Baidu has attracted much attention after it announced in March last year that it would build a car with Geely.
A few days ago, the joint venture company of Baidu and Geely released the design details of the front part of the first concept car, as well as the ideas and concepts of its entire vehicle architecture and autonomous driving system.
Judging from the published information, the two lidars of the Jidu concept car are symmetrically arranged on the front cover and can be raised and lowered.
At present, the autonomous driving perception technology route is mainly divided into two types: one is a camera-led vision scheme, represented by Tesla; the other is a multi-sensor fusion scheme led by lidar.
Domestic car companies basically choose the second solution, and the design solution of lidar has also become one of the important competition directions for car companies' intelligence.
Jidu's design plan is the first time that a domestic car company has arranged lidar on the front cover of a car, but such a new design quickly attracted rebuttals.
A few days ago, Li Xiang, the CEO of Ideal, left a message on Weibo saying that there is no difference in performance between placing one (lidar) on the roof of the car and two on the hood or bumper, and even a single one on the top of the head will perform better. .
He also said that the design of lidar on the roof is optimal in terms of pedestrian collision, maintenance cost and vibration control (linking to the main body), the only problem is that the shape is not beautiful enough.
Li Xiang's remarks quickly ushered in a reply from Jidu CEO Xia Yiping.
Xia Yiping said that the field of view of one lidar on the roof is 120 degrees, while the field of view of the two lids is 180 degrees, and the extreme situations that the two can solve are different. In terms of product capabilities, experience and even There is a difference in security.
An insider in the lidar industry told the First Financial Reporter that Xia Yiping's rebuttal is justified in terms of the field of view.
However, Lin Fang (pseudonym), an executive of an auto parts company, pointed out to reporters that neither Li Xiang nor Xia Yiping's remarks are completely correct. From a professional point of view, the installation position of the lidar must first ensure sufficient structural rigidity and positional accuracy , there are potential problems with lidar solutions that are retractable or installed in places where the body surface is not rigid enough.
Since last year, the lidar, known as the "Clairvoyance of Smart Cars", has accelerated the pace of getting into the car.
According to the forecast of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the market size of my country's vehicle lidar industry is expected to exceed 43 billion yuan in 2026, with a large space for development.
Many car companies have also given their lidar design plans, the number of installations is basically 1-4, and the installation location is "a hundred flowers blooming".
As far as the installation position of the lidar is concerned, the NIO ET7 is the same as the ideal choice to be installed on the roof; the dual lidars of the Xiaopeng P5 are installed under the front headlights respectively; the 3 lidars of the HUAWEI HI version of the Extreme Fox Alpha S They are located in three positions on the left, center, and right under the headlights on the front face; 2 of the 4 lidars of the Lotus Eletre are on the front face, and there are also 1 on the front and rear of the roof.
Regarding the distribution location of concentrated lidars, Lin Fang said that currently no mass-produced vehicles are equipped with liftable lidars. Previously, some car companies have adopted liftable lidars in prototype vehicles, but they are still in mass production. will be fixed.
Similarly, the front hood, as a place with insufficient rigidity of the body surface, is not suitable for placing lidars, unless the rigidity of this position is specially strengthened.
Li Xiang later also said on Weibo that the concentrated lidar will not be placed on the front hood as shown in the above picture. This should only be the placement of the test car. If 2-3 lidars are used in the front, the larger the Probability will be placed on bumpers and fenders.
At this position, the latest pedestrian collision regulations cannot pass the hurdle.
According to public information, both LiDAR and LiDAR come from the same supplier, Hesai Technology, and both use Hesai AT128 LiDAR. ) is used two.
Various car companies have competed against the number of lidars before.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November last year, the Mecha Dragon, a salon brand of Great Wall Motors, released a poster saying "please don't speak below 4".
According to data, the Mecha Dragon is equipped with 4 Huawei 96-line hybrid solid-state lidars; in addition, Xiaopeng G9 is expected to be equipped with 2 Sagitar Juchuang lidars; Weimar M7 is equipped with 3 Sagitar Juchuang semi-solid lidars; Zhiji L7 Equipped with 2 Sagitar Juchuang semi-solid lidars.
Lin Fang told reporters that the installation of lidars by car companies should not only depend on the quantity, but also on the function and purpose of deploying multiple lidars.
As we all know, lidars are expensive, and as the number of lidars increases, the cost of cars, computing power, and power consumption will increase.