Wen | Power Plant, Reporter | Yan Liting, Editor | Gao Yulei
We believe that success does not depend on when you start, but on whether you can bravely take the first step On June 8th, Jidu Automobile finally took the first step by holding its first brand launch event in the metaverse of Xilang. CEO Xia Yiping's speech was more like a way to break free from this belated launch event and the slow-moving new car manufacturing company.
As the atmosphere of the promotional video was pushed to a climax, the butterfly wing door of Jidu's first concept car slowly unfolded on the central screen. This ROBO-01, equipped with Qualcomm's first 5-nanometer mass-produced cockpit chip, two Nvidia Orin X system chips, 31 body sensors, and a 3D hyperlinked screen, also made its official debut on stage, transitioning from the virtual world to real life. This is also the impression that Jidu is trying to convey to the outside world.
As the CEO of Jidu Automobile, Xia Yiping appeared in the venue as a virtual human and systematically explained the logic and path of Jidu's car manufacturing. However, as a latecomer in the car making trend, facing the reality gap from concept to implementation, Jidu Automobile has finally made progress. All companies will take the first step, but that doesn't mean they will succeed.

01 ROBO-01 integrates 3 major concepts, achieving a 90% overlap in the first mass-produced car
Robin Lee previously said that the first concept car of Jidu is more like a robot with four wheels.
ROBO-01 confirmed his claim that the body of the car is like a robot shell, with a through type light strip on the top, paired with AI pixel headlights, a butterfly wing door for the driver and passenger seats, a double door for the rear seats, and a traceless side window design. In response, Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu, stated that Jidu is attempting to create a product that combines futurism and robotics, and can empathize with people.
"Futurism must be extremely simple, and complex design belongs to the category of retro, not the future," Xia Yiping explained. Following this idea, ROBO-01 has created a streamlined exterior, not only removing door handles and physical buttons, but also removing left and right physical levers. Inside the cabin, ROBO-01 integrates cutting-edge integrated central control screen design, further highlighting a sense of technology beyond simplicity.
In terms of driving experience, following Baidu's research on AI perception and initiative, Jidu has injected the concept of roboticization into ROBO-01. This car adopts an active lifting tail wing and is equipped with two retractable LiDARs on the guide cover. It can not only automatically adjust the wind resistance according to the vehicle speed, improve driving performance, but also cover a horizontal 180 ° vision, enhancing the recognition ability of pedestrians or obstacles crossing.
At the same time, ROBO-01 adopts a U-shaped steering wheel. In autonomous driving mode, the steering wheel can automatically fold up, solving the problem of traditional steering wheel obstructing the screen view. Coupled with more wrapped zero gravity seats, users can fully enjoy the large screen display.In terms of emotional interaction, the AI interactive pixel lights located in the front and rear of ROBO-01 can present different lighting effects and interactive images based on scene analysis. When Sentinel mode is turned on, the external lights can interact with users through dynamic efficiency enhancement. In addition, the cabin is equipped with two retractable speakers and a set of intelligent ambient lights, which can automatically adjust and increase efficiency according to the user's mood and the scene inside the car.
According to Xia Yiping, ROBO-01 comes in three different color schemes: ROBO White Star Porcelain White, Galaxy Purple Star River Purple, and Astro Grey Nebula Grey. Each color is composed of 5 technical coatings and paint layers, which can fold out richer tones under natural light.
Overall, Jidu has put a lot of effort into cockpit design and driving experience, but many functions of ROBO-01 have been implemented in some mass-produced vehicles on the market, such as the integrated large screen of Mercedes Benz EQS, intelligent cockpit gesture interaction control, and so on. However, compared to high-end models such as EQS that focus on performance, Jidu appears more pragmatic in terms of performance and pricing in the final mass-produced vehicle.
Previously, Robin Lee said that this family oriented passenger car was priced at about 200000 yuan. At this press conference, Jidu Automobile revealed that the mass-produced model of ROBO-01 will be unveiled this autumn, with a 90% overlap compared to the ROBO-01 concept car.

02 Shortcuts and Barriers to Concentration Behind Triple Technology Stacking
Starting from researching autonomous driving in 2013, launching the Apollo platform in 2017, and then establishing a joint venture with Geely before the window period closes in 2021, Baidu Auto started early and rushed late. For the newly released Jidu, quickly completing the implementation from concept to product is the top priority. From the signals revealed at this press conference, it can be seen that the speed code of Jidu is fusion.
At the hardware level, ROBO-01 integrates the strongest chip combination in the universe, including Qualcomm's fourth generation 8295 chip and NVIDIA Orin X chip.
Among them, as Qualcomm's first mass-produced 5-nanometer cockpit chip, compared to the previous generation 8155 chip, the 8295 chip has increased computing power by 16.5 times, GPU by 2.1 times, and CPU by 1.1 times. As the first vehicle of this chip, the ROBO-01 has a computing power of 30TOPS, and with an integrated large screen, it can meet various scene needs such as driving navigation, gaming and entertainment, and online office.
More importantly, compared to the previous generation of cockpit chips, the ROBO-01 equipped with the 8295 chip not only has better multimedia capabilities, but also can achieve localization of speech recognition algorithms. This means that even in fully offline or weak signal states, human vehicle interaction still has a second level response speed. In addition, localized storage can further protect user voiceprint privacy and information security.
In order to enable the Apollo unmanned autonomous driving algorithm to be adapted to mass-produced vehicles, Jidu Automobile has equipped the ROBO-01 with two NVIDIA Orin X system chips. The total computing power of autonomous driving can reach 508TOPS, second only to the NIO ET7 and WMA M7 equipped with four Orin X chips. However, compared to the ET7 that has already started delivery, the mass-produced vehicles of Jidu will not start mass production until next year.
In addition to the stacking of chips, ROBO-01 adopts a dual system of vision and LiDAR to ensure safe landing of autonomous driving. It is equipped with 31 sensors throughout the body: 2 LiDARs, 5 millimeter wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 12 high-definition cameras.

At the software level, Jidu Automobile fully inherits Apollo's core capabilities and integrates the development of a high-level autonomous driving intelligent system.
As a platform open to vehicle manufacturers and the field of autonomous driving, Apollo has a complete set of software, hardware, and service systems, including four parts: vehicle platform, hardware platform, software platform, data services, and also provides complete development and testing tools. And Jidu is the only car company that has integrated and officially launched Apollo RobotTaxi validated autonomous driving technology.
Regarding this, Xia Yiping stated that a safe and reliable autonomous driving experience still needs to be achieved through global integration and scenario generalization. Jidu has created an intelligent architecture for this purpose. Based on this open SUV architecture, ROBO-01 can achieve a combination of software and hardware, breaking the inefficiency of traditional logic where software upgrades or modifications affect the entire system, and shortening the iteration cycle of a single function by about 2/3.
From the integration of underlying systems, platforms, and hardware, to the integration of intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving, Jidu ROBO-01 attempts to create an intelligent third space. However, for the focus on the era of intelligent vehicles 3.0, integration is only the first step. Once there is a slight delay in mass production, all technological advantages will gradually disappear. To become a true leader, mastering core barriers is the key.
The problem is that compared to micro innovation in vehicle design and interaction, ROBO-01 relies on external forces in the core of electric vehicles for "one upgrade and three transformations". Compared to leading brands that have already begun to move towards core self-development, there is still a huge energy gap in Jidu.
This article is adapted from Titanium Media, Wen | Power Plant, Reporter | Yan Liting, Editor | Gao Yulei
Original link: Jidu has released its first concept car, but there are still many doubts about mass production - titanium media official website (tmtpost. com)
Source of the first image @ Jidu