Geely Popularizes Smart Driving, Horizon J6M Plays Important Role
Following BYD’s announcement to popularize smart driving, Geely began to follow suit this week, integrating multiple smart driving solutions within the group and unifying them under the name “Qianli Haohan” (Thousand Miles Vast), divided into five versions: H1, H3, H5, H7, and H9.
According to Geely, going forward, new and facelifted models from the Geely Galaxy brand will all be equipped with the Qianli Haohan smart driving system, with specific versions varying according to the vehicle model.
Although this was a smart driving popularization launch event, Geely actually spoke very little about smart driving itself during this event. Specific details such as computing power for each solution, vehicle matching, and mass production planning were basically not mentioned.
So I once again deployed my traditional skills, using cloud-based quantum metaphysical encrypted computing to decode some information. I don’t guarantee 100% accuracy – this is for reference only.
1. Qianli Haohan is Still in the Planning Stage
Not only did the launch event fail to elaborate on each smart driving version, but in fact, some people inside Geely and suppliers also don’t understand what the five versions H1-H9 correspond to in terms of which vehicle models and which smart driving solutions.
What is currently known is that H1 corresponds to the dual Black Sesame A1000 solution, and H9 is the NVIDIA Thor solution. But both of these may also change later.
This shows that Qianli Haohan is still in the planning stage, with some details not yet finalized. That’s why the launch event only covered the general outline without going into details. The main purpose was to first keep up with the “smart driving popularization” wave initiated by BYD and give users peace of mind.
2. Quite a Few Vehicle Models Using Horizon J6M
According to my understanding, within the Qianli Haohan architecture, besides the officially announced H9 that will adopt NVIDIA’s flagship smart driving chip Thor, Horizon J6M has also been confirmed for adoption with a relatively large proportion – over 10 vehicle models will use it, making it the main chip for Geely’s smart driving popularization.
Why is J6M the mainstay?
Because for Geely, there aren’t many chips to choose from – mainly J6M, NVIDIA Orin X (or Y), and Thor.
Although the official correspondence between chips and versions hasn’t been finalized yet, from a pricing perspective, NVIDIA’s chips are expensive, so they’ll mainly be used in flagship models of the Galaxy brand and Zeekr vehicles. For example, Zeekr 007 and 001 use dual Orin X.
For Galaxy brand mainstream models priced in the tens of thousands, choosing J6M represents the best balance of performance and price.
This makes the cost structure quite similar to BYD’s Eye of God C.
For low-priced vehicle models, cost and performance indicators are very tightly constrained. Once you set up several constraint conditions, the result becomes basically clear.
There’s another point that I think will also be similar to BYD’s Eye of God.
Since NVIDIA chips are more familiar to work with, Geely should also internally monitor progress going forward: if the J6M solution development goes smoothly, they’ll quickly deploy it to vehicles; if it doesn’t go smoothly, they’ll first use NVIDIA chips as a stopgap, giving J6M more time.
For example, BYD’s Eye of God C initially used Orin N. Of course, Geely also said they’re starting with 100+ TOPS, so they might use Orin Y as the stopgap.
3. Suppliers: Freetech + QCraft
The J6M smart driving solution for Qianli Haohan is led by Geely Research Institute, with Freetech as the Tier 1 supplier and QCraft as Tier 2 providing algorithm support.
Freetech is a very important external smart driving supplier for Geely, having been supplying to Geely for many years. They previously also developed J3+TDA4 solutions for Geely.
This collaboration with QCraft can be called a strong alliance. Freetech can secure Geely’s orders, while QCraft is one of the few domestic algorithm companies most familiar with Horizon chips, with the capability to develop mapless urban smart driving.
Regarding their collaboration, there are reports that QCraft provides perception while Freetech and Geely handle PNC (Planning and Control). But now everyone is working on end-to-end, and even with two-stage end-to-end, perception and PNC modules aren’t easy to separate. It’s currently unclear what kind of collaboration model the three parties will ultimately reach.
My personal speculation is they might let QCraft handle everything directly, then deliver a white box solution?
Additionally, Bosch is also a supplier for Geely’s J6M solution, mainly providing solutions for Geely’s overseas vehicle models.
As a global component giant, Bosch has rich experience with overseas market access, safety standards, and other details. Choosing Bosch’s smart driving solution is a plus for vehicles entering overseas markets.
Geely’s previous smart driving suppliers also included HiRain and Horizon Robotics, both offering Mobileye solutions. Their importance among Geely’s smart driving suppliers is declining.
There’s also another question: what role do Geely’s intelligent system suppliers – ECARX, JIYUE, and CoreEngine Technology – play in Qianli Haohan? Geely hasn’t clearly explained this either.
However, riding the wave of J6M, companies familiar with Horizon solutions can also benefit from some dividends.
Horizon Robotics collaborates with Intellicar (a joint venture between Continental and Horizon) and has also developed J6M mapless urban smart driving solutions, having already secured orders from Chery. Horizon Robotics handles hardware while Intellicar does software algorithms.
Another algorithm company familiar with Horizon chips, Phigent, through collaboration with Neusoft, has also developed mapless urban smart driving and supplied it to Voyah.