HarmonyOS-powered autonomous EV prepared for launch later this year

Even though Huawei said it wasn’t planning on building cars before, the latest report has it that the company will start the production and delivery of a small batch of Arcfox Alpha S units – an electric vehicle the Chinese tech giant co-engineered with BAIC featuring its proprietary cross-platform software, HarmonyOS.

The production and delivery of the small batch of the EVs will start as early as the Q4 of the year 2021.

This isn’t an outright car manufacturing by Huawei instead, a collaborative effort that will utilize the Chinese tech giant’s car systems for both the car hardware and software.

The partnership for the development of the Arcfox Alpha S will help Huawei prove the prowess of its HarmonyOS as a cross-platform system that can power IoTs and especially for the autonomous driving experience.

The new EV will utilize Huawei’s “HI” systems which simply means Huawei Inside and offers Level 4 capabilities – which means that the car is capable of “full autonomy”.

How true this is will be subjected to debate especially if this will be a licensed consumer product that anyone can purchase and will be street-legal.

While the company does claim L4, it clarified that the L4 is in experience but it is legally required to note l2 since China has only permitted a small number of companies from testing autonomous vehicles and is far from allowing consumer vehicles to be driven autonomously on the urban roads.

The price point for the car is said to be about US$60,000 to US$66,000 (about CN¥388,900 and CN¥429,900).

It makes use of both Huawei’s Harmony OS and is powered by the HiSilicon Kirin processor.

The advanced technology and China’s 5G infrastructure will make this venture a reality.

Other valuable things about the car include fast charging, and cloud computing using the Huawei cloud.

Huawei is definitely well-equipped to deal with such system due to its robust network infrastructure.

Huawei has however showcased that the Arcfox Alpha S is qualified of being a Level 4 autonomous vehicle as the vehicle was shown traveling 1,000 kilometers in a busy Chinese city without any human intervention.

It uses powerful technology such as LiDAR sensors, six millimeter-wave radars, 13 ultrasonic radars, and 12 cameras as well as the company’s own chipset for self-driving.