This article is reposted from autocarweekly official account.
Author: Wild Xiao Chen
On April 6, 2010, more than ten people started their entrepreneurship journey of “Xiaomi + Rifle” in a very small office in Beijing, drinking porridge made of millet, which is where the name Xiaomi came from.
Since the beginning of its entrepreneurship, Xiaomi’s valuation has always been an abyss that people cannot look into. In 2014, Xiaomi’s smart home app was officially launched. In early 2015, Xiaomi’s valuation leaped to $45 billion, making it the most valuable unlisted technology company in the world, surpassing the valuations of nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies. It is truly a mind-boggling number. Not to mention $10 billion, a few years ago, Google and Amazon didn’t even reach a valuation of $1 billion before going public.
If you ask me how much value can be generated from the application of intelligence in daily life, I think Xiaomi has answered it for me. Compared with high-tech products that are high above, “Xiao Ai”, who can wake up the TV and curtains, is definitely more useful.
We have to admit that traditional brands are easily trapped in some essential and arrogant circles. This has created Xiaomi’s brand, which has overtaken others on a curved track. The most vivid manifestation of this can still be seen in the automotive industry today: technology seems to have become a stumbling block for joint venture brands, which are loyal to cost control and lean management and are unwilling to seek changes. Fortunately, there are still those who pursue innovation, such as Changan Ford, who always keep up with the trend of intelligence.
Regarding the market chaos of pursuing various superficial hot topics, Changan Ford’s President He Xiaqing said that there still needs to be fundamental awe of the market. “Anything done by Changan Ford is basically customer-centric. After perfecting services and products, I believe that the quantity will increase. The biggest breakthrough is a breakthrough in thinking. After that, we must persist.”
Changan Ford, which is fully pushing forward a new era, sang the wave of the 2.0 era at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show: Changan Ford continues to ensure the sinking of intelligent technology, and the new generation of Ford Escort refreshes the intelligent technology experience of the 100,000-yuan level joint venture sedan. “Ford China 2.0” – the first strategic model, Ford Evos, fully demonstrates Changan Ford’s “more Ford, more China” orientation in future product design and intelligent technology development, marking Changan Ford’s comprehensive efforts in the field of intelligence.
As a sales strategy model of Changan Ford, the new generation Focus not only redefines the benchmark of the ten-thousand-yuan joint venture family sedan with its upgraded strength, but also combines the three sensory experiences of “life dignity”, “social superiority”, and “driving safety” with its inherent handling DNA, bringing users a great value experience.
The new generation Focus, which entered the era of intelligence, is equipped with 10.25-inch * 2 Smart Link screens throughout the series, which can realize dual-screen linkage of multimedia, navigation, and phone functions, and the 0.2-second screen response speed makes the touch interaction more convenient.
At the same time, the new generation Focus “Xiaofu Online” car intelligent information and entertainment system, in conjunction with Tencent’s voice technology, comes with King of Glory Li Bai, Daji original sound response. Matching independent main and co-pilot exclusive microphones, even at speeds of up to 80 km/h, can still guarantee a voice recognition rate of over 98%. The wake-up speed is as low as 0.67 seconds, allowing air conditioning/entertainment/navigation/car WeChat functions to be operated freely. Equipped with rich applications such as QQ Music, Himalayan, and Mango TV, car-home interconnection can lead you to enter the era of smart IoT.
The Ford EVOS, which does not look like an SUV or a sedan, has a distinctive crossover style, and is referred to as the “new high-end mid-to-large SUV” by Ford in its official introduction. Regardless of how the final product label is defined, the car is an important symbol of Ford’s entry into the era of intelligence.
Ford EVOS is a new model launched by Changan Ford to lead the trend of the times based on the increasingly diversified needs of consumers. It is also the first global strategic model launched under Ford China 2.0, led by the Ford China Product Center and fully integrated with Ford’s global resources, which adds an extremely important weight to the Changan Ford product portfolio.
In terms of intelligence, like the Mustang Mach-E, the Ford EVOS is equipped with Ford’s new generation of electronic and electrical architecture, the FNV Intelligent Interconnected Network Architecture, which can continue to evolve and grow through vehicle OTA upgrades.In the car, the intelligent embrace cockpit of Ford EVOS creates a sense of quality and technology by extending and crossing design elements such as trims, soft materials, and stitching with the super wide 12.3+27-inch display spanning the front cabin, which also supports 4K resolution display for ultra-high-definition images.
Ford has integrated Baidu’s AI technology and domestic internet application ecosystem for this new generation of intelligent cockpit. SYNC+ system on Ford EVOS has been upgraded to the second generation. The SYNC+ 2.0 intelligent driving system adopts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A vehicle-grade processor, which provides powerful computing and cloud computing capability for strong AI functions and smooth multitasking.
