How did we accompany the growth of Ideal ONE?

I believe that many people, like me, switched to the Ideal ONE because their family is growing and they need a bigger and more comfortable car. At that time, I only wanted to buy a car with enough space and comfortable seats, and had little concept of OTA. But after owning the Ideal ONE, I realized that OTA is the essence of this car. It allows us to recognize earlier than others what the future of the transportation world will look like.

OTA, or Over-the-Air Technology, refers to air download technology, which is a software upgrade method that enables whole-vehicle OTA, representing an important symbol of intelligent vehicles. Taking smartphones as an example, whether you have an Apple, Huawei, or Xiaomi phone, every software system iteration is an OTA. The same is true for smart cars. (Note: new energy vehicles and smart cars are two different things, and some new energy vehicles are not intelligent.)

OTA means growth and change, and this car can co-create functions with us. Since the delivery of the Ideal ONE on December 2019, it has been 19 months with 14 OTA upgrades, adding more than 80 new functions, including some that were co-created by product managers and car owners. As a car owner, being able to participate in the growth of a car is something that was unthinkable 10 years ago, but now it is happening to us.

Functions co-created by car owners

For a car to achieve whole-vehicle OTA, it requires the ability to integrate control systems of tens of thousands of components during the planning and design phase. Thus, it can centrally control operations such as opening and closing windows, unlocking doors, controlling suspension, and adjusting power output through software. This is not an easy thing to do, nor is it something that every car manufacturer can achieve. This high level of integration provides a fertile ground for continuous growth for a car.

The Ideal car owners around me come from various industries. Through communication, it can be seen that they are a group of people with insights into cars. Moreover, most car owners have had other vehicles before buying Ideal ONE, so they can provide suggestions based on their usage experience. Ideal product managers will collect and classify these suggestions, demonstrate their feasibility, and finally implement them in the car’s software. Here are ten classic co-created functions that we have made together:

1. Added “Off-Road Rescue” mode

Function description: After enabling this mode, the torque of the driving wheel on the side with adhesion can be increased to improve the vehicle’s ability to escape from complex road conditions. This mode can be activated in the air conditioning screen – special conditions in the lower right corner.## Updates to Ideal ONE in 2020

1. “Off-road Rescue” Mode

   • Added in response to customer feedback requesting better cross-axis capability and the ability to drive off-road. Engineers redistributed electric motor power outputs to create the mode.
   • Rolled out in April 2020.

2. New “Wheel Hub View” feature in 360° surround view

   • Helps drivers see obstacles next to the front or rear wheels, making it easier to parallel park without scratching the tires.
   • Designed for Ideal ONE, which is a large SUV, to help first-time owners who aren’t used to the vehicle’s dimensions.
   • Available by clicking on “Wheel Hub Mode” from the 360° view interface, or via a custom button on the steering wheel.
   • Introduced in April 2020.

3. Added Bluetooth key control of tailgate operation

   • You can now use your smartphone to unlock and lock the tailgate.
   • Users had pointed out the lack of tailgate unlocking capability when the Bluetooth key was first released.
   • Implemented in May 2020.

4. Added pre-set charging function in vehicle settings

   • Allows users to set charging schedules, including time and charging capacity limits, and to activate charging insulation functions.
   • Previously available only on the phone, but was difficult to use in places without cellular signal.
   • Made available in May 2020.

5. Intelligent features added to second-row seating

   • Second-row seat warmers turn off automatically after 10 minutes of no one sitting in the seats.
   • Rear air conditioning turns off automatically after 10 minutes of being on and no one sitting in the back seat.
   • Rear air conditioning control panel can be disabled from the rear air conditioning control screen.
   • Introduced in an update in 2020.### Collaborative creation points:

6. Sometimes the passengers in the second row have left but forget to turn off the seat heating or air conditioning, so the automatic shutdown function is added.

7. Children spend more time in the second row and like to move around, so they often accidentally touch the second-row air conditioning button, so a “tight curse” is included to prevent this.

Launch date: July 2020

6. Added full-screen rearview application

Function description: Wake up the rearview camera and implement a full-screen rearview of about 120° on the central control screen. It can be activated by the small card on the central screen desktop or the custom buttons on the steering wheel, providing a wider rear view.

Collaborative creation points: During that time, streaming media rearview mirrors were popular, and some car owners suggested that Ideal ONE could also achieve this through the rearview camera. As a result, the full-screen rearview function was developed and tested with good results.

