Author: Twin-turbo Fatty

Today, Ideal Automotive unveiled some information on the partial model of its second mass-produced car, the L9, and even released a series of teasers… In the first episode of the official teaser, they introduced the cabin.

Ideal L9 will debut at the 2022 Beijing Auto Show in 43 days. Based on the information provided by Ideal, I want to share my personal analysis with you.

Ideal L9 is crowned as “smart family flagship SUV” by Ideal Automotive. As expected, the cabin of Ideal L9 will be called “smart family cabin,” as mentioned in the teaser.

At the same time, the cover of the movie soundtrack “HOME” by Armand Amar was also displayed on the central control screen in the official picture.

We can tell two things from the naming of “family”:

• Ideal L9’s positioning will continue to expand the labels of “family man” and “home-oriented” that were previously placed on Ideal ONE;

• Ideal L9’s cabin will be designed and layout with a focus on the scene and attributes of “family.”

So, what kind of hardware configuration will Ideal L9’s smart family cabin bring?

• Ideal L9 is equipped with two Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chips, 24GB of memory, and 256GB of high-speed storage, forming a computing platform that supports switching between two 5G operators;

• There are six microphones and 3DToF sensors in the car;

• The car is equipped with four screens and one large HUD.

The official data shows five screens, with the large HUD also included in the screen count, but personally, I don’t include HUD in the screens, so my conclusion is “4+1.”

Let’s dive into it.

Screens

The four screens in the cabin of Ideal L9 include the vehicle’s central control screen, the co-pilot entertainment screen, the rear cabin entertainment screen, and the safety driving interaction screen above the steering wheel. That’s right, this time, Ideal L9 abandons the dashboard and car control screen, and driving information will be obtained through the large HUD and central control screen.

One thing that can be easily noticed in the entire center console is that Ideal’s L9 model has adjusted the screen ratio compared to the Ideal ONE, making it bigger and higher. The aspect ratio of both the central control screen and the co-pilot entertainment screen is expected to be 16:9, to ensure a more coordinated viewing of movies on the co-pilot entertainment screen. Of course, there will still be some up and down masking when watching widescreen movies.

Let’s take a look at the central control screen first. Ideal L9 has abandoned the dashboard and put the driving information and ADAS visualization on the left side of the central control screen.

The car models currently using this kind of central control layout include Tesla Model 3/Y, ShaoLong Mecha Dragon, and so on.

The HMI interface of the central control screen still adopts the card-style UI design, and the card is divided into two sizes, which looks very similar to the central control screen HMI layout of Krypton 001. But whether it can customize the card position and size like Krypton 001 is unknown for the time being.

Considering the convenience of interaction in driving scenarios, the driving information and ADAS visualization parts and the navigation and map cards at least should not support customization in terms of their position.

Previously, the central control screen of Ideal ONE reserved a large enough space for time display, mainly because this part of space would display the “Ideal Classmate” VPA image during voice interaction.

## Ideal L9’s Central Control Screen

Although the screen size of the Ideal L9’s central control screen is larger, its HMI layout is more compact. The driving information on the far left and the ADAS visualization belong to the “exclusive area” or “non-interfering area” for interactive safety and driving safety. Therefore, two possibilities can be inferred:

• Ideal L9 will replace the larger Ideal Student VPA image with a smaller and simpler image that pops up;

• Ideal L9 discontinues the Ideal Student VPA image and displays it in the form of floating windows and animation effects on the edge of the central console.

In addition to this, we can also see or speculate about some information on the central control screen:

• Online music applications still use QQ Music and the bottom dock bar is designed with music shortcut controls, including song information, pause/play, and collect. It is speculated that when the navigation card is clicked to full screen, it occupies the area to the right of the driving information on the central control screen without removing the QQ Music card on the home page. Therefore, in scenes where the navigation card is full-screen, the area for music controls is reserved for the copilot.

Moreover, under CLTC working conditions, the Ideal L9’s comprehensive cruising range can reach up to 1200km, with a pure electric cruising range of 200km and a fuel cruising range of 1000km.

