Ideal Intelligent Driving Hardware Upgrade, All Models Standard with Lidar | Exclusive from 36Kr

Author | Li Anqi

Editor | Li Qin Yang Xuan

The battle of intelligent driving is intensifying. While car companies are pursuing the equalization of intelligent driving at the million-unit scale, they are also chasing after higher L3-level autonomous driving technology.

Not only Huawei has equipped four lidars to the million-yuan-level Zunjie and the more than 500,000-yuan Wenjie modified M9, but Ideal Auto is also strengthening the presence of lidars.

According to the exclusive understanding of 36Kr Auto, the intelligent driving system of all new cars of Ideal Auto this year will be standardly equipped with lidar sensors, covering extended-range modified models and pure electric series models.

Previously, the intelligent driving configuration of Ideal Auto was divided into two schemes: AD Max and AD Pro. The most obvious difference is that the former is equipped with Nvidia Orin X chips and lidars, and the algorithm is independently developed by Ideal; the latter is equipped with Horizon Journey 5 chips, without lidars, and the algorithm is provided by the supplier Qingzhou Zhihang.

Therefore, the previous Ideal AD Pro models only have functions such as high-speed pilot assistance, and are basically not related to urban NOA (urban pilot driving) and the stronger intelligent driving capabilities such as the "end-to-end" and "parking space to parking space" that Ideal continuously iterates.

After the configuration upgrade, the Ideal AD Pro models will add lidars. Not only that, an informed source told 36Kr Auto that the intelligent driving chip platform of the AD Pro models has also been significantly upgraded. Some models use a single Horizon J6M platform, and the algorithm is still responsible by the supplier Qingzhou.

These hardware upgrades will support the further upgrade of the intelligent driving function. "The ceiling of the intelligent driving capability of the AD Pro version models is higher." An informed source said. For example, the AD Pro platform will not only realize urban memory pilot, but also is planning to achieve a more comprehensive urban NOA function.

In addition, the long-term lidar partner of Ideal Auto, Hesai Technology, released the thousand-yuan-level, compact lidar product ATX last year. Previously, some models of BYD's Tian Shen Zhi Yan intelligent driving platform also carried this product. It is reported that Hesai's planned annual production capacity of lidars this year exceeds 2 million units.

In fact, as the price war in the intelligent driving industry is fiercely competing, the cost of lidars is also rapidly decreasing, which greatly enhances the willingness of car companies to use them. An industry insider told 36Kr Auto that the general quotation of the ATX product is around $200, and if the shipment volume is larger, the price will be even lower.

In the intensified competition of intelligent driving, Ideal has to come up with more product strength enhancement strategies.

"The Popularization of Intelligent Driving is Imminent, and New Forces Need to Build Higher Advantages"

Since this year, the competition of intelligent driving has changed from the single-line narrative of the past technical competition to a multi-line melee of technical pursuit and scale popularization. BYD and Huawei are typical representatives of different narratives.

After selling more than 4.2 million vehicles in 2024, BYD is trying to open up a new battlefield for the popularization of intelligent driving, and lower the high-level intelligent driving products such as high-speed NOA and memory driving to the 70,000-yuan-level vehicle market.

Top management of BYD also revealed that its Tian Shen Zhi Yan C platform intelligent driving based on Horizon J6M has the opportunity to evolve to the urban NOA function in the future. It can be said that BYD is the biggest variable in the penetration rate of intelligent driving this year.

This has made a group of established car companies and new forces feel threatened. According to the understanding of 36Kr Auto, the original plan of Ideal's AD Pro platform based on Horizon J6M was that after equipping with lidars, only functions such as high-speed and fast pilot and urban memory pilot would be available.

But after BYD announced the intelligent driving popularization strategy, Ideal has been considering adding the urban NOA function internally. "If Ideal maintains the original functions, it cannot create a gap with BYD." An informed source of Ideal Auto said.

