AITO WENJIE M5: Huawei’s Latest Witness of Continuous Innovation and Professional Strength
At the annual keynote event, Huawei, led by Yu Chengdong, presented an almost fully integrated car, the AITO WENJIE M5.
Going back to 10 days ago, I received an invitation from Huawei to attend this event, just as I had purchased a foldable screen phone. I was confused about whether the event was for the Huawei P50 Pocket foldable screen or for a car.
Arriving at the venue of the event 10 days later, I saw the central stage was decorated with a “Wanxiang” dual circular design for the P50 camera module. I thought to myself that the most important product for the day would be the phone.
Two hours later, however, the purpose of the two circles was only to lift two cars. I was once again taken aback.
So, does it matter to distinguish the “truth” of something?
For example, does it matter whether “Huawei makes cars or not”?
Huawei “Doesn’t Make Cars”
Yu Chengdong knows best whether Huawei makes cars or not.
During the presentation about the car, he made some very important statements.
“Huawei has the capability of manufacturing a car, but Huawei does not make cars.”
“Huawei’s goal is to help automakers make good cars and sell them well.”
“Huawei’s design and software teams were fully involved in the development of the AITO WENJIE M5.”
“The AITO WENJIE M5, as the latest witness of Huawei’s continuous innovation and professional strength, will usher in a new era of intelligent travel.”
Even the Huawei logo could be seen on the charging stations at the AITO WENJIE M5’s home charging point.
When you follow the entire process from research and development to sales of a car, you will find that Huawei was heavily involved in the industrial design and functional shaping of this car.
The most important power drive, intelligent cabin, and ADAS parts of the smart electric car are produced by Huawei.
The software experience and later upgrade guarantee of the whole vehicle are determined by Huawei.
The marketing campaign is 99.99% completed by Huawei.
The sales channels are fully controlled by Huawei.
Do you think Huawei is starting to build cars?
What Huawei cannot decide on “hard”
On my way to the airport after attending the press conference, I also saw a row of Sai Li Si F5s used by Huawei to pick up and drop off guests.
Although the AITO WENJIE M5 is slightly larger in size than the Sai Li Si F5, and the appearance has been aesthetically optimized, you can still see the subtle connections between the design, size, and proportion of the car and the Sai Li Si F5 at a glance.
Just like how JIKE 001 was originally built based on the first pure electric vehicle of Lynk & Co before its release, AITO WENJIE M5 still cannot completely break the connection with the Sai Li Si work for the time being.
This kind of strong binding in the vehicle hardware aspect determines that at the current point in time of the release, Huawei has many dimensions that cannot be fully exerted.
For example, the engine and range-extending drive mode adopted by this car, and the ADAS capability of this car.
In terms of the range extender, the press conference only emphasized the use of “1.5T four-cylinder range extender 3.0”, the specific supplier and core parameters were not mentioned. Even in the final press release, I didn’t see any introduction on this part.
Huawei did not spend too much time discussing the details of the range extender. Instead, it used an extremely clear and easy-to-understand way to externalize the car’s performance in terms of range, etc. to a very pure electric manner, bringing this car back to a broader track.
The advanced driving assistance part, which should have been Huawei’s strength, only got two pages of PPT. In the first page’s introduction of the “omni-directional perception system”, we can determine that this is only a system based on one visual perception camera and three millimeter-wave radars as the main perception capability. It is more primitive than the mainstream multi-camera vision-based scheme currently. The second page of the PPT directly states that it is an L2+ level system, without exaggerating any function and capability.
With Huawei’s deep accumulation of solutions in automatic driving perception and decision-making, even the Jidu Alpha S, which is technically at the same level as this car and also has Huawei-backed LiDAR models, is not equipped with something that this car lacks. I can only summarize it as not enough time.
Huawei’s Defining “Soft'”
The news release that has already been polished by CUE has to undergo another CUE by me.
Giving the extremely valuable position in the article headline, “First to be equipped with the HarmonyOS smart cockpit” is the sentence.
You can judge the importance of software to this car as well as the importance of this car to Huawei.
This is the true “Hongmeng cockpit” first car, and the brands like Jidu that previously used this concept for attention-seeking have now received explicit definition here.
