Author: Xu Jinkai

In this era of fierce market competition, whoever takes action faster means that they will gain greater initiative.

It is clear that Jidu understands this principle. On October 27th, Jidu, which had just been established for more than 600 days, released its first robot, the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition, with a new car price of RMB 399,800.

Prior to this, the first batch of 1000 Chief Experience Officer positions for the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition had already been booked.

At the press conference, Jidu CEO Xia Yiping announced an additional second batch of 1000 positions.

These 2000 consumers will all receive lifetime high-level intelligent driving, lifetime quality assurance, lifelong free charging, and customized digital collectibles and other exclusive benefits. The strength of these benefits are more prominent than the benefits worth RMB 40,000 that were given away by Avita a few days ago.

Although limited by vehicle testing, the ROBO-01 will not be officially delivered until the third or fourth quarter of next year, but this does not affect Jidu’s leadership in joining the internal competition.

Different from many brands that rely solely on “physical competition” means such as price reductions and increased configurations, Jidu has introduced the concept of automotive robots, and has subverted the industry from the perspective of vehicle usage philosophy.

What Is Automotive Robot?

What do you think of when you hear the word “robot”?

A humanoid shape that can talk to normal humans, move, and has a certain degree of self-learning ability. This is the characteristic of a robot in the minds of most people.

However, from a broader perspective, not only humanoid robots can be called robots, but also robot cats, robot dogs, and other machines belong to the category of robots.

In Xia Yiping’s view, Jidu is a robot in the form of a car, and he has the following three arguments.

First, we believe that the most efficient way for any robot to communicate with humans is through voice, just like humans. Therefore, why voice is so important, and this is no less important than autonomous driving.

Second, regardless of the robot you are talking about, whether it is in the form of a dog, a cat, or two legs, it needs to recognize patterns and obstacles on the road, which is autonomous driving. The choice of visual methods plus laser radar and various technologies behind it is the same. Free movement and perception are long-term problems that need to be solved.

Third, any robot needs to continuously self-learn and improve in the environment and be able to self-iterate in the future.

“Why are natural communication, free movement, and self-growth the core abilities of all future robots? Any robot is the same, whether it is voice control or autonomous driving. What is the difference between an autonomous driving car that drives out of the house and a robot that runs out of the house? One has wheels, and the other has two mechanical legs, but they are all driven by motors, and the size of the motors is the only difference.

Why is it called a car robot, not a robot car, there is still a difference. We believe it is a robot in the form of a car,” Xia Yiping further explained.

In order to showcase the robotic features of the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition, and reinforce the label of Jidu Motors as a car robot manufacturer, Jidu was the first to equip the new car with Qualcomm 8295 cockpit chip and dual NVIDIA Orin X intelligent driving chips, providing natural communication and free movement support.

Qualcomm 8295 is the first mass-produced 5nm process vehicle-grade chip, with 30TOPS AI computing power, nearly 8 times the performance improvement of the previous generation.

Thanks to the support of Qualcomm 8295, the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition is equipped with a 35.6-inch 6K ultra-clear integrated screen which can provide consumers with an immersive 3D visual HMI and entertainment experience.

Not only that, with strong computing power support, the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition can also achieve global offline voice recognition, with a voice recognition speed of up to 500ms, and a whole-chain interaction response speed of under 700ms, ensuring smooth interaction even in weak network or disconnected scenarios, such as tunnels, underground parking lots, and mountainous areas.

In the field of intelligent driving, the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition is equipped with a leading high-end intelligent driving hardware package, including dual NVIDIA Orin X providing up to 508TOPS of underlying computing power, and 31 intelligent driving sensors (2 LIDARs, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, 12 high-definition cameras), providing 360-degree perception.

In the 12 HD cameras, there are 7 with 8 million pixels, 4 with 3 million pixels, and 1 with 2 million pixels, which fully meets the visual perception needs in different complex scenes, enabling it to have the ability to achieve point-to-point advanced driving assistance. Coupled with Baidu’s 9-year accumulation in the field of autonomous driving and up to 36 million kilometers of verification data, it has laid a solid foundation for Jidu’s intelligent driving capability.

“Automotive Basics” Determine the Superstructure

Although the ROBO-01 Lunar Edition has strengths in natural interaction, free movement, and self-growth, the attributes of the car have not changed, and it is still a passenger-carrying transportation tool.

Therefore, the evaluation standards of automobiles, such as design aesthetics, spatial performance, endurance, performance, and services, still have extremely high reference value.

Geely is the best backing for Jidu.

The ROBO-01 Lunar Edition uses Geely SEA Magnificent Architecture platform, which is developed by Geely for 4 years with a total investment of 18 billion yuan. It is a pure electric architecture with high scalability and flexibility.

New cars from Smart, Polestar, and Lotus are all developed based on this platform.

Based on the Geely SEA Magnificent platform, Jidu can quickly complete chassis adjustments for L4 autonomous driving, without the need for additional MuleCar verification, and can quickly enter the development stage of SIMUCar.

