Author | Zhang Ruichen
Editor | Wu Xianzhi
On November 17th, Geely Auto debuted the ZEEKR M-Vision concept car built on the new SEA-M architecture and will be ready for mass production in 2024.
At the same time, the self-driving electric vehicle developed by Geely Auto and Waymo was officially unveiled in Los Angeles, USA on November 18th, 2022.
Waymo is a globally renowned self-driving technology company based in the United States. It began road testing fully automated vehicle models without drivers in 2017 and launched Waymo One, the world’s first commercial ride-hailing service for autonomous vehicles in 2018.
The vehicle developed by Geely Auto based on the ZEEKR M-Vision concept car is a customized vehicle for Waymo One’s self-driving fleet and is currently the only model from the Chinese market in Waymo One’s fully automated driving fleet.
Architecture is the Key Element in the Field of Self-Driving
Waymo recognizes the strength of Geely Auto’s SEA-M architecture. SEA-M is a dedicated architecture for future smart mobility developed jointly by Geely Auto’s European Innovation Center (CEVT) and China R&D team.
SEA-M has native pure electric architecture advantages and features excellent intelligent driving experience, revolutionary ease of entry and exit, ultimate comfort, quietness, low operating costs, and global 5-star safety rating.
SEA-M also has high compatibility and openness. Through the integration of hardware, system, and ecosystem, it creates more innovative hardware capabilities and sustainable software ecosystems.
SEA-M is the world’s first pure electric architecture specifically designed for self-driving mobility, with pre-embedded self-driving interfaces that can access L4 and above intelligent driving systems and compatible with various self-driving technology solutions, from partial vehicle control to full control.
Currently, the official display of ZEEKR M-Vision concept car is just a showcase, which doesn’t represent the final look of mass production.
We can see that ZEEKR M-Vision concept car adopts forward-looking capsule design style, with an avant-garde appearance. The door design without B pillars and electrically powered opposing opening increases the sense of spaciousness.
Previously, Jidu Auto Robo-01, which was supposed to be designed without B pillars, failed to actually achieve this goal in practical mass production. If the car manufacturers can truly make designs without B pillars in mass production by 2024, they may become the first in the world.
Any designs are based on the convenience of passengers’ entry and exit, which will be the mainstream style of future commercial intelligent electric travel services. The maximum opening of ZEEKR M-Vision door is 1.4 meters, with a brand-new design that reduces the threshold and has a 64% ultimate wheelbase ratio, maximally utilizing the seating space. The seats can move back and forth, rotate, and there is a movable lifting and folding small table in the middle.
In terms of travel service design, ZEEKR M-Vision has more durability than civil vehicles, with 5 years or 500,000 kilometers of long-term designed warranty mileage, averaging over 16 hours of continuous driving per day. All parts have undergone stringent durability tests, with a service life far exceeding that of equivalent cars, greatly reducing operating costs for travel fleet operators.
ZEEKR M-Vision is not only avant-garde in design, spacious, and durable, but also meets global five-star safety standards, providing a top-level safety design.
Final ThoughtsConsidering the abundant technical reserves and forward-looking layout of the SEA vast architecture, JiKe 001 and 009 have gained high recognition from the market and consumers, with soaring sales and orders. The release of JiKe vast-M (SEA-M) architecture may become an important cornerstone of the JiKe brand in the next stage and also represents the first landing of China’s high-end intelligent pure electric technology in the mature and innovative market of the United States.
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.