Ten months have passed since I first owned a Zeekr 001. As they say, the harder it is to obtain, the more we cherish it. With a distance of 27,000 kilometers, I have gradually transformed it from a basic “bare car” into my ideal car. Each OTA update strongly anticipated by every car owner after receiving their car, I think, is one of the things we all care about the most. This, I believe, is the “love” that all car enthusiasts have for Zeekr.
Zeekr is not perfect, but it has been striving towards perfection. The patience and love of its car owners, along with the keen eyes of the over 30,000 Zeekr owners who are good at discovering things that need improvement, constantly encourage Zeekr’s growth. It is also due to the firm support of 80,000 users who have been accompanying Zeekr on its journey, that Zeekr has grown through “user co-creation.” This is the charm of Zeekr.
Geely Automobile advocates a “problem culture,” which later evolved into a “culture of happiness.” What is the greatest happiness? Solving problems is the greatest happiness.
Now, Zeekr promotes a “co-creation” culture, which essentially faces and solves problems by constructing a user-oriented car company.
Below, I will discuss Zeekr’s intelligent assistance in several areas:
- A superb intelligent anti-skid system is the foundation of excellent vehicle safety. Prior to the release of the 3.0 system update, Zeekr’s four-wheel drive system had already undergone some rather aggressive off-road tests by some auto reviewers. Although Zeekr is an off-road vehicle, the outstanding four-wheel drive system, with 544 horsepower, enabled Zeekr 001 to conquer one off-road territory after another. However, from personal experience, before the release of the 3.0 system update, there was still room for improvement in the previous intelligent four-wheel drive system. Early owners might have had the same experience as me, where the wheels spin when starting up and slip when braking. But after the latest 3.0 system update, I haven’t experienced any wheel spin or tire slip when starting. In layman’s terms, Zeekr has indeed evolved.
However, according to feedback from car owners, the switch from rear-wheel drive to four-wheel drive after using “lightning switching” still needs further improvement. Here, I remind all passionate Zeekr owners that the sport mode is relatively more stable.
- There is still room for improvement in LCC.
Speaking in layman’s terms, I have been traveling on the highway frequently lately. When I activate LCC on the highway, I encounter two of the most common situations. First, when Zeekr 001 is in the leftmost overtaking lane, the vehicle’s intelligent assistance will cause it to shift towards the right lane, with a flower bed guardrail on the left side. This is considered safer (as shown below).
However, when it comes to overtaking on the right-hand side, particularly by large haulage vehicles, there are several issues. Firstly, the recognition time is too slow, with the YiKui instrument panel only displaying the vehicle as it reaches the rear of the haulage truck. At this point, the vehicle begins to shift towards the left, further away from the truck, but as the YiKui has not entirely overtaken the truck, the instrument panel ceases to show the truck’s presence. Consequently, there is a likelihood that the vehicle will shift towards the right without recognising the truck, particularly if the truck is driving close to or slightly over the lane boundary. Is the distance between the two vehicles too small, and is there a significant safety risk? To resolve this, I suggest that when driving at high speeds and encountering a vehicle on the right before overtaking, drivers should grip the steering wheel tightly and apply some force to intervene, thereby manually overtaking before continuing to maintain the lane position. Alternately, they could press the brake pedal before overtaking to cancel the LCC, manually overtake, and then restore LCC using the left side button on the steering wheel. Despite significant improvements, there is still a possibility of a severe braking drag following minor deceleration by the vehicle, with the recognition and response times to such conditions still requiring further optimisation. YiKui’s performance on high-speed roads is commendable, however, as it maintains a smooth and stable steering wheel when encountering corners, just like an experienced driver. Additionally, YiKui also displays a relatively safe and conservative speedometer reading. According to our country’s automobile production requirements, the vehicle’s speedometer reading should be higher than the actual speed, with a typical error of between 3-6 km/h. YiKui’s error is around 7 km/h, as shown in the figure below where the real-time speed on the high-gps map is 118 km/h, but YiKui 001’s speedometer shows 125 km/h.
The speedometer reading on the dashboard is essentially a value calculated by sensors that measure instantaneous speeds at fixed positions within a fixed time period. Although this data is displayed on the dashboard, it still differs slightly from the actual speed of the car, as seen below.
This is also why some car owners wonder why they didn’t receive a speeding alert even though they were going over the limit. Is the device broken? Actually, a big part of the reason is that the speedometer on dashboard is lower than the actual speed. Here, Azu would like to remind everyone, safety first! Do not exceed the speed limit, and do not take chances. Safety first! Safety first! Safety first! Lastly, Azu would like to address the concerns of many car owners: When will the Ek001 rear-end collision alert be released? Azu has been waiting for a year already, please give us an update! Also, when will third-party software be available? Even though the 820 infotainment system was laggy, it had several small games, although not enjoyable, at least we had them! Please speed up and release the karaoke, games, and sentry mode, which are all very useful. Keep going and get them online soon! Welcome fellow car owners to share their thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
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.