With the deepening trend of new energy vehicle intelligence, smart driving is moving towards unmanned driving at an unprecedented speed, and this process has greatly promoted the market demand for high-speed connectors.
As ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) has become a powerful assistant for drivers, people can't help but look forward to the arrival of the unmanned driving era. In fact, in the first half of this year, 66.4% of new energy vehicles have been equipped with L2 assisted driving functions. This proportion highlights the core position of autonomous driving in the intelligent competition of new energy vehicles, as if foreshadowing a storm of market change is coming.
However, the road to unmanned driving is not smooth. Despite significant technological advances, autonomous driving systems still face many challenges. For example, a system misjudged a billboard truck as an actual obstacle, resulting in emergency braking and a rear-end collision; another example is that during the automatic parking process, the vehicle accidentally collided. These events constantly remind us that the road to the implementation of unmanned driving technology is still full of ups and downs and challenges.
01Pure vision and laser radar are not a life-and-death struggle
Recently, a blogger reported that when experiencing the automatic parking function of Xiaopeng MONA M03, the vehicle accidentally had a slight scratch with an Audi car, and the originally convenient automatic parking function unexpectedly turned into a collision.
Xiaopeng MONA M03 is a model with affordable price and outstanding intelligent driving ability. With its urban NGP function, it has demonstrated the strength of full-scene intelligent assisted driving in many aspects such as intelligent assisted lane change, intelligent parking assistance, LCC lane centering assistance and AI driving. However, this highly praised affordable intelligent driving model made a mistake in the basic function of automatic parking. In response to this incident, the relevant person in charge of Xiaopeng Motors said that the accidental collision of the automatic parking function may be due to recognition errors caused by environmental factors such as light.
Xiaopeng MONA M03 adopts a pure vision solution and is equipped with 11 cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars and 3 millimeter-wave radars. Ultrasonic radar plays an important role in the automatic parking system. It can perceive the surrounding environment at close range and help the vehicle accurately determine the location of obstacles. However, this type of radar also has certain limitations, such as being susceptible to environmental interference and limited resolution, which may affect the accuracy of automatic parking to a certain extent.
The high-precision positioning and all-round perception of laser radar can make up for the lack of perception of cameras and radars under specific conditions. It can accurately perceive the surrounding environment at night or in bad weather, reduce the risk of missed detection and false detection, and greatly improve the safety of autonomous driving.
From the perspective of cost, the pure vision solution is still one of the best solutions for car companies to lower the price of intelligent driving, but from a macro perspective, autonomous driving technology should develop towards higher levels of L3 and L4, and ultimately achieve true unmanned driving.
However, the general consensus on laser radar in the industry is: easy to use, but expensive. However, the wave of price cuts in the car circle in recent years has also swept laser radar manufacturers. The average selling price of laser radar has dropped sharply from 120,000 yuan to 3,200 yuan, and the price of some products on the market has even dropped to less than 1,000 yuan.
In short, thanks to the cost reduction results of the pure vision solution and the price reduction of laser radar, the penetration rate of the intelligent driving market has continued to increase, and laser radar has provided possibilities for higher-level autonomous driving technology.
02 What kind of high-speed connectors are needed for multiple sensors?
To meet the connection requirements of vehicle body sensors, there are currently many types of high-speed connectors, including Fakra, Mini-Fakra, HSD and Ethernet connectors.
At present, the most commonly used high-speed connectors in traditional passenger cars are Fakra and Mini Fakra, which are generally used for sensor installation and connection; HSD connectors are usually used in conjunction with Fakra and Mini-Fakra. In the application of surround-view ADAS system, the camera is connected to the Mini-Fakra connector at the other end through a wiring harness, so that the collected data can be transmitted to the vehicle surround-view system, and then the HSD connector connects the wiring harness to transmit the data to the host.
Ethernet connector is a physical interface for connecting computers, network devices and Ethernet cables. It is used in various computer networks and communication equipment to establish Ethernet connections and transmit data.
Passenger cars are durable goods, so the requirements for the quality and stability of connector components are relatively strict. The life cycle of the power platform of a general vehicle manufacturer is 5-7 years, and the vehicle manufacturer has established a relatively complete quality assessment and certification system internally. From product certification to mass supply, the entire process generally takes 1-2 years.
Domestic manufacturers also attach great importance to technology investment. In the past three years, the R&D expense rate has been higher than that of foreign manufacturers, and there is a strong desire to upgrade product development. After years of technological precipitation, the corresponding requirements have been met in design capabilities and automated production capabilities, and high-end products have been mass-produced, gradually breaking the monopoly of international industry giants, and providing downstream vehicle manufacturers with diversified connector products.
However, it is difficult for Fakra and Mini Fakra connectors to be completed without a certain scale of manufacturers. And from stamping/assembly/testing, they must comply with the IATF16949 specification. It is difficult for small factories to implement relevant requirements, so it is urgent to form a complete interactive model. In the entire development and even mass production process, suppliers are required to have the ability to respond quickly and change engineering. However, with the rapid rise of the new energy vehicle market, some companies in the Fakra and Mini Fakra connector markets are unable to meet customer needs due to their technical level and delivery capabilities, because terminal parts are no longer simple connection devices, but higher-level components that integrate devices and control systems.
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