone’s discussion, I really see hope: when the vehicle changes from a bunch of physical buttons to touchable and even voice-activated, imagination is greatly stimulated. In short, on the day you get your car, the development has just begun, and we will continue to pursue the ideal car that resonates with you.”
Seeing this sentence, I think of those who are skeptical of new energy vehicles or who criticize the likes of Idealseed’s hybrid vehicles. If we use “technology has a lifecycle” to put it, as @颜宇鹏 said:
“We believe that the future of cars will become an extension of the mobile Internet, which will enable drivers to define their own personalized mobility solutions. The next ten years of technology, materials, and engineering will be devoted to making the car the most innovative and valuable asset for today’s connected consumer.”
(*Note: The images in the original Markdown are not included as they cannot be displayed in text format.)Innovators are great, but they only make up a tiny proportion of the general population. The combined proportion of the masses and laggards is much greater. If we compare them in terms of rhetoric, the latter will easily overwhelm the former. However, criticizing innovators from a laggard’s perspective is simply not on the same level. Innovators and laggards are neither right nor wrong in and of themselves. Just like any technology, there are only orientations, not right or wrong.
“On the day you receive your car, the development has just begun, and we will continue to strive towards realizing your ideal car in resonance with you.” With these words, car owners are willing to grow together with ideal, aren’t they?
It is worth being acknowledged for working hard on something.
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Making trade-offs before delivery for the 2020 Ideal ONE: the ultimate unboxing experience
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A single view of all the changes: the nationwide premiere of the 2020 Ideal ONE
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.