Launch date: July 2020

7. Added car washing mode

Function description: When the car washing mode is turned on, the vehicle is powered off but the doors are not locked, which can prevent frequent unlocking and locking during the car washing process. After washing the car, stepping on the brake will exit the car washing mode. It can be turned on or associated with the air conditioning screen shortcut key in the system settings.

Collaborative creation points: This was a complaint that arose from washing the car. Car owners felt that the logic of Ideal ONE’s power on and off caused the screen to light up and the air conditioning to be triggered during the car washing process. Moreover, the touch sensor of the car door and lock easily locks up. As a result, the product manager designed the car washing mode specifically to solve this problem.

Launch date: October 2020

8. Added long-press feature for quick closing of seat ventilation/heating on the air conditioning screen, and added sliding feature to adjust wind speed and close the gear

Function description: Press and hold the seat ventilation/heating button on the air conditioning screen for 1-2 seconds to quickly close it. Sliding your finger horizontally on the air conditioning screen to the left can quickly turn off the air conditioning.

Collaborative creation points: These two small interactive features also came from customer feedback. “It’s too troublesome to adjust the ventilation/heating level one by one!” “Why can’t sliding to the bottom directly close it instead of only having first gear wind speed?” The product manager collected our suggestions and made adjustments to the interaction.

Launch date: October 2020

9. Added front car starting reminder function

Function description: Before stopping, if the system detects that the front car has started but the driver has not started the vehicle, it will remind the driver to step on the accelerator pedal in time through text and sound. This function can be turned on or off by sliding down to the bottom of the settings – vehicle interface.Collaborative Creation: Nowadays, more and more car owners tend to look at their phones while parked, ignoring the fact that the car in front of them has already left, and they are still in the same place. In order to prevent the car behind from honking at them, let the Idean ONE honk first. The product manager has implemented this idea and received unanimous praise!

Launch date: December 2020

10. Added the long-press function of door handle to close all windows after leaving the car

Description: Long-press the rectangular sensing area on the outer side of the door handle to close all windows.

Collaboration point: Indeed, many car owners hope to have the function of automatically raising the windows when locking the car. However, for safety reasons, after evaluation, this function was not launched. Therefore, the product manager took a compromise by adding the long-press function of the door handle to close all windows, avoiding the embarrassment of locking the car without closing the windows and having to reopen the door to start the car.

Launch date: December 2020

In fact, these 10 functions are only a small part of the collaboration between car owners. Over the past year, Idean’s product managers have been listening to and adopting suggestions from car owners, whether they are compliments or criticisms. They have implemented valued functions in the car system. Only polished products will make later generations feel that the Idean ONE is a groundbreaking work.

One-Year Anniversary of Internal Testing Community

Accompanying the growth of the Idean ONE, there is also a group of special car owners, the internal testing community. On June 22, 2020, the internal testing community was officially established, and a total of 350 car owners joined the community unknowingly. One year has passed.

As a member of the internal testing community, I have witnessed too much laughter and tears. The past year of getting along has also made a group of big men become good friends who can talk about anything. Perhaps we never thought that a car could penetrate so deeply into our lives.

They called themselves external product managers and made a decisive definition of the product; they were also wild product experts, doing their best to recommend the Idean ONE to their friends. They always had high expectations, and their absolute statement was “I can do without it, but you can’t.” They forced the product manager to challenge the limits of growth. They were more anxious than the employees. When they saw sales were lower than expected, they wanted to curse out loud: “Idean, you have disappointed me so much!”

Because they have a common hope that the Idean ONE can be sold in quantities that compete with several cars sold by others, and one day it will reach the top of China’s new car-making forces, proving that their choice was not wrong. “Although, none of us can own a perfect Idean ONE, the perfect Idean ONE must have the efforts of each and every one of us. “

This is a lasting co-creation, and car owners and product managers will continue to work together to create more useful and user-friendly car-machine interactions, and keep the growth of the ONE dream alive.

Here, on behalf of the Ideal community, we would like to announce that an OTA beta badge is expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year. Each beta tester will receive a badge based on how many times they participate in the beta version. This badge will be displayed next to their nickname, so that everyone can see their brilliance.

Next, the Ideal community will continue to recruit for the beta testing circle, hoping that partners who are willing to participate will join hands with the Ideal ONE to continue growing together.

The above is only a small part of a car’s growth story. Don’t worry, there is still a long way to go.

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.