Recently, I summarized several cooperation models between Huawei and automobile manufacturers. Interested readers can directly click the link👉🏻合作千万万，华为为什么偏爱小康？_哔哩哔哩_bilibili. Today, we are going to talk about the related cooperation between Huawei’s HarmonyOS and vehicles.
First of all, we need to clarify that HarmonyOS car infotainment system and HarmonyOS cabin are two different concepts. The former mainly refers to the software part of the car infotainment system, while the latter is not limited to the car infotainment system and includes more hardware, such as the proportion of audio and screen hardware, seats, and even the entire cabin layout, all of which will have Huawei’s deep involvement.
As there are many automobile manufacturers cooperating with Huawei on the market, I have prepared a table at the beginning to sort it out for you.
Arcfox α-S HI (Price 397,900/429,900 RMB)
The cooperation between Huawei and Arcfox is the earliest known. With HI logo, this car has caused a lot of waves in the market, and of course, the waves in the stock market are also not small. We conducted a deep experience of Arcfox α-S HI’s HarmonyOS car infotainment system last July, and you can click the link: 【开箱】华为向你说 HI！鸿蒙座舱全网首测_哔哩哔哩_bilibili.
Arcfox α-S HI uses HarmonyOS car infotainment system instead of the full set of HarmonyOS cabin. Therefore, in terms of UI interface, it mainly caters to the needs of Arcfox and satisfies the needs of Arcfox’s positioned users. Therefore, the screen of this vehicle is the same size as that of the ordinary version of Arcfox α-S, and the center console is a 3,840*720 P 21.7-inch fish screen.
Under the main interface, the fish screen is divided into three different modules to display different functions. The most commonly used navigation is the largest. Of course, different widgets can also be added to define different function displays.
On the Arcfox α-S HI, the functions of Huawei HarmonyOS car infotainment system are basically fully displayed.
The specific functions that the Lynk & Co 01 Alpha S HI can achieve are already very diverse:
Touch Interaction:
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Swipe with three fingers to switch the display area of related content
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Swipe up to call up the air conditioning
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Swipe down to call up quick keys similar to those on a phone
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There is also a task management center similar to that on a phone
Voice Interaction:
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Visible Speech
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Continuous conversation
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Four-tone recognition
Mobile connectivity:
- Seamless transfer
Mobile applications can be directly transferred to the car screen. For example, the songs that you are listening to on your phone and the navigation you are using can be directly displayed and operated on the car screen.
- Smooth call connectivity
Video calls can be seamlessly displayed on the car screen, and the microphone and camera are also used on the car end.
- Projection function
Huawei’s mobile applications will be directly displayed on the car screen, and the car can also synchronize the mobile device’s operations.
In terms of voice interaction and touch interaction logic, many car companies can also catch up with Huawei, and there is not much of a technical barrier. However, the last part of mobile connectivity has a relatively high barrier, unless mobile phone manufacturers intervene in car production, such as Xiaomi and Apple. Or car companies make mobile phones, such as Nio and Geely. Otherwise, it is difficult to achieve good compatibility between mobile and car connectivity. This is also one of the reasons why many traditional car companies choose CarPlay, which can directly improve user experience and reduce connectivity costs.
Beijing Magic Cube (Hongmeng car version price 119,900-153,900 RMB)
Yes, the products included in the Hongmeng car system package are not limited to pure electric or hybrid models, and gasoline cars also need a good car system. What’s more, you can now land a model with basic functions similar to those of the Jihoo Alpha S HI for less than 150,000.
This compact SUV was launched at the end of July, and it also marks the first time that the Hongmeng car system has landed on a gasoline vehicle.
From the perspective of the engineering team’s vehicle model, the overall UI design is relatively simple. The bottom dock bar is the air conditioning control button, and the left dock bar includes some functions for vehicle settings and auxiliary driving assistance. The main page is dominated by weather information, with the entrance to multimedia, navigation, and Bluetooth functions on the right.
