Don't innovate for the sake of innovating.

"We have filled a blank that the entire automotive industry has not realized in 140 years," declared the CEO of a new force brand at a product launch event.

In the hot summer weather, the high thermal conductivity of the front windshield of a car easily leads to heat inside the vehicle. Many new energy vehicles adopt a full-glass skylight design with no metal roof insulation, making the interior temperature even higher in summer. To cool down the interior, this new force brand came up with a solution—triple silver coating on the front windshield, claiming to block 99.5% of ultraviolet rays and 97.6% of infrared rays. Silver coating can reduce the thermal conductivity of glass while ensuring light transmittance, achieving the effect of heat insulation and temperature control.

However, recently, a Bilibili UP revealed that his car's GPS could not be used due to the silver coating on the front windshield blocking signals. After multiple complaints, the automaker currently offers him two solutions: either replace the front windshield at a total cost of 4,359 yuan, which will be borne by the automaker, or install a signal amplifier at the ETC position.

The UP also stated that the automaker is providing front windshield replacement services to other car owners. However, when media verified with the automaker's official customer service, the customer service claimed not to have heard of the windshield replacement.

This incident immediately sparked online discussions, and was even shared by a large V with millions of followers. Whether it is a product defect or not, whether the triple silver coating affects signals, supporters of both sides still hold different opinions. In addition to trying to figure out the truth of the matter, some netizens have also begun to pay attention to some so-called "innovations" on new energy vehicles: are these innovations really beneficial to consumers in the end? What other similar "innovations" are there on new energy vehicles?

Is poor signal all the fault of the front windshield?

Regarding the issue that triple silver-coated glass may interfere with signals, less than a month after the model's launch event, another new force brand mentioned it at their product launch event on April 23rd, and the two automakers thus began a round of arguments.

On April 24th, the automaker stated that they had tested three major operators and 15 mobile phone models, and all phones' navigation, communication, streaming, and other signals were normal. On June 1st, at the second Shenzhen Greater Bay Area Future Automobile Pioneers Conference, executives from the two automakers met again, and this automaker's CEO guaranteed that triple silver coating would not affect mobile phone signals.

In response, the UP said that the automaker cunningly claimed that it would not affect mobile phone signals but did not mention the car's GPS signal. On July 2nd, the UP posted that he had received a complaint from the automaker, but this is only the UP's side of the story, and whether what he said in the video is entirely true can only be judged by readers themselves.

Theoretically speaking, metal has an impact on electromagnetic fields, and the car body is made of metal. If the glass is also silver-coated, it is easy to form a Faraday cage, blocking electromagnetic signals.

Some of you may remember that when metal bodies were popular in the past, the iPhone 6s avoided signal loss by leaving a plastic filling strip on the back of the body. Behind this white strip is the phone's antenna to avoid the impact of the metal body on signals. Metal bodies with good feel and high durability have been abandoned by many manufacturers due to their impact on signals.

In the automotive industry, the WeChat official account of Yubei Traffic Police once published a case where Mr. Chen applied a high-end film to his car due to hot weather, but found that the on-board GPS navigator could not receive satellite signals since the film was applied. In response, Yubei Traffic Police stated that the film contains a metal layer that affects GPS signals, and the solution is to replace the sunscreen film or adjust the GPS antenna position.

As for why the mobile phone signals were not affected in the automaker's official tests, it is related to the position. After the front windshield is silver-coated, the signal needs to enter through the side windows, and the phone can receive the signal. From the user manual, the car's GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) antenna is located just below the front windshield, and this area has not been silver-coated, resulting in severe signal obstruction.

Interestingly, the area of the car used to install ETC has been treated with silver removal. No wonder one of the solutions offered by the automaker to the UP is to install a signal amplifier at the ETC position.

In fact, as early as early April this year, shortly after the product delivery, some GPS issues were exposed online, but they did not attract widespread attention at the time. It was not until late April that an executive from a rival company directly stated that triple silver coating would affect signals, and the issue was taken seriously.

In the era of smart cars, signals are almost the lifeblood of products, especially as high-level intelligent driving gradually becomes popular. The failure of navigation function means that intelligent driving cannot be used normally, and may even pose a safety hazard.

But overall, the issue ultimately only appears in a small group of car owners, making it difficult to judge whether it is a product design defect or a quality issue that exists individually. According to past practices in the automotive industry, if it is a design issue with the vehicle itself, it is likely that a large-scale recall and rectification will be needed. Obviously, the current situation has not yet reached that point.

During this period of waiting for an official statement, more netizens have discussed a series of "innovations" made by new forces in the new energy era. It is undeniable that most of them have indeed changed our past driving habits, but some can be seen as "innovating for the sake of innovating" and contain assumptions.

This signal controversy may just be a fuse, and similar design issues are not uncommon in other brands and models.

