Last night, in the Zeekr Garage owners group, Zeekr’s product director Ye Jinyu answered some questions that Zeekr OS 4.1 users were concerned about. Here is a summary of the most popular Q&A session, including plans for upgrading configurations for older car models, the planning of new software versions, and adjustments to interface design. Let’s listen to Ye Jinyu’s answers together.
Q: Can the seats and electric suction doors be upgraded for the 22 Zeekr 001 models?
A: The post-sale solutions for upgrading electric doors, electric suction doors, and seats have been coordinated with the after-sale team, and are expected to be released gradually to the public in March.
Q: Will NFC recognition affect wireless charging? Can they be separated?
A: The hardware is now integrated together; it can be considered for future car models.
Q: When will the self-developed navigation be available?
2. Can the TBT icon on the HUD be changed to a detailed small map mode?
3. Can each small card at the bottom be independently hidden/shown, instead of only being able to hide/show all four?
A: 1. The self-developed navigation is currently being tested, and some issues are being improved. If everything goes well, it is expected to be available on the next version, in April.
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The demand for changing the TBT icon on the HUD to a map has been noted.
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Independent hiding of the small cards at the bottom of the desktop would affect the overall beauty, and take up too much space.
Q: There were issues with the 360-degree turn signal popping up at certain speeds. Was this addressed in the 4.1 update? It is suggested to include a customization feature, as some people prefer the previous setting in 4.0.
A: The complete solution for 360-degree linkage includes customizing the two-speed options for speed, but this will take some time. For now, based on 4.0, we are solving the pain points and bugs that people have complained about, and have adjusted the speed for this release. In the next version, we will include the speed options.
Q: Have the car department received feedback on the issues with the car’s system that the owners have reported?
A: We have heard about the dissatisfaction and complaints regarding the car’s system. We have reflected on this, and have quickly optimized our organization to better solve the issues. Here are a few pieces of information to share with everyone:
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Based on 4.0, we are making small improvements quickly to address the pain points and complaints that you have been reporting. There will be 1-2 small versions to keep optimizing and ensure that everyone can use it.2. Based on everyone’s feedback, we are formulating the next overall UI/UX optimization direction. We will come up with a concept in the near future and invite actual users who have a design background and are sensitive to interaction to participate in the discussion. Once the conceptual direction is unified, the goal is to develop and deliver it in Q3.
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We will improve the channels for communication with users. We will re-plan the car owners’ complaints section on the APP, so that users’ voices can be responded to in a timely manner. For bug and problem-related issues, we will provide a rectification plan in a timely manner. For experience and function optimization-related issues, we will prioritize and implement them based on the concentration of feedback from users, and provide timely feedback to everyone.
Q: According to the official introduction, the radar delay has been reduced by 130ms. Has the video delay also been reduced? In the future, how many millimeters of actual distance display can be added to the 360-degree view? Currently, the distance is distinguished by color (green, yellow, and red). If distance is displayed in millimeters, driving will be safer.
A: This has already been completed and is being tested and verified. The plan is to add distance display in the next version of 360-degree view.
Q: Can the remote control for steering wheel heating and seat heating on the APP be placed on the same page? The probability of failure is already high, and it’s annoying to have to fail twice.
A: The optimization of the remote control link on the APP is currently underway. I don’t have a specific plan in my hands right now. I will take the feedback and give it to everyone.
Q: Mr. Ye, can the car be remotely locked after entering parking mode? Several times during lunch breaks in the parking lot, I forgot to exit the parking mode, and the car door wasn’t locked. I had to go downstairs again to exit.
A: This is currently being developed and improved. Current status: When the parking comfort mode is turned on, the car can be locked by physical key button, or by phone APP car control lock when connected by short-range Bluetooth. Locking is also available on the low-end touch door handle, and walking away will automatically lock the car, but the remote unlocking, remote locking/unlocking, and remote shutting down of the parking comfort mode are under development.
Q: IQIYI Music has been claiming to solve the problem of disconnected networks and some songs that can only be played in user-created playlists but not cached since 3.2, but the problem still exists in version 4.01.
A: The network problem with iQIYI Music has been solved in 4.1. If you encounter any new issues, please @ me in a timely manner or post them in the complaints section. Thank you.
Q: The 360-degree view has serious distortion and a lot of noise at night. How will this problem be solved?
A: I have mentioned this distortion issue elsewhere before. Currently, the 360-degree view of JiKe 001 needs to participate in the recognition algorithm of urban road NZP in the future, so the angle requirements for layout and the fisheye wide-angle are relatively large, which does affect the stitching effect. There is no way to fundamentally improve this issue in the short term.Q: When can the 4.1 update be pushed? Hangzhou drivers are all waiting for the update.
A: We have been pushing out the update these past few days, but it might be relatively slow in the first two to three days. It will pick up speed later.
Q: The voice recognition for 4.0 is not as good as that of 3.2, and it can never recognize properly.
A: We are working on improving and optimizing this issue. At the moment, we understand the root of the problem, but it involves a wide scope, so it may take some time. It may need to be resolved in the next version.
Q: The seat position is a little further back than the commonly used seat positions, and I have to switch to seats 1/2/3 and reselect to get back to normal.
