Sina science and technology Huazijian

At the recent Beijing Auto Show, WeilaiOne of the important updates to the release of NIO OS2.7.0 is the upgrade of NOP (Navigate On Pilot) navigation aids. On the sidelines of the Beijing auto show, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of Lailai, gave an interview to the media, including Sina Technology, about his views on vehicle safety, owner protection and industry competition.

Would rather be criticized as a NOP than be radical

Qin Lihong believes that the strategy of iteration and landing of new technologies in Weilai is conservative, because self-driving assistance is still relatively new, and it takes time to educate users, but this educational process cannot be completed at the cost of blood. "fortunately, our vehicles have similar problems several times, and there are no life safety problems." Qin Lihong said.

On the second night of the interview, Qin Lihong met with Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Xilai, with hundreds of users online at NIO House in Zhongguancun. The topic of the conversation was careful driving. The reason why such activities are often arranged and personally participated by Li Bin is because many App owners often post videos and photos that ignore safe driving in the community of NOP owners. For example, some owners let the car drive with the NOP open and climb to the back to record a short video.

"as soon as we find out about this, we will arrange for someone to contact the owner and tell him that he can't do this and can't take his hands off the steering wheel." Qin Lihong said that although Weilai's strategy is conservative and has been criticized by many car owners, Weilai cannot break the balance between self-driving assistance and the safety of car owners, causing damage to the life and health of car owners.

Qin Lihong takes the traffic diversion as an example, TeslaWhen AutoPilot is turned on, lane change is decisive, but Belai is not so decisive. Because there is also the balance of users' feelings, each car owner has his own expectations for the road conditions and the next driving movement. if the behavior taken by the machine is slower than expected, the owner will think that the machine is too stupid. if the machine takes too radical behavior, the user will be scared again. For Xilai, it would rather be criticized by car owners more slowly than be so radical.

On June 27th, 2019, the State Market Regulatory Administration issued a notice on the recall of "partial" ES8 by Xilai. According to the notice, Shanghai Ulai Automobile Co., Ltd. filed the recall plan with the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration in accordance with the requirements of the regulations on the Administration of recall of defective Automobile products and the measures for the implementation of regulations on the recall of defective Automobile products. It was approved today.

Wei recalled a total of 4803 Lulai ES8 electric vehicles with power battery packs manufactured between April 2, 2018 and October 19, 2018 since June 27, 2019. In response, Weilai promised in a statement that it would pay compensation for all user property losses caused by battery quality and safety accidents in accordance with the law.

"if there is a quality problem, the first principle recognized by the automobile industry is exemption, that is, if something happens, I will first prove that the responsibility is not my own. However, if something really happens in Weilai, we will certainly be the first to come forward and bear the problem first. for example, it was very difficult for us to recall the battery, but we still took it out of our pocket at a cost of NT $700 million to NT $800 million. " Qin Lihong said that in Weilai, it is impossible to first identify responsibilities with suppliers and then solve the problem of car owners, but first solve the problem of car owners, and then solve other problems later.

For the upgrade of NOP and NIO OS 2.7.0, Qin Lihong also affirmed that if Weilai NP brings damage to the personal safety of users, Weilai must be the first to assume the corresponding responsibility. "of course, I hope this doesn't happen. Our technology is designed to reduce the probability of these things happening."

Colleagues such as Xiaopeng Automobile are worth learning.

Come, idealAfter obtaining new financing, Auto, Xiaopeng and Weimar all said that they would invest money in the research and development of self-driving technology.

On Sept. 3, Xilai raised $1.73 billion through an initial public offering of ADS shares. On September 22nd, Weimar announced that it had completed 10 billion yuan of financing for D-round; on September 28th, Xiaopeng announced that it had received 4 billion yuan of financing. With the addition of ideal cars, the financing of four new car-building forces continues. Similarly, all four car companies have announced that a large portion of their money will be invested in the research and development of self-driving technology.

"this is a good thing, the whole industry is in a vibrant state, we do not feel the crisis, but are very happy to see such a situation." Qin Lihong told Sina Technology that a number of car companies have invested huge amounts of money in self-driving research and development, but no car can be technologically ahead for a lifetime, and the lead is only temporary.

Qin Lihong believes that other car companies are also examples to learn from. Although they set out relatively early in self-driving, for example, Xiaopeng's success rate of automatic parking is higher than that of Tesla and Weilai. The multi-screen linkage and UI/UX design of an ideal car is also worth learning.

"We start early, we still have a time window advantage, we think the long-term competitive advantage will return to user satisfaction." Qin Lihong told Sina Technology that in terms of user satisfaction, products and technology are part of it. In the long run, to keep products and technology behind, each enterprise will eventually show differentiated competition.

Qin Lihong talked about the FOTA (remote upgrade) of Xilai, which has been upgraded 35 times since it was first promoted at the end of October 2018. "therefore, the kind of surprise and colored eggs created by Tesla for users can be achieved." Qin Lihong said.

However, not all upgrades are acceptable to car owners. Qin Lihong shared a small detail in NIO OS2.2.7.0. In the past, Xilai Automobile made some excessive imagination about the function of the on-board voice assistant NOMI. After iteration, the car owner found that the NOMI became stupid and iterated it back to the previous state on NIO OS2.7.0 Weiwei. "some iterations are not very successful, and we will change it back."

In the interview, Qin Lihong also revealed to Sina Science and Technology that at present, there is room for personalized subscription of NP (NIO Pilot) full package and selected package on Lulai car, which is also available at present.

"it's just not necessary today. at present, our main mission of NP is to make it more mature and make users love it." Qin Lihong revealed that as NP has just been done, the function has not reached a very good state in terms of stability and richness. To a certain extent, you can consider making personalized subscriptions. "but there is no timetable at present."

Qin Lihong takes the power exchange as an example to make a comparison. When the Weilai exchange power station is mature to a certain extent, it starts to push BaaS (battery rental), which is a battery subscription model. He said that if Weilai had engaged in BaaS two years ago, it would have been immature, because changing the power station had not yet taken root in the hearts of the people at that time, which would affect the experience of car owners.