The SYNC+2.0 intelligent driving system adopts Ford’s latest global UI design style, which is more intuitive and concise, with a “relief” design that makes the touch screen experience more realistic. With gesture recognition, drivers can interact with the large screen inside the car through simple gestures. For instance, when making the “shush” gesture, the music stops, and when making the “OK” gesture, the music resumes playback.
SYNC+2.0 intelligent driving system on Ford EVOS is also equipped with Ford’s first virtual AI assistant – VPA Smart Travel Partner. The blue energy loop design with a dynamic and technological feel is inspired by the classic oval shape of the Ford logo, and conveys the brand’s core value of “Pioneer Innovation.”
VPA Smart Travel Partner not only continuously learns drivers’ preferences, but also integrates AI intelligent voice interaction and industry-leading natural semantic recognition functions, supporting more than 70 semantic categories, quickly understanding the needs of the driver and passengers for various in-car scenarios, including air conditioning, seats, sunroof, steering wheel, and ambient lighting.
Unlike other similar large-screen car manufacturers, Ford has developed more usage scenarios for EVOS. “Co-Driving Fun” function is introduced which allows the co-driver to view navigation, vehicle conditions, road signs and other information in a split-screen mode on the 27-inch display, and also enables the co-driver to switch navigation addresses and swipe the screen to assist the driver. By working together, the co-driving function enhances driving safety while allowing the co-driver to enjoy the infotainment functions separately.When the co-driver is watching a video, the driver monitoring system in the car will be activated to monitor whether the driver’s line of sight is distracted by the co-driver’s entertainment content and deviates. If the line of sight deviates for too long, the video will automatically stop playing to ensure driving safety.
In addition, the Ford EVOS also introduces the “Free-style Sanctuary” mode – with a 27-inch 4K high-definition large screen animation, combined with soothing music from B&O sound system and suitable ambient lighting in the car, the seat will be automatically adjusted to the most comfortable state, allowing the car owner to relax and relieve fatigue.
At the third-party software level, the SYNC+ 2.0 intelligent driving system not only provides massive audio and video resources such as iQiyi, QQ music, and Himalaya but also integrates in-car song selection and karaoke functions for the first time, increasing entertainment in various scenarios.
Of course, the Ford EVOS intelligent cockpit is not immutable. Changan Ford plans to provide car owners with a continuously optimized, on-demand subscription, full-cycle digital car experience. By providing customers with customized in-car rich media content and functions through OTA upgrades, car owners can flexibly subscribe like using a smartphone.
OTA, which is more commonly seen in pure electric new energy vehicle models, is no longer difficult for fuel vehicles with the support of electrification architecture. Currently, the Ford EVOS’ FNV intelligent interconnect global network architecture is equipped with vehicle-wide OTA upgrade capabilities.
Here, the Ford EVOS adopts a highly integrated system distribution design as the “neural network” and “decision center” of the entire vehicle, providing high-speed and stable data transmission and processing capabilities to the entire vehicle’s application in terms of safety strategies, intelligent cockpits, intelligent driving, and vehicle-wide OTA.
Changan Ford’s vehicle-wide OTA technology ensures that the vehicle will not black out during the upgrade period, and no vehicle functions currently in use need to be paused. It supports breakpoint resumable transmission and can complete silent and “unnoticeable” upgrades within 30 minutes at most. The design uses A/B backup. When the upgrade is accidentally interrupted, it will automatically revert to the earlier version without affecting the vehicle’s use, and has double encryption protection to ensure data security.
Regarding intelligent driving, the Ford EVOS is equipped with the BlueCruise active driving assistance feature. It is understood that this system is also the first L2+ level driving assistance function to support “hands-free” driving on specific sections of high-speed and city expressways worldwide, supporting automatic car following and automatic turning to ensure the vehicle stays in the center of the lane.As Lu Yi, the new Vice President of Marketing, Sales, and Service and President of National Sales Service Organization of Changan Ford, said, the major task for all automobile enterprises is to gain high recognition from various dimensions. Whether it is a new force or an internet enterprise building cars, the biggest challenge is the qualitative changes in Chinese customers’ demands for services and products.
“We have become accustomed to WeChat payment, takeouts, and convenience, so at Changan Ford, I want to take advantage of advanced digital means to create such a system with customers as the center,” Lu Yi added. In order to keep up with the trend of the times, Changan Ford has formed a complete logic.
Through upgrading from the outside to the inside, the new generation of Focus and EVOS have set a good example for Changan Ford and created a subversive image. From the economy-level sedan, New Focus, to the high-end SUV model, EVOS, we can see the progress and changes made by Changan Ford, a joint venture that seeks innovation.
Looking at the situation in the entire automobile industry, Changan Ford has always sunk its intelligence in the premise of technological upgrading. From the creator of the T-car to the quality and image passed down for a hundred years, to the current technological transformation, we can see that while everyone is talking about the era of intelligence, Changan Ford tells us with practical actions that today’s high technology is no longer a privilege for the rich as it was ten years ago.
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.