In the system architecture, Jidu EVLOVING TECHNOLOGY, an L4-level electronic and electrical architecture, is in development, based on Apollo’s advanced intelligent technology and the integration of Geely SEA vast platform. It incorporates the EEA electronic and electrical architecture and the SOA operating system, supports higher-level autonomous driving core functions and AI capabilities, and achieves inter-domain and intra-domain integration to provide guarantees for the intelligence of new vehicles.

Additionally, the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition features the Ningde era 100kWh ternary lithium battery, allowing for a range of more than 600km.

Equipped with front and rear permanent magnet synchronous dual motors, the peak total power of the dual motors is 400kW, providing powerful acceleration with a 0-100 km/h time of only 3.9 seconds, and capable of meeting the diverse driving requirements of most people.

Moreover, the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition performs well in terms of space utilization, with a body length of 4853mm, width of 1990mm, height of 1611mm, a wheelbase of up to 3000mm, a trunk storage space of up to 555L, and a pure flat expansion storage space up to 1528L with the rear seats folded.

In addition to outstanding space performance, the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition also features ergonomic seats with ventilation, heating, and massage functions, providing comfortable driving experiences. Additionally, the intelligent cockpit system allows for free communication and is full of technology, and the auxiliary driving system has great potential, presenting an image of future travel.

Of course, as a new brand that values consumer experience, customer benefits are also essential. By ordering and purchasing the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition, customers can enjoy the following benefits:

– Lunar exploration exclusive benefits: Lunar Rabbit-exclusive digital collection, Lunar Exploration customized delivery gift box, technology/aerospace series themed activities;

• Lifelong high-level intelligent driving: Lifelong free high-level intelligent driving package global launch;
• Lifelong worry-free charging: Lifelong free charging, free home charging piles and installation;
• Lifelong vehicle quality assurance: Lifelong three-electricity quality assurance, lifelong whole vehicle quality assurance;
• Intimate services: Lifelong free road rescue, lifelong free car networking traffic, 1-to-1 communication with personal butler;
• Priority pick-up: Priority pick-up based on the payment time of the deposit.

What does this mean? Some netizens joked that apart from paying for the car, no additional expenses are needed.

What will Jidu face?

Whether from the perspective of the prominent concept of automobile robots, or the chassis architecture and three-electric system, the first mass-produced model of Jidu, the ROBO-01 Lunar Exploration Limited Edition, has impressive strength, which is also the confidence that Jidu leads the era of intelligent cars 3.0.

What’s more interesting is that Jidu has divided the current automobile industry into different stages:

• Automobile 1.0 era: the era of fossil fuel vehicles, as a means of transportation, the ability of automobiles to transport from point A to point B has been improving, and the operating efficiency has been increasing.
• Automobile 2.0 era: the era of new energy, as cars shift from being means of transportation to intelligent terminals and mobile spaces, they are able to meet the needs of users in more scenarios.
• Automobile 3.0 era: the era of automobile robots, where AI-driven ROBOCAR takes over driving under high computing power and AI algorithms.

According to the division of the stage, the vast majority of new energy vehicle brands are still in the era of Automobile 2.0. From the perspective of market development, the consumer base that is willing to accept electric vehicles is expanding, which means that there is still a long way to go for the era of Automobile 2.0.

Under such circumstances, the difficulty of promoting high-level automotive robots to ordinary consumers is not to be underestimated for Jidu.

In my opinion, the concept of Automobile 3.0 is too advanced, and Jidu’s attempt to seize market share from the market pattern dominated by Automobile 1.0 and 2.0 with AI-driven strength is not an easy task.

“Join in if you can’t beat them”. In the era when consumers focus on price and configuration, Jidu should also establish its own competitive barrier on such “basic configurations”.

Jidu can only draw a smooth curve of development in this turbulent era by guiding the concept of AI-driven innovation and carrying out work on “competition hotspots” that consumers value, such as price, configuration, and service.

In addition to the promotion of the concept of automotive robots, cultivating driving habits also requires more patience.

From the perspective of the evolution of traditional automobiles, the design of ROBO-01 Lunar Exploration Limited Edition is quite radical. The new car not only uses a U-shaped steering wheel, but also cancels the traditional turn signal and wiper lever as much as possible to eliminate traditional physical buttons and create a simpler and more technological scene inside the car.

From the perspective of the development of intelligent automobiles, such operations are justifiable, but they have greatly changed the driving habits of many consumers. Although Jidu has conducted a series of tests on special designs such as the steering wheel, it is difficult to change the consumption habits of the public.

It is highly likely that Jetta will meet consumers who are attracted by various technological features but cannot adapt to the driving habits and will be discouraged.

Of course, this is a problem that the industry must face. As a pioneer, Jetta has taken on more of a role in popularizing the product. It is inevitable to encounter bumps on the road of exploration, but what is important is to persist on the right path.

Perhaps this is also the original intention of Jetta’s cooperation with the Chinese lunar exploration project to launch the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition, demonstrating the spirit of “pursuing dreams” and “daring to explore”.

“The explorer is never alone, as long as he insists on doing the right thing.”

We believe that Jetta, which integrates the spirit of lunar exploration into its brand proposition, can walk farther on the right path of strengthening independent research and development of core technology, promoting the exploration and popularization of leading intelligent automotive technology, and promoting Chinese intelligent automotive brands towards higher and stronger development.

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.