Author｜Wei Shiwei
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36氪 was informed that recently, “Qingyan Zhixing”, a UWB automotive technology solution provider, announced the completion of tens of millions of RMB in Series A financing, led by TusStar. This round of funds will be mainly used for new generation product research and development investment, rapid team expansion, etc.
Qingyan Zhixing was established at the end of 2020. It was formerly the automotive division of Qingyan Xunke, a global leading brand in the UWB industry. The founding team originated from the State Key Laboratory of Precision Testing Technology and Instruments of Tsinghua University, focusing on UWB digital keys, UWB cockpit radar, The three major businesses of UWB parking navigation are positioned as a first-tier supplier of automotive electronic parts.
Since the release of Apple’s iPhone 11 in 2019 ignited the consumer’s attention to UWB (UltraWideband, ultra-wideband) technology, many hardware manufacturers, including Samsung, Google, Xiaomi, OPPO, etc., have begun to deploy UWB mobile phones and related accessories products one after another. According to ABI Research, it is expected that from 2019 to 2025, the shipments of UWB-enabled smartphones will increase from more than 42 million units to 514 million units, and 32.5% of smartphones will integrate UWB chips by then.
UWB technology is gradually becoming an important technology for connecting the four personal terminals of future smartphones, automobiles, smart homes, and VR/AR. At this stage, international and domestic standard organizations such as the global UWB standards organization FIRA, the Automotive Connectivity Association CCC, the Ultra-Broadband Alliance UWBA, and the Smart Vehicle Industry Ecological Alliance ICCE are actively promoting the interconnection between mobile phones and personal terminals such as cars, striving for more Friendly UWB spectrum resources.
Zhao Ruixiang, founder of Qingyan Zhixing, told 36氪 that UWB digital keys are an important bridge between the mobile phone ecology and the automobile ecology, and it will be an inevitable trend for mobile phone-based digital keys to replace physical keys. As one of the 15 voting members of the global UWB standard organization FIRA, a member of the CCC Global Automotive Connectivity Association, and the main drafter of China’s UWB digital key standard ICCE, the company has rich technical accumulation and product development experience in the UWB field.
Qingyan Zhixing has established two business directions of vehicle end and field end. Among them, UWB digital key and UWB radar are launched for the front loading end of the vehicle, which are the two product lines of the company’s core layout at present. The field-side business is the company’s long-term plan. In the future, as the UWB digital key or UWB radar pre-installation rate and the penetration rate of L4-level autonomous driving reach a certain level, the company plans to reuse the existing UWB positioning anchor points on the vehicle side. It can interact with a limited number of UWB positioning base stations on the terminal to realize high-precision positioning and navigation of vehicles indoors, such as AVP applications in autonomous public parking lots.
Compared with the digital key 1.0 specification based on NFC technology, or the digital key 2.0 specification based on Bluetooth+NFC technology, the digital key based on UWB+Bluetooth+NFC 3.0 specification has accurate positioning, real-time response, high security, and strong anti-interference. It has the advantages of diverse interactive gameplay and wider coverage, with a positioning accuracy of 0.1 meters, which can provide users with a more intelligent and diversified sensorless entry and exit experience and interactive experience.
Based on eight years of algorithm accumulation, Qingyan Zhixing has realized the accurate position algorithm of the body environment self-adaptation. Its UWB digital key has the ability to resist NLOS occlusion, smooth area switching, stable and smooth positioning, and intelligent coordination of anchor points. The positioning accuracy is in the general open space. The maximum height is 10cm in the area, and the maximum height is 20cm in the dense or multi-path environment. The recognition accuracy rate inside and outside the vehicle exceeds 99.7% under strict standards.
Qingyan Zhixing’s UWB digital key on the car display
In terms of product form, Qingyan Zhixing UWB digital key can be multiplexed with UWB radar. Generally speaking, UWB digital keys will be equipped with 4+1 or 4+2 anchor points on the car. Upgrading these anchor points through OTA (over-the-air download technology) can make them compatible with cabins similar to millimeter wave radars. In vivo detection function and kick function.
Zhao Ruixiang revealed that the cost of the millimeter-wave radar in the cabin is usually about 300 yuan and the kick is 100 yuan, while the cost of reusing the UWB anchor point is almost zero. Therefore, if these three functions can be realized with the money of a set of UWB digital keys, even if the cost of UWB digital keys is slightly higher than that of Bluetooth digital keys, it has obvious advantages in terms of cost performance, which can further accelerate the landing of UWB digital keys.
“Our UWB digital key not only leads the mainstream European Tier 1 manufacturers in key performance indicators such as accuracy, stability, reliability, repeatability and delay, but is also the first in the world to propose multiplexing UWB digital keys for radar, and very few A company that achieves mass production.” Zhao Ruixiang said.
The difficulty of UWB digital key multiplexing to develop radar is that firstly, the team needs to have both digital key measurement and algorithm capabilities, as well as wireless radar sensing algorithm capabilities; more importantly, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the underlying UWB technology, and realize the digital key from the bottom layer. Ranging and radar multiplexing capabilities, this is also the core difficulty that Bosch, Continental and other mainstream Tier 1s cannot overcome the multiplexing of UWB digital keys and UWB radars.
“In the automotive electronic parts market, Chinese companies have slowly stepped onto the stage of the global supply chain.” In Zhao Ruixiang’s view, the special feature of digital keys is that in the past, many parts and components started from after-installation. Such as lidar, after several years of development, it will only be installed on the car before accelerating in 2022. In the process from post-installation to pre-installation, Chinese science and technology companies from non-automotive industries have been left to build systems, specifications and quality for a few years. As soon as the UWB digital key was born, the large-scale pre-installation began, allowing Chinese companies to directly stand on the stage of PK with mainstream German Tier 1 players.
The opportunity of UWB digital key falls in a special period of intelligent transformation of automobiles. By analogy with the era of feature phones turning to smart phone windows, the development of the intelligent automobile industry may also experience a similar period of transformation, which will bring many technological advantages to emerging companies. A new opportunity to stand on the industrial track.
In Zhao Ruixiang’s view, UWB technology needs to obtain very good accuracy in complex environments, and it is very dependent on the support of complex algorithms behind it. Qingyan Zhixing has accumulated 8 years of algorithm experience, and has started UWB technology research and development for more than a year. Mainstream Tier1 Compared with manufacturers, it will have a performance lead of 2-3 years. “As we continue to invest in research and development, we can maintain the generational advantage of our products,” he said.
At the same time, the team size of Qingyan Zhixing has nearly 100 people (400 people in Heqing Research), and the R&D team accounts for more than 50%. The team organization strictly follows the Tier1 configuration. In addition to the R&D team, it also includes quality, system , project and supply chain personnel to ensure that the products meet the standards and specifications of the automotive industry for quality and research and development.
Qingyan Zhixing Venue
In terms of implementation, Qingyan Zhixing has completed a number of POC and mass production project designations, and several mass production designation projects are in the process of being signed, and the project approval is carried out with 40-50 domestic and foreign mainstream OEM customers, which is expected to be in 2024. Begin to enter the stage of large-scale loading.
According to data from CICC and Zosi Automotive Research, it is estimated that by 2025, the penetration rate of new vehicles with UWB digital keys is expected to account for 35%, and the loading capacity of UWB digital keys will reach 7.84 million. At that time, there will be more scenarios to support Qingyan Zhixing to further promote the development of field-side UWB products and services.
Prior to this, the company will adhere to the product development rhythm of “pre-research generation, research and development generation, and launch generation”, and continue to iteratively develop around computing and perception products. It is expected to launch a second-generation product with higher performance and lower cost next year.
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