After reviewing the central control screen, let us look at the copilot entertainment screen to the right. The most intuitive information here is that the online video application uses iQiyi. Other information is difficult to obtain from the pictures. However, based on my understanding of interactive design for copilot entertainment screens in driving scenarios, there should be a drop-down or slide-out menu for quick access to app switching, returning to the home page, screen brightness, and volume adjustment.

Next, let’s take a look at the “Safe Driving Interactive Screen” on the steering wheel.

At the beginning, I thought this screen is similar to the Cadillac SuperCruise’s status light on the steering wheel, for example, green indicates that the system is working normally, blue indicates that the driver is taking over, and red indicates a reminder to take over. This also seems to be in line with its name “Safe Driving Interactive Screen”.

But in the picture that has been circulating on the internet before, I saw:

This screen might be a touch screen for in-vehicle interaction. The term “safe driving” may refer to interaction on the premise of ensuring driving safety.

Therefore, the function of the “safe driving interaction screen” from left to right should be:

• Advanced driving assistance

• The second one should be the air conditioning inner and outer loop and front and rear windshield defogging?

• Driving preference switching: pure electric priority, hybrid electric, fuel priority, etc.

• Automatic parking

• Finally, is it a driving recorder or an in-vehicle camera or a 360° panoramic image?

If this spy photo is correct, does it mean that the Ideall L9 will have FSD?

Speaking of which, the last time I saw a screen placed on the steering wheel was on…the Byton.

As for the last screen being the rear entertainment screen, most of the “rear entertainment screens” are usually located behind the headrests of the main and co-pilot seats, which is more suitable for rear passengers to watch from a horizontal perspective, while the ceiling-mounted screens are mostly used in the front-mounted configuration of a small number of MPV models or the rear-mounted configuration of most MPV models.

Moreover, in general, child seats are placed in the rear/second row instead of the co-pilot seat, so the demand of parents with children for the rear entertainment screen is higher than that for the co-pilot entertainment screen.

This time, Ideall L9 has designed the rear entertainment screen as a ceiling-mounted screen, and the consideration may be that the passengers in the last two rows can enjoy this configuration at the same time, again highlighting the keyword “family”.

But those who have experienced long-haul economy class in small aircraft should feel that looking up at the ceiling-mounted screen for a long time is not comfortable, so the best viewing angle is to slightly tilt the backrest of the seat, and the line of sight will naturally shift upward. Also, most child seats now have a certain angle of inclination, and it is more suitable for children to watch from the second row.P.S. Except for the reverse child seat…

To summarize the configurations of the screens, the sizes of the central control screen, co-driver entertainment screen, and rear cabin entertainment screen are all 15.7 inches, with OLED screens and a resolution of 3K.

Although there is no such thing as “3K” in screen resolution standards, in broad terms, the long edge resolution of these three screens should be close to or exceed 3000 pixels. Regardless, on paper, the combination of a 15.7 inch screen with this resolution should have good display effects, but the actual experience is yet to be seen.

HUD

From the official images, it can be seen that the Ideal L9’s HUD is quite large, and is speculated to be comparable to the HUD of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. It can display driving information, ADAS visualization, and route guidance at the same time.

However, compared to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Ideal L9’s HUD may only be comparable in terms of display size and clarity, and what still impresses me is the AR-HUD in the S-Class. But based on current information, the Ideal L9 doesn’t seem to have this feature.

Steering wheel controls

As for the steering wheel controls of the Ideal L9, although the design has been adjusted, the key layout and interactive layout are still consistent with the Ideal ONE.

Center console

The center console of the Ideal L9 is equipped with two wireless charging areas for phones, similar to the design of current Tesla models. Starting from the charging pad, there are two front cup holders, a center armrest box, and rear cup holders.

In-car interaction

In the official teaser, it was revealed that the Ideal L9 is equipped with six microphones and 3DToF sensors. This means that the Ideal L9 supports 6-zone recognition, and in the official images, we can also see the microphones arranged on the ceiling.

As for the 3D-ToF sensor, it can perform various functions in a driving scenario, including driver monitoring, face recognition, gesture/skeleton recognition, tactile interaction, passenger monitoring, and virtual reality in the “third space.”

Others

After talking about the front row, let’s briefly discuss the back row.

