ECARX New Digital Unit in Europe

ECARX, a global mobility tech company, will view its next-generation digital head unit (DHU) reach European motorists with the continued roll-out of the new smart #1, expected to begin customer deliveries from the end of 2022.

FREMONT, CA: With the continuous roll-out of the new smart #1, which is anticipated to start customer deliveries at the end of 2022, ECARX, a global mobility tech business, will witness its next-generation digital head unit (DHU) reach European drivers.

The smart brand is represented by the ECARX-developed digital head unit, which offers consumers a more intuitive and customisable experience while running a smart and ECARX co-developed operating system known as smart OS. The DHU introduces smart's first-ever in-car virtual assistant in the shape of a digital fox avatar and an Inspiring Planet design idea as its main feature, based on a design concept established by Mercedes-Benz. Various international apps may be downloaded and accessed using the co-developed operating system, which offers a fluid, effective, and entertaining Human Machine Interface (HMI) that features multi-context speech recognition.

The main touchscreen manages vehicle operations, the infotainment system, and many driving and comfort settings to provide a smooth customer experience. The most frequently used car operations are quickly accessible through shortcut icons, and media can always be handled from the home screen via a dynamic widget. Displays are optimised using a split-screen layout that enables simultaneous viewing of the media controls and the navigation route. In some driving situations, a pop-up screen with a camera view will be triggered.

The smart #1 digital cockpit is powered by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.'s next-generation Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms. The next-generation Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms, which are essential parts of the Snapdragon Digital ChassisTM solutions, are intended to revolutionise in-vehicle experiences by providing higher levels of computational intelligence required for the advanced features found in next-generation vehicles. This includes cutting-edge technologies for immersive audio and rich visual experiences, extremely intuitive artificial intelligence (AI) experiences for in-car virtual assistance, natural interactions between the vehicle and the driver, and contextual safety use cases for drivers and passengers. With over-the-air (OTA) capabilities, the system can be continually upgraded for the vehicle's duration.

Smart and ECARX collaborated from the start of smart #1's product development phase in 2019 to co-develop a fully integrated digital system, in contrast to certain traditional OEM-supplier relationships where the suppliers are brought in to fulfil a specification.

Ziyu Shen, chairman and chief executive officer of ECARX, commented that millions of consumers in various regions currently enjoy ECARX-developed digital cockpit solutions. Still, they are extremely pleased to roll out the most recent generation Digital Head Unit in the smart #1 for European clients.   

Companies collaboratively provided a seamless, effective, and engaging user experience that embodies the smart brand on a system that can run worldwide apps and content, co-developed with smart and based on Mercedes-design Benz's philosophy. It is one of the most advanced platforms because it is based on the next-generation Snapdragon Cockpit Platform and ECARX's software stack.