AITO’s Intelligent Cockpit System of the M5 is a natural result of Huawei’s accumulation in the consumer electronics field and its understanding of the demand for smart travel.
When the car display screen is lit up in the press conference video, I believe that all Huawei users who care about the brand can find a strong sense of familiarity.
The aesthetic design of the intelligent cockpit and the style of Huawei’s HarmonyOS are highly consistent. The Smart Dock’s card-style design is also very similar to the interaction logic of HarmonyOS on tablet and mobile devices.
The solid foundation of HarmonyOS in terms of efficiency optimization was also demonstrated during the on-site experience of operating the vehicle after the press conference. The system was extremely smooth in operation, with responsive touch screens, clear logic for jumping between different modules, and clear and lively animations.
I believe that based on Huawei’s overwhelming advantages in UI/UX compared to ordinary automotive companies, the HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit, which is completely developed by Huawei’s social media, design, and product capabilities, in addition to the new forces that have accumulated team strength and design style in human-computer interaction, will give traditional automotive companies a good lesson.
This is only at the system level, not to mention Huawei’s application-layer advantages, such as Pedal Maps, Smart Split Screen, and Multi-zone Voice Assistant, which Huawei also has mature solutions for and were extensively demonstrated during the press conference.
The simplicity, fluency, continuity, and secure interaction experience brought by the intelligent, connected, and cooperative pursuit of HarmonyOS have also been demonstrated in the HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit.
For example, the “Vehicle Online” function can call up the vehicle’s internal and external cameras and other sensors, and the “Watch Control” function can directly query and control the vehicle through a Huawei smartwatch. The “Phone Key” function can also directly unlock the vehicle with a Huawei smartphone, providing direct application cases.
As for the HUAWEI SOUND audio system that harmonizes with the front and back, combined with the experience brought by high-quality multi-channel audio and video content from Huawei Music and Huawei Video, creating a luxury experience does have its benefits. However, it may also be a bottom-level construction that Huawei is doing for the later immersive experience and the launch of more application-oriented commercial models.
To the automotive industry, Huawei is here.In the full process of the launch of AITO Questioning M5 by Huawei, there are three small details that have left a deep impression on me.
Firstly, it is the seemingly simple and straightforward external design descriptions in the beginning, such as “eagle-wing-shaped taillights” and “sail-shaped all-aluminum wheel hubs”;
Secondly, when discussing NVH, Yu Chengdong explained in great detail the meanings of the letters “N,” “V,” and “H”;
Thirdly, in various comparison aspects, Huawei tirelessly mentioned and even “beat” BBA and Porsche by name, and during critical moments, they never forget to bring Tesla in for comparison, too.
Some people say they don’t understand and think that “Huawei has never seen the world before in the automotive industry.”
But what I feel is that Huawei is using its tried-and-true communication methods to jump directly out of the automotive industry’s marketing channels to target consumers who are not necessarily deeply interested in smart cars on a long-term basis.
It is conceivable that terms such as “1,242 km range” and “power performance surpassing luxury cars” will inevitably receive massive exposure relying on large amounts of media content.
And the reason why these promotions are effective is that Huawei already has a complete commercial closed loop, and consumers can find familiar Huawei sales channels to see these automotive products, and the most frightening thing is that Huawei does indeed have a system and a single point on core technology advantages.
In the upstream of acquiring customers, Huawei has exposure, awareness, and brand reputation far beyond the vast majority of vehicle manufacturers.
In the downstream of acquiring customers, Huawei has proven product quality, R&D capabilities, and good user experiences in various other fields.
Although limited by the product, AITO Questioning M5 is not yet a product that meets the ideal “Huawei purity,” but for the entire automotive industry, “Huawei has arrived” in a way that is more direct, more enterprising, and more complete.
(As I write this, the plane is landing, and the flight attendant won’t let me continue writing.)
But this is still not the key point. Huawei’s first comprehensive display in the automotive industry is already dazzling.Let’s share the last page of Huawei’s PPT.
“There is no winter that lasts forever. Once we get through the coldness, there will be warm spring with blooming flowers.“
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.