Geometry announces the use of the Hongmeng car system
As I write these words, Geometry has announced that it will use Huawei’s Hongmeng system for its car system. Although this news started to circulate at the end of 2021, it also indicates that cooperation on Hongmeng car systems is still expanding.
Xiaokang is the “true Hongmeng”!
I won’t go into detail about the relationship between Xiaokang and Huawei here, as you can watch it yourself: Cooperation worth millions, Why does Huawei prefer Xiaokang? – bilibili. Simply put, Xiaokang has the deepest level of application for the entire Hongmeng cockpit of Huawei, making it the “most Huawei”.
At last year’s HDC conference, Huawei showed a relatively complete state of the Hongmeng cockpit. You can read this article for reference: After the 2021 Huawei Developer Conference, Huawei Showed Me What the Future Cars Would Look Like!
At the conference, Huawei displayed a car system image that had not been previously exposed. We can see a horizontally oriented rounded rectangular screen design that is very close to that of a tablet:
– At the bottom of the Dock bar, there are Home, Seat Ventilation, Left/Right Zone Air Temperature/Fan Speed Settings, and Volume Buttons. This design and layout have been used earlier in Tesla’s car infotainment design, and other manufacturers like Huawei use a similar layout more or less when designing the Dock bar, indicating that this design has become a consensus.
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At the bottom of the car infotainment desktop, there are vehicle settings, app drawer, petal maps atomic service widget (in the rightmost energy consumption group), multimedia components, and other functions.
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At the top, there are account, reminder, time, driving recorder, wireless charging pad status, Bluetooth, wireless, signal status display.
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In the middle of the screen, is not like a typical car infotainment, displaying the map, but the wallpaper. This may be a space reserved for manufacturers for customization.
The biggest difference in the presentation of this car infotainment with the previous HarmonyOS car infotainment is that it looks too similar to a tablet. From the overall attribution of the app to the Dock bar, Huawei wants to give all developers an equal chance to get on board. Users can choose many navigation and music apps to use, which also motivates developers.
In terms of functionality, you can refer to the Alpha HI model in the beginning, but AITO’s car infotainment will do better. Of course, we also distinguish the differences between the cabin and infotainment in the beginning, and M7 has more audio, seat, screen hardware size, and cabin layout that are all based on Huawei’s ideas.
Currently, AITO has applied Huawei HarmonyOS cabin to two models, M5 (priced at 259,800 – 331,800 yuan) and M7 (priced at 319,800 – 379,800 yuan). Huawei is more attentive to the updates of the app ecosystem and version iterations for these two models. Moreover, the actual experience is still very different from other “HarmonyOS skin-changing car infotainment”, which is also a way for Huawei to attract cooperation by using Xiao Kang as a sample.
Aweta 11
In the demo of the Aweta 11 test car infotainment that leaked in June, it can be clearly seen that Aweta’s car infotainment UI and functional layout are more similar to the thinking of the mainframe factory like Alpha, with navigation as the main interface on the car infotainment main menu, and energy consumption and multimedia becoming widgets on the right.
However, it is said that this version of the car infotainment has been overturned, and I still hope to follow AITO’s car infotainment to develop. Currently, it is the best choice for Aweta.
ConclusionHuawei’s accumulated experience in interaction on mobile phones is highly inspiring for the automotive industry. “Putting the tablet on the car machine” seems to be a simple adaptation translation, but we also need to deeply consider the interaction logic of car machines as opposed to mobile phones, as well as the development difficulties faced by numerous developers in the Hongmeng ecology.
In the end, what we see is that on the AITO car machine, Huawei has removed the traditional idea of using maps as the main interface, and placed all applications at the same hierarchy, giving developers maximum opportunities. Moreover, with the advantages of Huawei’s mobile phone interconnection, the experience of the entire car machine has set a very good example for the automotive industry.
Also, due to the appeal of this example, many car companies will directly choose Huawei’s car machine solution. We believe that we will see more Hongmeng entering different brands in the future.
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.