A: Positions 1, 2, and 3 of 001 are for the driver. One of the common positions is your driving position while the other two are positions for resting, sleeping, or other scenarios that you set for yourself. No matter which position you adjust to, as long as you step on the brake and shift gears, it will return to your driving position. If the car is used by the whole family, a family account can be shared, and each person can register their face, so that each time the Bluetooth key is used to unlock the car via the family account, it will automatically switch to the corresponding account and position memory. If unlocked by card, you can also switch accounts and related memory through facial recognition.
Q: It’s been a while since 4.1 was released, and I drive dozens of kilometers a day in Hangzhou. Can I cancel the update? Switching modes in parking mode and opening/closing the door are not convenient. It’s hard to find direction, let alone doing anything while driving.
A: When 4.1 is pushed out, everyone will receive an in-app message. Once you receive the message, under normal network conditions, you can trigger the download by shifting from D to P and waiting for less than 10 minutes. After that, you can lock the car directly, and the download progress can be viewed in the app.
Q: Can the camping mode display screen off/on? It’s too bright.
A: For camping mode, the screen off function is currently under development and should be released in Q3.
Q: When will the door opening warning system and blind spot monitoring come out?
A: In the next version.
Q: My mode 2 is set to the highest position, the view direction is good for drivers, and mode 3 is the lowest and comfortable settings I use frequently. I think all three modes are for driving.
A: No, the common mode is your driving position. In version 4.1, we will fix the name to “driving position”. The other two positions are self-defined positions for other scenarios, such as napping or resting.
Q: Generally speaking, temporary seat adjustment is not saved because it would affect the driver’s preferred settings. I personally prefer to use the convenient entry/exit mode with the door/safety belt to switch, and if I want to restore historical seat settings, I can select them on the car’s console. For temporary adjustments, they can be made more flexible. For example, when driving at high speed, I adjust the seat to a more reclined position, and when driving in the city, I adjust it to a more upright position. But since I don’t often drive at high speed, the temporary adjustments are sufficient.
A: If it’s for temporary use and you don’t want to save the seat position, you can temporarily fix it in place. Once you shift from Drive to Park, then back to Drive, it will restore to the preferred driving position.
Q: Can the EVA activation be linked to the front wheel view on the 360 camera or could a button for the front wheel view be added underneath the 360 view? It’s not very convenient to access the front wheel view right now.
A: There are front and rear wheel views in the 360 camera, and the switch is located above the left side of the car model display. It’s not very convenient to access and many users are not aware of it. We have requested that these switch buttons be moved to the bottom of the 360 interface.
Q: I have a question that I’m particularly interested in. Does Zeekr’s development team drive the 001 car as their daily driver?
A: My car has driven 42031 kilometers.
Q: Yezong, I have a suggestion for version 4.1. The icons displayed on the heads-up display are not uniform, and for example, the contrast and font size of the speed limit sign need to be improved. It’s really hard to read while driving.
A: Yes, this includes the instrument panel as well. So, for this version, we prioritized functionality over aesthetics. The next version will improve the UI design.
Q: Yezong, I have a question that I’m concerned about. When I drive over a metal connecting joint on a bridge at high speed, I feel the rear of the car fishtailing. I asked a chassis engineer, and he said it’s caused by the weight and width of the 001 car, and it can occur when there is a sudden change in the friction of the road surface. I’m curious if this is also related to the low rolling resistance tires equipped on the 001?
A: 1. Basically, this kind of situation occurs when going over this type of joint surface, which also has a slight curve to it. This effect is more noticeable the heavier and more powerful the car is.
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The 001 is heavier, more powerful, and equipped with low rolling resistance tires, all of which will exacerbate this phenomenon.
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A small tip: when driving over this type of surface, try not to accelerate and maintain a constant cruising speed. The vehicle should be relatively stable.
Q: Does our air suspension ever experience disconnection?
A: To determine whether the air spring is disconnected, you can check whether the height of the air spring can be adjusted after parking. If it can be adjusted, then it’s definitely not disconnected.Regarding the issue you mentioned, it’s probably caused by the endstop function of the air suspension that leads to misjudgment. The endstop function is defined to protect the air suspension. When the vehicle encounters rough roads, the air suspension will reach a soft limit position, giving the passengers the feeling of suddenly becoming hard, which may lead to misjudgment of disconnection. The endstop threshold is currently sensitive, and the software has been optimized. Integration testing is being carried out, and it is expected to be released in Q2.
Q: Has 4.1 been cancelled? Two people have already cancelled it in the car owner group.
A: No, the push was done after the meeting ended at around 12 o’clock last night. It should be pushed this afternoon. We push every day. The first few batches are slower, but it will speed up later.
Q: Restart is required to recover. Wasn’t this issue fixed in 4.1?
A: This time, the intelligent driving controller was updated. After OTA, the first internal reset mechanism was not triggered, and it needs to be put into sleep and awaken to trigger it. Therefore, when the self-inspection of the system fails, it cannot be reset, which is the main situation.
If the system still cannot be recovered after sleep and awaken, we need to arrange for people to clear the residual calibration values of the system on site. This is an individual case.
Q: When can we see the interior of the extreme variant X?
A: Probably at the Shanghai Auto Show.
Q: Regarding the wireless charging module, upgrade or not is up to the user’s choice. Whether there is a plan or not is the manufacturer’s attitude. If there is a plan, at least the manufacturer is proactive, if not, it is passive.
A: Currently, it is 15W. 50W is under development for the new version. The hardware interface remains consistent. After the development is completed, the older model can be upgraded through after-sales service.
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.