NIO highlights latest innovative technologies at 2024 NIO IN tech day

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On July 27, NIO held its second "NIO IN" innovative technology day, with AI as the central theme. The event showcased groundbreaking technological advancements, including intelligent driving chips, a full-domain vehicle operating system, intelligent digital systems, intelligent driving, and all-scenario connectivity. Additionally, NIO introduced its new-generation smartphone.

Successful tape-out of the world's first 5nm intelligent driving chip "NX9031"

Early in the event, NIO's Founder, Chairman, and CEO, William Bin Li, announced the successful tape-out of the world's first 5nm intelligent driving chip, "NX9031," marking a significant breakthrough in chip technology for NIO.

Photo credit: NIO

As the industry's first high-level intelligent driving chip manufactured using 5nm automotive-grade process technology, both the NX9031 chip and its underlying software were independently designed by NIO. With over 50 billion transistors, this chip offers performance equivalent to four industry's average flagship chips, particularly excelling in low-light environments to ensure safety and precision in intelligent driving.

Photo credit: NIO

Technically, the NX9031 boasts a powerful CPU computing cluster capable of handling multiple tasks concurrently and ample memory bandwidth for fast and stable latency processing. NIO's in-house developed image signal processor (ISP) enhances all-weather, all-scenario recognition, enabling quicker braking responses in emergency situations.

Releasing SkyOS full-domain vehicle operating system

"AI will become a fundamental capability for intelligent electric vehicle companies," stated William Bin Li during the NIO IN.

NIO's Vice President of Digital Systems, Wang Qiyan, added, "In the history of automobiles, there has never been a real full-domain vehicle operating system. We aim to provide users with powerful and safe intelligent driving functions, necessitating a system that efficiently manages heterogeneous computing resources and flexibly allocates them to different applications, ensuring optimal use of computing power."

Photo credit: NIO

After four years of development and an investment of over 23,000 person-months, NIO officially released the SkyOS full-domain vehicle operating system on the NIO IN. Designed for AI, this system features high bandwidth, low latency, significant computing power, heterogeneous hardware support, cross-domain integration, flexible evolution, high reliability, and information security.

The SkyOS integrates intelligent hardware, computing platforms, communication, and energy systems, enabling unified management and coordination of vehicle connectivity, control, intelligent driving, digital cockpits, and smartphone applications, achieving industry breakthroughs in comprehensive vehicle intelligence.

Launching new-generation Banyan intelligent digital system

Initially introduced with the NIO ET7 model, the first-generation Banyan system featured advanced smart hardware and pioneering intelligent experiences. The second-generation system enhanced digital experiences and introduced innovative connectivity features such as the NIO Link and NIO Phone, as well as the industry's first 4D Comfort Navigation.

Photo credit: NIO

At this year's NIO IN, NIO unveiled the third-generation Banyan system, Banyan 3, NIO's first digital system to be refined with AI capabilities. This system fully leverages advanced hardware to integrate the latest AI algorithms, smart hardware, native intelligent frameworks, and cockpit applications.

According to NIO, the Banyan 3 introduces the industry's first intelligent driving mode for rear-seat passengers, enhancing comfort by up to 50% for those prone to motion sickness.

Photo credit: NIO

The new system also leverages large models and edge-side intelligent technology to reshape the Banyan 3 cockpit experience. For the first time, NIO live-streamed using the 7.1.4 surround sound standard directly to users' car systems. In collaboration with QQ Music, The Banyan 3 offers "Premium AI Sound Quality," allowing ordinary sound sources lacking surround sound to unlock the 7.1.4 experience. For music enthusiasts, the Banyan 3 introduces its self-developed "Expert Equalizer Pro EQ," bringing professional-grade tuning tools into the car, supporting precise frequency response adjustments from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Additionally, the new "No Mic Karaoke 2.0" feature, developed in partnership with multiple music platforms, provides the AI smart accompaniment experience based on native applications, instantly enhancing the user's singing performance.

On the same day, NIO announced the integration of in-car mini-programs with the Banyan 3 upgrade. These programs, including services from Starbucks, McDonald's, and WeChat's Weread, offer high-quality lifestyle services to Banyan's users.

Photo credit: NIO

The Banyan 3's emotional intelligence is built on AI large model capabilities and a native intelligent system, creating a new NOMI GPT architecture that accelerates NOMI's evolution. NIO added it is pioneering the introduction of the NOMI Agents multi-agent architecture, which reconstructs NOMI's cognitive and complex task-handling capabilities, transforming the cabin experience from "single-functionality" to "proactive intelligence."

The first version of the all-new Banyan 3 system is expected to be available to users in late August this year.

Introducing China's first intelligent driving world model "NWM"

At this year's NIO IN event, NIO unveiled China's first intelligent driving world model, NWM (NIO WorldModel).

Photo credit: NIO

According to NIO's introduction, the NWM is a multi-modal autoregressive generative embodied driving model. It can fully understand data, has long-term predictive and decision-making capabilities, and can simulate 216 possible scenarios within 100 milliseconds to find the optimal decision.

As a generative model, the NWM can take a three-second driving video as a prompt and generate a video lasting up to 120 seconds. It also comes with inherent closed-loop simulation testing capabilities, having been thoroughly tested and validated in complex interactive scenarios.

Unveiling NADArch 2.0 intelligent driving architecture

In addition, NIO introduced the NADArch 2.0 intelligent driving architecture at the NIO IN 2024.

Photo credit: NIO

The NADArch 2.0 upgrades the algorithm layer by incorporating a world model into its end-to-end architecture, directly generating driving decisions from raw sensor data. This reduces information loss seen in traditional methods and enhances predictive abilities, making the intelligent driving experience safer and more human-like. On the model training front, the NADArch 2.0 leverages the data closed-loop of collective intelligence and generative simulation data, driving rapid iteration of intelligent driving models through massive data.

Besides, the end-to-end AEB algorithm within NADArch 2.0 significantly improves coverage of risk scenarios, particularly those previously unresponsive, increasing response coverage by 6.73 times to safeguard driver safety.

Based on the NADArch2.0 architecture, NIO's NOP+ (Navigate-on-Pilot Plus) full-domain navigation assistance and intelligent safety features will be upgraded to the 2.0 version, providing users with a more relaxed and safer intelligent driving experience. The point-to-point full-domain navigation assistance 2.0 is expected to be available in vehicles in the second half of 2024.

All-new NIO Phone hitting market, starting at 6,499 yuan

During the NIO IN event, the all-new NIO Phone was officially put onto the market. Depending on the configuration, the new NIO Phone is priced as follows: the Performance Edition at 6,499 yuan, the Flagship Edition at 6,899 yuan, and the EPedition at 7,499 yuan.

Photo credit: NIO

The all-new NIO Phone comes standard with the Snapdragon 8 gen-3 smartphone processor, offering up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of internal storage. It features the "Gun Yu Cooling System," which ensures 100% heat source coverage for efficient thermal management.

In addition to being available on the NIO App, the new NIO Phone will also be sold for the first time through external channels such as JD.com and Douyin.