This is also the new intelligent driving challenge that Ideal, Xiaopeng, NIO and other new forces are facing this year. When established car companies lower high-level intelligent driving to the millions of units scale, how can new forces keep competing with established car companies in product cost and create a gap in functions and experiences?

For now, the main strategy of new car-making companies is to improve the lower limit capability of intelligent driving.

Lidar is a key sensor. Compared with the vision solution that mainly relies on cameras and image recognition, lidar measures the distance and generates a 3D point cloud map by emitting laser beams, and is not disturbed by lighting conditions or bad weather.

Previously, Cao Xudong, CEO of the intelligent driving company Momenta, told 36Kr Auto in an interview that in scenarios with high safety requirements, such as entering and exiting tunnels and dark environments without street lights, the ability of lidar is more comprehensive.

On February 20, at the Zunjie S800 technology launch conference, Yu Chengdong, the chairman of Huawei Car BU, also introduced the omnidirectional three-dimensional integrated perception system equipped in the vehicle, including four lidars, which can identify various complex obstacles, such as ditches, steps, charging piles, suspended fire hydrants and curb obstacles, etc.

Whether it is the dislocation competition strategy with established car companies or the stronger lower limit of intelligent driving, some car companies are driven to firmly move closer to lidars.

"Constantly Pursuing Higher Technology to Compete for the L3 Ticket"

At the same time, the new car-making companies with intelligence as their flag are also striving to break through the technical ceiling, jump out of the current high-level intelligent driving melee, and rush to compete for the ticket of L3 autonomous driving technology.

Huawei is one of the benchmarks for the continuous pursuit of high intelligent driving technology. Previously, Huawei stated that L3-level autonomous driving will be commercially realized on a large scale in the next two years.

According to the Chinese national standard "Automotive Driving Automation Levels", L3 level refers to conditional autonomous driving. That is, the L3-level autonomous driving system can fully control the driving of the vehicle under specific road and environmental conditions. In more popular terms, it is to be able to drive without looking at the road and without holding the steering wheel, and when the vehicle is in control, if an accident occurs, the responsibility is attributed to the vehicle.

Compared with the still L2+-level assisted driving functions such as urban NOA and "parking space to parking space", L3-level autonomous driving has higher requirements for vehicle hardware backup, safety redundancy, human-machine interaction logic, and even commercial insurance.

For example, the Zunjie S800 has achieved dual-redundancy design in key systems such as braking, power distribution, steering, low-voltage power supply, and intelligent driving computing platform to ensure that even if the main system fails, the backup system can immediately take over to ensure the safety of the vehicle.

On this road, the new forces will continue to compete with Huawei.

A few days ago, He Xiaopeng, the chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, posted that by the end of 2025, Xiaopeng Motors plans to launch a truly L3-level autonomous driving software.

Even earlier, Li Xiang, the CEO of Ideal, also said that he hopes to achieve L3 supervised intelligent driving in 2025. Ideal believes that the prerequisite for reaching L3 is to achieve the "parking space to parking space" challenge of intelligent driving. At the end of November last year, Ideal Auto fully pushed this function to intelligent driving users.

If the feasibility of the landing of L3 is further verified, car companies may further increase their investment in hardware such as lidars.

For Ideal Auto, although it sold 500,000 vehicles last year, the market competition this year is by no means easy.

This year, the extended-range track is bound to be more crowded. Not only the new car M8 of Wenjie competes with Ideal L9/L8, but there are also many followers and competitors in the extended-range market. Since the second half of last year, new cars such as Deepal L07, Qiyuan E07, Mengshi 917 Jiaolong Zhajia, and Avita 07 have been launched one after another.

And after the setback last year, the second landing of Ideal's pure electric models is also quite crucial. Previously, Ideal postponed the launch of the pure electric SUV to the first half of this year.

Whether it is the extended-range models that need to stabilize the sales volume or the pure electric products that need to break the situation again, Ideal needs a stronger defense capability. And equipping all models with lidars may only be one of the measures for Ideal's attack and counterattack.