On the first day of the 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show on April 18, Horizon unveiled its “Journey and Sharing, Walking Together” – the new generation of BPU ® intelligent computing architecture. They announced the latest cooperation progress with BYD, based on Journey 5 chips, and BYD’s self-researched BEV fusion perception solution will be mass-produced within the year.
During the auto show, the Han EV Championship Edition, as the “Intelligent Representative” model of BYD, was displayed at the Horizon booth, showcasing the strong alliance between the two brands, committed to achieving advanced automotive intelligence through technological innovation and efficient computing in the second half of the automotive intelligence game.
Assistant CEO of BYD product planning and new automotive technology research institute and director of electronic integration department Han Bing said at the press conference: “Advanced intelligent driving assistance is accelerating towards mass production and popularization. BYD is committed to consolidating the bottom technology of intelligence, and accelerating the process of intelligence in the second half. The strong alliance between Horizon and BYD, based on the Journey series chips announced in the first phase, has realized the mass production of multiple models. In the future, the two parties will continue to cooperate toward advanced intelligent driving assistance based on Journey 5, iterate quickly based on user needs and mass-produce more popular products.”
Vice President of Horizon and President of Intelligent Automotive Business Zhang Yufeng said at the press conference: “As the Chinese automotive industry transitions from fuel cars to electrification and intelligence, BYD, as a leader in the new energy industry, has truly promoted the development of the industry. As a leading intelligent driving computing solution service provider, Horizon is promoting electric vehicles towards intelligence, in line with the theme of the times, and providing powerful computing for intelligent vehicles. The alliance between the two parties will have important demonstration effects on cooperation in the intelligent transformation of China’s automotive industry, and will promote the intelligent development of China’s automotive industry to the fast lane, accelerating the value of intelligent driving for consumers.”
As early as 2018, BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu expressed the view: “The first half of new energy vehicles is electrification, and the second half is intelligence. Combining the actual application scenarios and the development of technology, BYD believes that intelligent driving will accelerate the return to rationality, follow a progressive development path, and allow consumers to have a safer and better driving experience through the optimization of advanced intelligent driving assistance functions.”The philosophy of BYD is highly aligned with the mission, vision, and development path of Horizon Robotics. As the founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, Kai YU, believed that ‘The final destination of intelligent driving in the next ten years will still be L2+++. The development of the industry should return to the business essence and user value.’ Since its establishment, Horizon Robotics has insisted on starting with advanced driving assistance, with a shipment volume of more than 3 million units, helping car manufacturers enhance the intelligent driving experience for users.
Based on strategic consensus and complementary advantages, the two sides have already laid out plans and reached a series of cooperation agreements. In March 2021, the two sides signed a strategic cooperation agreement; In April 2022, the two sides announced the start of Journey 5 designated cooperation, with a plan to develop a one-stop solution for parking and driving based on this chip, and accelerate the promotion of mass production of advanced intelligent driving.
Currently, the Horizon Robotics Journey chip series supports multiple levels of new energy vehicle models under BYD to achieve advanced intelligent assisted driving experience, providing consumers with increasingly rich options for intelligent driving models. The official announcement of the progress of this cooperation means that both sides are one step closer to the mass production of higher-level intelligent driving assistance functions.
2023 will be the year for mass production and popularity of advanced intelligent driving assistance functions, and the BEV fusion perception solution is a critical support. As the third-generation in-car intelligent chip of Horizon Robotics, Journey 5 is equipped with an advanced BPU(R) Bayesian intelligent acceleration engine, which has both high performance and large computing power. At the same time, benefiting from the forward-looking design of collaborative software and hardware, Journey 5 can efficiently support large-scale neural network computing, natively supporting a variety of models and operators that BEV perception requires, including Transformer models. With powerful heterogeneous computing resources, it can not only accelerate the most advanced image perception algorithms but also support the fusion of multiple sensors such as LiDAR and millimeter-wave radar.
Meanwhile, based on Journey 5, Horizon Robotics has also developed an open and easy-to-use intelligent computing development tool product, including chip development kits, domain control reference designs, chip toolchains, and software development tools, providing end-to-end support for the development and deployment of high-level intelligent driving to carmakers. With its efficient, open, and easy-to-use features, Journey 5 can support the efficient development and deployment of BEV algorithms, help BYD accelerate the mass production of advanced intelligent driving assistance functions, and strengthen the competitiveness of intelligent products.
During this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, Horizon Robotics announced that the sales volume of Journey 5 has exceeded 100,000 units, and it has obtained production orders for nearly 20 models from 9 automakers. From 2023, more cooperative models will be put into production, becoming the unanimous choice for high-level intelligence upgrade of mainstream automakers.
At the current wave of the smart electrification transformation of the automotive industry, the global sales volume of BYD’s new energy passenger vehicles has exceeded 3.7 million units. The models released by BYD this year will gradually come with new features such as HWA high-speed driving assistance (including lever lane changing) and DMS driver monitoring assistance system, and more features will be launched 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.