In October 2023, the two most popular forces in the smart car industry were Huawei, which sold the new M7 in Wenjie, and Xiaopeng Automobile, which saw a nearly 300% increase in delivery volume in October.
In November, the representative figures of these two forces have launched a "mutual confrontation" mode in their circle of friends.
On November 1st, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xiaopeng Automobile, gave an interview to a domestic car media. In the interview, He Xiaopeng said, "Some friends say that their smart cars can be driven nationwide by the end of the year, but in fact, they just drive with little difficulty on the national roads. ACC and LCC can also be used. But it's difficult to drive well
At the same time, He Xiaopeng also responded to the survey results of the new M7 fixed users in Wenjie that many people are willing to pay for AEB: "Friends told me that AEB is 99% fake, it is fake, and the promotion is not officially released by the company, all from small videos. Our people also went to ask, and its AEB couldn't drive at all. There were too many cases of accidental braking on the road.
After being "named" in the industry, on November 3rd, Yu Chengdong, the soul figure of Huawei's intelligent driving, opened fire overnight in his friend circle: "What is AEB? There are even car company leaders who have not yet understood it. The next day, it made it to the social media hot search list.
On the evening of November 4th, He Xiaopeng posted on his Moments that "I recently evaluated an industry disorder, but the industry was not in a hurry, while non industry ones were in a hurry. I don't know what he was in a hurry about.
On November 5th, amidst heated discussions in the automotive industry, another "new force" joined the battle group on public platforms. Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha Motors, posted a text show on Weibo, stating that Nezha Motors "has now delivered AEBs for ADC, J3, and ME platforms.
However, Zhang Yong also stated in his comments: "The complexity of AEB scenarios is too high, and the functional performance may vary in various scenarios, such as weather, rainfall, sunlight, speed, and the size of obstacles. Well done, the difficulty is very high. The AEB of Nezha Motors still needs polishing.
Zhao Changjiang, General Manager of Tengshi Sales Division, stated in a Weibo post that Tengshi Motors can start AEB at 80km/h and achieve 100km/h next year.
Li Xiang, the CEO of Ideal Automobile, who once expressed the view of "we have never encountered such a strong opponent" on the M7, also commented on this matter in the comment section on November 4th: "Do not argue with Huawei".
The big shots in the car industry are "mutually exclusive", their influence is gradually escalating, and there are many who will come to an end. But the beginning of the matter can still be traced back to three months ago, when the well-known vehicle evaluation self media AutoLab released a video of AEB testing safety response speed boundaries, in which the Huawei Smart Select model Wenjie M5 and the Xiaopeng P7i model were tied.
Image source: AutoLab video screenshot
After Yu Chengdong and He Xiaopeng made their debut on the hot search list on November 3rd, AutoLab Automotive Laboratory subsequently published an article stating that the vast majority of AEB data cited by Yu Chengdong at the Chengdu Auto Show and September 12th press conference came from AutoLab, including camera shots.
AutoLab also called out to Xiaopeng car owners, saying, 'Welcome Xiaopeng car owners and owners of any brand, bring your car to our testing base, and we will conduct on-site testing.' They also placed the blog post at the top, and received more likes and comments than the account usually interacts with.
For the "new forces" in car manufacturing, the leading figures of social media have become one of the important means of promotion, such as "mutual connection" or unilateral "showing off results". However, in the diverse opinions related to AEB, is there a consensus?
Public opinion on AEB station
AEB, also known as Autonomous Emergency Braking, is an automatic emergency braking system for automobiles. The key lies in the collision avoidance algorithm, which ensures braking efficiency without affecting the user experience. It mainly consists of three modules, including control module, distance measurement module, and braking module.
Vehicles equipped with this system will issue warnings or apply varying degrees of braking depending on the situation when encountering unexpected situations, resulting in complete braking to avoid accidents or reduce accident losses, thereby improving vehicle safety. In recent years, AEB has become a standard feature for more and more car models, and its penetration rate has steadily increased. Among the new forces of car manufacturing, passenger cars such as Ideal, Tesla, and NIO are 100% equipped with AEB function as standard.
The technology of automotive AEB is relatively mature, but how to set up intelligent automotive AEB to effectively reduce accidents, whether to focus on "maximum braking stop speed", and whether to "reduce false triggering rate" are still in the discussion stage. Regarding AEB, one netizen described it as a "balanced art" in the hot search discussion of "shouting through the air", as it is too sensitive and easily triggered by mistake. In an interview with He Xiaopeng, he also stated, "If the speed is too high and the brakes are accidentally applied, it will be a huge shock to users
The current "Performance Requirements and Test Methods for Automatic Emergency Braking System (AEBS) of Passenger Cars" in China has been in use since 2021, and there is still room for further improvement and the release of formal standards. At present, there is no unified name and system operation standard for the AEB system internationally, and each car company has its own technical route. Behind Yu Chengdong and He Xiaopeng's "air tight interconnection" is also a dispute over the discourse power of AEB systems in the field of intelligent vehicles between Huawei and Xiaopeng.
At present, Huawei is one of the main drafters of the latest "Design and Operation Conditions of Intelligent Connected Vehicle auto drive system" issued by the National Automobile Standardization Technical Committee.
Regarding the AEB system in the era of smart cars, the layout of A-share listed companies had already begun before the "empty talk". Recently, on the investor interaction platform, Haoen Automobile and Electric, and Kaizhong have mentioned the layout of AEB.
Earlier (in the third quarter), BAIC Blue Valley, Hongruan Technology, Dongfeng Technology, Wan'an Technology, and Wanji Technology also mentioned relevant layouts in their interactions.