The most noticeable features are:

The refrigerated and heated constant temperature box. In the official illustration of the L9, two custom bottles are placed in the ideal L9’s constant temperature box, with a temperature control display of 45 degrees Celsius. This is the suitable water temperature for most instant formula on the market, which confirms again that “the ideal L9 targets the design and layout to meet the needs of families.”

The small table on the back of the front passenger’s seat. This unique small table in the entire vehicle is possibly designed for parents to make milk powder more efficiently. Therefore, it is not just a typical “office table,” but more like a “meal tray.”

Lastly, there is the entertainment screen in the rear compartment.

However, the official announcement and illustration have not given any information on the third row. We will have to wait for the next official announcement to see more details.

My thoughts

If we compare the features of other new electric vehicle products to the features of the Ideal L9, I immediately think of two products: the Queen’s Front Seat of NIO’s SUV model and the movable space of the Xpeng P5.

From the design of the Ideal L9’s small table and constant temperature box, I believe that it is more reasonable than NIO’s “Queen’s Front Seat.” Besides supporting a leg and footrest, the mother in the front seat can move the seat backwards to take care of the children in the back row. However, in reality, mothers usually sit in the second row with their children.

Therefore, we can see that the Ideal L9 has carefully considered different scenarios and designed accordingly.

As for the removal of the dashboard, it cannot be said that the ideal is “copying” Tesla.

In fact, a long time ago, when the intelligence of cars had not yet entered the “screen era”, historical models such as Geely Jingang, Toyota Yaris, Dongfeng Fengxing Jingyi SUV, Citroen Sega, Toyota Corolla, and so on, all adopted the design of placing the car’s instrument in the middle.

In the “screen era”, the first model of Geometry, Geometry A, also weakened the existence of the instrument panel and placed more emphasis on the HUD.

There is also the typical representative of the “screen era”: Tesla Model 3/Y, which still abandoned the instrument panel directly without HUD and showed driving information on the central control screen.

However, for driving safety and interaction safety, I believe that designs such as Geometry A and the ideal L9, which complement each other with HUD and the central control screen, are more responsible than directly abandoning the instrument panel.

The last point is the interaction of the rear cabin entertainment screen. I have a question: can interaction be done only through voice?

First of all, it can be sure that the interaction of the rear cabin entertainment screen will definitely not be operated by touch.

So, if the usage scenario is “Dad is driving, Mom is accompanying the child in the second row,” how can the rear entertainment screen be controlled? Maybe many people will give me feedback: voice.

Yes, my colleague also thought of voice first.

Indeed, the 6-zone recognition equipped with the ideal L9 can easily distinguish the position of the user who is awake, and execute the front and rear seat entertainment screens according to the position of the awake user.But as for me, sometimes I don’t know what I want to watch, I just want to browse, search and pick. If at this time only voice interaction is available, the entire cabin will become:

“Ideal Companion, I want to watch a movie, next page, next page, next page… Alright, let’s watch a TV series, next page, next page, next page… Or watch an animation, next page, next page, next page… The fifth one…”

Currently, most entertainment screens placed behind the headrests of the driver and front passenger seats can be easily operated through touch, and most MPV models equipped with ceiling-mounted screens, whether pre-installed or retrofitted, come with interactive media such as car-mounted entertainment tablets or remote controls. However, in the official images and information released by IDEAL, we have not seen the existence of a tablet.

So, does anyone in the IDEAL community know if there is a remote control?

Lastly

This is the first episode of IDEAL’s official sneak peek of the IDEAL L9. The only aspect we can analyze is the cabin. It’s clear that the IDEAL L9 continues to expand the “family” label of the IDEAL ONE, while the cabin of the IDEAL L9 is designed with more targeted considerations for the “family” scene and attributes.

IDEAL’s official announced price range for the IDEAL L9 will be between RMB 450,000 and RMB 500,000. So, based on this information about the cabin, does this full-size SUV model designed for “family” excite you?

For a mass-produced car, I personally think the cabin of the IDEAL L9 is commendable. But for me personally…as a single guy, I don’t seem to be very “interested”…

Oh, speaking of which, I heard that on next Wednesday IDEAL will bring the second installment of their official sneak peek of the IDEAL L9. What information will be unveiled next?

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.