2021 XPeng Motors 1024 Technology Day
As the most important event for XPeng Motors, the 1024 Technology Day in 2021 did not disappoint. The information presented was so abundant that taking notes was nearly impossible during this two-hour long event, which sometimes felt like a high school class. Among the various topics discussed, the latest developments on XPILOT advanced driving assistance, as well as the new 800V voltage platform, 480 kW supercharging technology, Xmart OS 4.0, and even the Machine Horse and flying cars that still puzzle many people were highlighted.
In summary, the message conveyed during this event was clear: XPeng Motors owns some technologies that others do not have, while some technologies others have were put into mass production by XPeng Motors earlier. More importantly, XPeng Motors is striving to accelerate technological development through cross-domain deployments and provide customers with the most ultimate intelligent experience.
It is indeed true that XPeng Motors moves at an astonishing pace on the path of forward-looking technological exploration.
Now, let’s introduce the five latest achievements presented by XPeng Motors in the order they enter our daily life.
In the second half, XPILOT will be put into mass production.
As usual, let’s first list some data on XPeng Motors’ advanced driving assistance technologies so far:
- 11.98 million kilometers of accumulated mileage for NGP (Navigation Guided Pilot) advanced driving assistance.
- 20, 731 memorized parking routes for parking lot memory-based parking.
- 60% penetration rate for high-speed NGP as of Q3 2021.
During the 1024 Technology Day last year, XPeng Motors officially released the high-speed NGP feature, which has since become a benchmark in the industry.
As an understated person, it may be difficult for me to convince people who have never experienced the power of NGP, no matter how grandiloquent the words used. Therefore, let’s focus on some tangible data:
As of Q3 2021, the high-speed NGP penetration rate of XPeng Motors reached 60%. This rate was only 25% during the first quarter when high-speed NGP was first introduced six months ago.
This means that more and more car owners are becoming aware of the powerful and valuable functions of NGP. Consequently, over 35% of P7 users opted to spend an additional CNY 20,000 or 36,000 to purchase high-speed NGP software services, which is a vote of confidence from users who are willing to pay for this feature.At this year’s 1024 event, it was no surprise that XPeng Motors released the NGP (Navigation-guided Pilot) feature for urban roads, which will be opened to the first batch of urban roads in the first half of 2022.
On the day before 1024, we had the opportunity to experience XPeng VAP+NGP, which is true end-to-end autonomous driving from Point A to Point B.
Starting from the underground parking lot of the Four Seasons Hotel in Guangzhou, we passed through an underground parking lot, toll gates, city roads, construction roads, elevated roads, village roads, and finally arrived at the underground parking lot of XPeng Motors headquarters.
Fortunately, we had zero takeovers during the entire 15 km journey. We watched as the system solved one challenging case after another, demonstrating the ability to surpass that of a newly licensed driver.
However, it should be pointed out that the ride experience at this stage is very average, with a large number of irregular braking and heavy braking. On average, each car in this media test drive event had 2-3 takeovers.
For specific performance details, please reply “20211024 XPeng NGP city experience” on the WeChat public account.
At this year’s 1024 event, XPeng Motors also defined the introduction of urban scenes as the beginning of the second half of intelligent assistance driving.
XPeng Motors sees two tickets to enter the second half of the autonomous driving competition: mass-production urban scene-assisted driving and full-stack closed-loop capability.
XPeng also generously revealed several core capabilities it seeks to achieve this goal.
Liberating positioning capabilities
XPeng has made changes to positioning. Firstly, it has improved positioning accuracy from the previous decimeter level to the centimeter level. Secondly, it has transitioned from being “GPS-based” to being “visual and IMU-based”.The first point about the change in positioning accuracy is easy to understand, so I won’t go into it here.
Regarding the second point, currently, a large portion of Xpeng’s NGP on highways is achieved through GPS positioning. The GPS positioning for high-precision mapping is very similar to that of mobile phones, but with higher accuracy. By relying on GPS positioning, Xpeng has achieved assisted driving on highways based on navigation.
However, city roads differ from highways in that there are many tunnels, buildings, overpasses, etc. This makes it very easy for GPS positioning to be lost, and when GPS positioning is lost, navigation naturally becomes inaccurate. This is something that people also experience with their phone navigation.
To solve the problem of city positioning, Xpeng chose to use vision-based + IMU positioning that is independent of signals. The advantage is that it is not restricted by GPS signals. The disadvantage is that visual positioning is extremely difficult, and currently, the distance measurement ability of most visual perception is very ordinary. Therefore, it is very challenging to achieve high-precision distance measurement with vision.
Finally, there is the issue of map freshness for high-precision mapping, which is also a concern for the entire industry. Dr. Wu Xinzhou briefly mentioned that Xpeng is working with targets and Gaode Map to update map information on a “daily” basis.
Further Perception
Currently, the XPeng P7 equipped with XPILOT 3.0 only has cameras and millimeter-wave radar as its primary sensors. Although the millimeter-wave radar has distance measurement capabilities, it can only track simple objects, and is completely unsuitable for city roads.
Therefore, on the P5, XPeng added two LiDARs, providing a large amount of distance information.
In addition, in order to enhance near-distance perception capabilities, XPeng has also included the data from the 4 surround view cameras around the car in the decision-making list for assisted driving. The aim is to obtain more comprehensive sensing capabilities and form a redundant relationship with the 8 special cameras for assisted driving on the car.
Prediction Gets Even Harder
Although driving at higher speeds on highways is faster, decision-making complexity is not as high. In urban roads, not only is road information more complex, but also the traffic participants on the road are more complex.
