NIO car fans, always “naked”. Few car companies hold media events and user events on the same day for a strategy or product release, but Li Bin and Ren Shaoqing did it on a weekend when users could rest.
In fact, many people in the media are users of NIO cars, but “sorry, the next session is for NIO’s smart driving users, we hope media friends will leave soon.” From this sentence, it is clear that NIO and Li Bin have carefully considered the market, users, and various levels of positioning, with a clear and distinct operating logic. As a media event, there may still be some “etiquette” in commercial communication. But communicating with users is often “brutal,” Li Bin has stated in many occasions that the suggestions NIO users give to the company are sharp but also the harshest. So in this conference about the future development of NIO’s assisted driving, Li Bin and Ren Shaoqing did not extensively go through the PPT, but only explained NIO’s layout for the global navigation assistance NOP+ from a macro level, showcasing the technical details and application scenarios in the live stream. On the same day of the conference, Li Bin will demonstrate the capabilities of NIO’s global smart driving NOP+ through a live self-test during the evening rush hour. Li Bin is so busy, he is too dedicated.
First, let’s talk about the content of the conference. Li Bin’s opening is usually quick and full of valuable information. He rarely uses fancy adjectives, connecting his words with data and user examples, creating a strong sense of empathy. For example, at the beginning of the conference, Li Bin mentioned that many people have tried to challenge the record he set last year for the ET7’s range test – 1044km. No one has been able to break this record, even with advantages in temperature and altitude. Ultimately, Li Bin believes this demonstrates the advantages of human-vehicle collaboration.
Comparing Li Bin and Shen Fei’s driving energy consumption curve, Li Bin’s data shows a lower energy consumption of 0.5-1 kWh per 100 kilometers compared to Shen Fei, which is equivalent to about 60-70 meters. Li Bin described his smart driving performance as interesting, saying “Compared to Shen Fei, my driving with NOP+ is much easier, I can livestream while driving, and the energy consumption is also very good.” How is NIO’s smart driving? What about the nationwide delivery of NT2 with full domain NOP+ this time? We must first look at the achievements NIO has made in intelligent driving.
Reviewing NIO’s intelligent driving history, from EP7 setting a world record of 257 km/h for autonomous driving in 2017, to the mass-produced ES8 equipped with MobileyeQ4 chip, to the first full delivery of NOP with high-speed navigation assistance in 2020, to the launch of the first model ET7 on the NT2 platform in 2021, NIO has set a new standard for intelligent driving. Now equipped with the AQUILA constellation super sensing system.
NIO users have accumulated a total of 8.99 billion kilometers of intelligent driving mileage from 2020 to the first quarter of this year, with an average daily per capita usage of NOP+ lasting 36 minutes. Compared to Tesla, NIO’s intelligent driving mileage is still far behind. However, the Chinese market is one of the largest markets for smart electric vehicles in the world and is also the best land for achieving intelligence globally. Based on market demand and policy guidance, the pace of intelligent driving in China will accelerate. This is also why NIO will start delivering the national NT2 platform models on April 30. NIO’s full NOP+ urban function this time will cover 726 cities, 360,755 kilometers of highways, and 847,221 kilometers of urban mileage. The total road validation mileage has reached 1.2079 million kilometers. These numbers together form the foundation of NIO’s “widest verification available range” for intelligent driving. Within this full-scale promotion range, NIO’s full-range navigation assistance driving will adhere to a subscription model. He believes this is the key to whether an intelligent function can be accepted by users. Of course, he also promises to give car owners 1-2 years for free. Facing other car companies splitting full-range intelligent driving into subscriptions, Li Bin said that the so-called free buyout is actually included in the car price. The subscription model for full-range navigation is the best way, with urban and highway navigation currently temporarily combined for subscription and not split up.
In the face of the increasingly “internal circulation” field of intelligent driving, NIO’s approach is a framework of single-vehicle intelligence and collective intelligence, with safety as the foundation of the overall intelligent driving assistance system NOP+, solving long-tail problems with general capabilities, OCC2.0, human-vehicle co-driving ADMS+, and overall verification of all intelligent solutions. By comprehensively improving the efficiency of intelligent driving safety, NIO users’ intelligent driving safety level has now been upgraded to 6.26 times that of human driving after upgrading to banyan 2.4.0, ensuring the foundation of NIO’s safe intelligent driving. In addition to safer intelligent driving, the conference also announced the world’s first global navigation assistance system supporting three-point U-turn scenarios developed by NIO. Its user scenario is to immediately make a U-turn when encountering road closures or other road conditions ahead. Furthermore, NIO will continue to develop point-to-point intelligent driving technology with the goal of enabling driving from any location.
In addition, a video about automatic queuing for battery replacement was released at the press conference. This feature allows users to leave their cars and go about their business while waiting in line for a battery swap. Users can activate the feature, leave the car near the station, and the vehicle will automatically queue for a battery swap. The car will start and slowly enter the station, avoiding obstacles and stopping as needed. After the battery swap, the car will drive out and park in an available spot, ready for the user to board.
For NIO’s intelligent driving goal, Li Bin announced at the conference that by 2025, the user’s intelligent driving usage time should reach 80% within just one year, and by 2025, it can achieve a safety level 10 times that of human driving.
During Li Bin’s test drive on the evening of April 20th, the upgraded NIO ET7 in Banyan’s latest version achieved 1.5 takeovers in nearly two hours. Considering busy sections like Guomao, Sanlitun, Dongzhimen, and Wudaokou, this performance is still acceptable. Li Bin has always emphasized that autonomous driving is a learning process for everyone. It is not meant to replace taxis or ride-hailing services, but to free up energy and reduce accidents as the core goal of improving intelligent driving technology.