New forces promote new features, with more "gimmicks" than "innovations"

After entering the new energy era, new forces in car manufacturing have developed rapidly and launched many new features. Some opinions are biased in believing that these new features are the best arguments for discussing the "backwardness of fuel vehicles," and that these new features can bring significant improvements in experience, making traditional fuel vehicles appear even more "outdated."

However, when we re-examine a series of features on new energy vehicles, we will find that they are not as good as what automakers describe. Gesture control is a typical "bad example," allowing users to control the car's navigation, entertainment, and other functions through gestures. Not to mention operation efficiency, safety is worth considering.

We mainly rely on feedback to judge whether an operation is effective. Mechanical buttons provide strong feedback and can be operated blindly after simple adaptation. Touch buttons and central control screens have weaker feedback, making it difficult for us to operate blindly. And when it comes to gesture operation, there is no feedback at all. Without looking at the screen, we may not even know if our gestures are correct or if the camera has sensed them.

Especially for drivers who are driving, using gesture operation requires distraction and may pose a safety hazard.

In addition, another automaker equipped a certain model with a retractable and 360° rotating roof camera with a resolution of 1080P that can be activated when the speed does not exceed 80 km/h. The official stated that the camera can be used to capture scenery, and photos can be transmitted to a phone through an App.

The problem is that the quality of this camera is not strong at all and is inferior to a mobile phone. Mobile phones can take pictures wherever they want and adjust angles and compositions freely. Nowadays, some cars are equipped with companion drones, which are a good choice, allowing passengers to take overhead, follow shots, and other multi-angle photos.

Still, some automakers have developed a "transparent A-pillar" design for safety considerations, which involves installing a screen on each side of the A-pillar area to transmit the external scene captured by the camera to the screen, enabling observation of the blind spot of the A-pillar.

However, the image displayed on the transparent A-pillar screen differs in size from the real scene, making it easy for users to make incorrect distance judgments, and the image may have distortions, glare from lights, and dizziness. Some netizens also worry that in the event of a collision, the A-pillar screen may cause secondary injury to passengers inside the car.

Many of the functions and configurations mentioned above are not pioneered by new forces in car manufacturing, such as the transparent A-pillar design, which has been patented by automakers like Volvo and Toyota but has not been put into production due to various considerations.

In the past hundred years, although the development speed of intelligent configurations has not been as rapid as in the past decade, traditional automakers have conducted numerous explorations in the overall design of cars. The research and development of new features by new forces is commendable, but many bloody accidents have taught us that blindly adding features to cars may not be rational.

Don't innovate for the sake of innovating

Many domestic new forces in car manufacturing have been established for about a decade, accumulating rich experience and technological heritage in car manufacturing, but they still appear too immature compared to overseas traditional automakers. It should be noted that Toyota has a history of over 80 years, and Mercedes-Benz has a history of over a century. Although their electric transformation may not be aggressive enough, resulting in slightly lagging new energy technology, it is not rational to completely negate their capabilities in car design, hardware tuning, and other aspects.

For example, functions like gesture control and transparent A-pillars are not pioneered by new forces or even independent brands. It is only due to considerations like cost and safety that traditional automakers have not heavily promoted or mass-produced them. Even triple silver coating on glass is not pioneered by the new force automaker mentioned above. The 2023 ZIMI LS7 model already features a triple silver-coated skylight dome and front windshield.

Looking back, why didn't similar issues arise with the ZIMI LS7? I personally speculate that SAIC's long history of car manufacturing played a role, and they fully considered the issue of signal shielding when designing this feature, thus making targeted optimizations.

Overall, this controversy caused by an "innovation point" is indeed relatively special, reflecting a "contemptuous" mindset. New forces always believe that they have found "blind spots" that traditional car brands do not understand. While it is undeniable that such blind spots do exist, there are also some things that traditional car brands have not done that are not blind spots but "forbidden zones."

In addition to contempt, automakers' eagerness to innovate is also driven by sales pressure. Although the development of China's new energy vehicles is in good condition, the overall market is extremely competitive. Any product launched must come up with some promotional terms or even create some confusing vocabulary to highlight the automaker's technological strength.

The starting point for automakers to continuously introduce innovative features is to surprise users and enhance their experience, but the production of features is not just about mass production. It also requires multiple rounds of testing, preferably with user field tests, to ensure that the features are recognized by consumers and do not pose safety issues.

Developing some useless or even criticized features by consumers is a necessary path for the development of China's new force brands. The era of new energy, intelligence, and intelligent driving has not been in a high-speed development stage for a long time, and automakers are still exploring various design and functional directions. Moreover, in the era of fuel vehicles, domestic automakers could grope their way forward, but now that China has become a leader in the new energy vehicle industry, they can only test the waters themselves to see how deep the water ahead is.

It's not可怕 when products encounter issues. The key lies in whether automakers can come up with solutions that are convincing and acceptable to consumers, and whether subsequent products can improve existing defects. Although many functional and design issues have been exposed by new forces in car manufacturing in recent years, this spirit of bold exploration makes me believe that Chinese car brands will definitely find their own path and disrupt the traditional automotive industry.