To address this, Dr. Wu Xinzhou has condensed various “bizarre” situations in urban scenes into two actions: avoidance (static objects and vulnerable traffic participants) and extreme lane-changing in the maximum speed domain.
However, this process involves multiple difficulties such as differences in driving styles in different regions, and the game with surrounding vehicles.
Here, XPeng Motors also emphasized repeatedly that assisted driving is not the same as autonomous driving, and human-machine co-driving (between humans and cars, between autonomous and human-driven cars) will inevitably be the choice for a long time.
Finally, in the XPILOT section, XPeng Motors also shared their time plan for the future:- XPILOT 3.5 2021H1 City NGP online
- XPILOT 4.0 2023H1 Full-scene Intelligent Assisted Driving Online
- XPILOT 5.0 evolves towards autonomous driving
As expected, XPILOT 4.0 car models will also use 2 NVIDIA Orin X chips, with a total computing power of 508 TOPS. The forward perception camera pixel will also increase to 8 million, while the side view camera will be 2.9 million, and will use a higher integrated domain controller.
Dr. XPeng Wu revealed at the press conference that XPILOT 4.0 will be installed on the new car to be launched at the end of this year, and the architecture of XPILOT 5.0 has been completed.
Friends who are familiar with XPeng must know that the new car at the end of the year is an SUV model on the same platform as P7.
800V SiC platform+480 kW ultra-fast charging technology
As a car owner, I must complain here first. I have been waiting too hard for the new ultra-fast charging.
As one of the few car companies that have laid out the ultra-fast charging system in advance, XPeng Automobile has a very long-term vision in 2018. However, compared with the industry as a whole, there is not much advantage in technology. In the environment where the 250A charging pile is widely popularized, many of XPeng’s self-built ultra-fast charging piles are still 200A. It is not clear how much advantage there is compared to other car models, and the charging power of XPeng’s own P7 is not fully utilized.
Fortunately, it’s not too late to release new ultra-fast charging at this time.
Simply looking at the data, XPeng’s direction for the vehicle end is an 800V high voltage SiC platform, which supports a maximum of 600A current input and an electric drive efficiency greater than 95\%. For the charging end, XPeng’s direction is 480 kW power, combined with lightweight design.
As we approach the end of 2021, more and more car companies are preparing to launch models based on the 800V platform. And it can be expected that to improve efficiency under the high-voltage platform, SiC power devices will also see explosive growth accompanying the 800V platform.
Another detail that cannot be ignored at the charging station end is that XPeng has not only created a 480 kW charging station, but also independently developed a set of energy storage and charging technology. According to the official website, energy storage can meet the needs of 30 cars for uninterrupted high-power charging with just one charge.
There are two points worth mentioning here.
Firstly, “energy storage supporting charging technology will definitely become a standard for supercharging stations.”
In order to achieve faster energy replenishment, car manufacturers have introduced higher power charging technologies and batteries that support fast charging. However, with a demand power of 480 kW per vehicle, it will pose a great challenge to the national power grid. After all, peak electricity consumption for a family is only about 5-8 kW. 480 kW means that more than 60 households will be at full load simultaneously.
Therefore, in order to achieve stable supercharging power and make more efficient use of grid electricity, energy storage is a key component of high-power charging stations.
Secondly, XPeng’s energy storage station can meet the need for uninterrupted high-power charging of 30 cars with just one charge. Assuming that the battery capacity of a car is 70 kWh, even if losses are not taken into account, the battery capacity of the energy storage station needs to reach 2 MWh. Conservatively estimating the cost without the supercharging equipment, it is at least 2 million RMB.
High-power charging will undoubtedly bring a better energy replenishment experience, but behind it, the automakers need to have the strength to create an ecosystem.
Regarding the layout strategy for supercharging, I also communicated with Mr. XPeng after the 1024 conference.## Xmart OS 4.0 Cannot Be Ignored
Xmart OS 4.0 was unveiled at the 1024 Tech Day this year. Compared to Xmart 2.5 of last year, the 4.0 version seemed a bit hurried. Of course, this may also be due to the abundance of information that squeezed the time frame for Xmart OS 4.0, resulting in this part being ignored by many.
Compared with the directionality of autonomous driving, the development of the cabin has always been bumpy, and there is still no clear route.
Last year, XPeng Motors first proposed the concept of full-scene voice control, and this feature has also become the target of imitation for the new and old forces in the auto industry. As a forward-looking leader in cabin technology, I am looking forward to XPeng’s new direction.
Careful review of the video at the press conference can summarize the following points:
- Completely new UI
- WYSIWYG visualization
- Full-scene voice control 2.0
Here, we will not discuss full-scene voice control in detail. WYSIWYG visualization is a very interesting point.
In terms of advanced driving assistance, we emphasize the importance of visualization because this is the core interaction between the car and the driver. The more realistic the visualization, the more it can reflect the system’s status.
The Machines That Can’t Be Understood: Robo-Horses and Flying Cars
The technical details of these two points will not be elaborated on in detail in this article. Interested friends can take a look at these core PPTs.
When XPeng Motors first launched its flying car projects, I was quite confused. With such good skills in car-making, why would they bother creating a machine horse and persist in making flying cars?
However, during the 1024 Conference this year, XPeng’s intention became more clear.
In addition to building a fully integrated intelligent ecosystem, XPeng also hopes to carry out some divergent technological research through different means. These studies can be utilized to empower different departments at an appropriate time, and perception ability is an excellent example for this approach.
In conclusion
To be honest, this year’s 1024 Technology Day exceeded my expectations with many surprises. It has gained my trust in XPeng Motors even more. To conclude with Dr. Wu Xinzhou’s words, “The second half will be the time for mass production.”
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.