Ask M7 to upgrade M9 to the same smart driver, and the price increase is nearly 9,000, which is equal to CDC’s free delivery？

The new version of Huan has been pre-sold, and the price covers 298,000-338,000 yuan (only the MAX version). After the upgrade, the pre-sale price of these four cars has increased by nearly 10,000 yuan compared with the current models.

Yu Chengdong’s vote on the upgrade of the new M7 in Weibo before suggested some upgrade directions of this car, mainly four, including exterior interior, intelligent driving ability, driving experience and comfortable configuration. Translated, the appearance of the interior is slightly changed, and the big mouth becomes smaller, and the new color scheme is probably introduced as well; Comfortable configuration should be a high probability to give a better, comfortable and easy-to-use seat configuration.

Are these two the key points? Obviously not, the focus is on intelligent driving ability and driving experience.

These two upgrade points include the ADS advanced suit of 192-line laser radar, which is added to the new M7. Instead of the basic version of ADS that has no lidar scheme, supports high-speed NOA function and has no NOA function in urban areas. The remaining change in driving experience is a CDC suspension system (there is no choice for the old models). However, if it is changed, it is limited to the MAX version, and there is no change to the PLUS version.

Then, what improvements will this car have in theory after the new configuration upgrade?

Advanced edition, can you have high expectations?

Basically, one of the things that we want to do from the launch of the new model from the customer M5 to the customer M7 is to give more models intelligent driving functions or higher-level intelligent driving hardware, and we have made two different choices on the customer M5 and the customer M7 respectively. After the cost of lidar is lowered, more models will be equipped with ADS (with hardware differences).

Look at the sensor level first. What’s the difference?

The advanced version of ADS to be used on the M7 uses a higher-cost 192-line laser radar, followed by a millimeter-wave radar and an ultrasonic radar, which cooperate with a high-definition camera to complete the 360-degree perception of the environment without dead ends. Specifically, it can be equipped with 3 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars and 10 visual high-definition cameras, and this scheme has been applied in the world.

Besides the other sensors mentioned above, the ADS scheme of 192-line lidar can detect and identify objects in the environment more accurately, especially in irregular objects, abnormal weather perception, close cut, tunnels and other scenes. Lidar has great advantages (previously it was 126-line lidar).

1. In the previous 126-line lidar, the transmitter can only send out 126 laser lines for scanning, while the 192-line lidar can send out 192 laser lines. More laser lines mean that the 192-line lidar can obtain more data points in the same scanning area, thus improving the resolution and accuracy of environmental perception.
2. Then, compared with the 126-line lidar, the detection distance of the 192-line lidar is obviously improved. The 192-line lidar used in the world has the recognition ability of 250 meters, while the detection distance of the 126-line lidar used before is only 150 meters.

Therefore, there is a clear gap between the two versions in perception. To improve under two working conditions, first of all, the feeling of using high-speed NOA will be improved obviously. I have experienced the ability of 192-line laser radar under high-speed NOA working conditions before, and the performance is very stable, especially in the details of parallel operation and car following. At the same time, on the NOA in the urban area, after the laser radar with high beam, it will also have a better perception of the details on the street, which will contribute to the smoothness and stability of the vehicle. After changing the 192-line laser radar, it can be understood that the intelligent driving level is in line with the M9.

Then, will the chip improve its computing power?

On the M7 equipped with lidar, the MDC 610 chip scheme is used, with the maximum computing power of 200TOPS, which can cope with the two functions of high-speed and NOA in urban areas. Now, after upgrading the performance of lidar, the MDC 610 chip scheme with a maximum of 200TOPS is still sufficient. Theoretically, it is possible to copy the set of algorithms of the bound M9 and get on the bus.

In this way, it will improve the performance of the whole set of intelligent driving. For example, the operation of complex instructions under NOA conditions in urban areas may be easier to handle. Before, the NOA function in the M7 urban area we experienced, although it can be done stably, has the style of "old driver", and it is necessary to admit these advantages that it is also comfortable to experience the parallel line and the up and down ramps. However, after replacing the laser radar with a high beam, whether it will make a better experience (or an experience similar to that of the M9) on the function of NOA in urban areas without adjusting the computing power needs further real vehicle tests to get a clear result.

What can I get for using CDC suspension?

At present, the M7 still uses FSD variable damping suspension, but does not use CDC active damping suspension, which is really a big impact on this level of household SUV, especially on the comfort in the car. Then, on this new M7, this suspension system will come standard.

Now, in the same price or level, there are more and more home SUVs with CDC active shock absorption suspension as standard. The ideal L series should be the ultimate configuration, almost all of which are standard. Therefore, it is reasonable and necessary for the new M7 to take this configuration as a main upgrade direction.

The FSD suspension, which is still in use in cash, is only to reduce the cost at the beginning.

To talk about the advantages of this FSD variable damping suspension, firstly, it does not need complex sensors and control systems, and its structure is relatively simple and the cost is low; Secondly, the damping can be adjusted adaptively, which can improve the comfort of some cars. Then, after replacing the CDC active damping suspension, based on the FSD suspension, the CDC suspension can collect data in real time through sensors and actively adjust the damping, which means that it can control the body posture more accurately and provide a more stable driving experience.

Moreover, its response speed is faster, because it can be adjusted immediately according to the real-time road condition data, reducing the roll and pitch angle of the car body, and the lifting effect will be very obvious for a large-sized car like SUV. To put it simply, there are more adjustable parameters, the reaction speed is faster, and the ride feeling is better when it is finally transmitted to the car. Of course, the final adjustment style is definitely a comfortable style, after all, it has to cater to household needs.

Is it possible to have air suspension after adding CDC suspension?

CDC+ suspension, this combination can be used together, for example, it is this configuration on the M9. However, it is very unlikely that the new M7 configuration will appear at the same time.

It is not difficult to realize technically. The space of the chassis should be able to accommodate the combination of CDC+ suspension, but the cost of the model may be difficult to realize. The price of a set of air suspension for M9 is about 10,000 yuan. A product of 400,000 class can support this cost, but it is difficult to support this price for a model that is sold within 250,000. Therefore, don’t think about the suspension for the time being. With CDC suspension, the whole driving quality has been improved obviously.

The last point is about the size of the battery pack.

Personally, I feel that I may add another 2kWh battery pack like the M5 to improve the pure electricity and comprehensive endurance of this car. However, in this case, the possibility of price change of this car is even smaller. After all, the increase of 2kWh battery capacity also means the increase of cost, plus the basic version of the ADS scheme and the CDC suspension.

Therefore, it is highly probable that the change of this new model M7 focuses on the application of the new intelligent driving scheme suite, the improvement of car comfort, and the possible fine-tuning of battery pack specifications (but it may be reasonable not to expand the capacity due to cost considerations).