Meet China’s quirky “self-learning” EV

From the bottomless well of Chinese electric car innovation comes the ‘self-learning’ Human Horizons HiPhi X.

A supercar-inspired six-seat SUV, the HiPhi X is due to have its market launch at the Beijing auto show in late September.

One thing that might strike you about the HiPhi X is a passing resemblance to the Faraday Future FF 91. Remember that?

Let’s hope Human Horizons has better luck getting the HiPhi X to market than Faraday has so far had with its EV….

Human Horizons says HiPhi X will be offered with rear- and all-wheel drive derivatives and provide a 0-to-100 km/h time of 3.9 seconds.

There will also be several battery options, with the largest 96 kWh unit providing a range of at least 610 km (NEDC). HiPhi X will be offered with Level 3 autonomous driving capability.

The HiPhi X also has some funky design features, especially the wing doors at the rear that split into horizontal and vertical sections.

The vehicle, which was known as HiPhi 1 as a concept,  is now entering the final phase of development and Beijing launch ahead of production. That should commence by the end of this year with official deliveries starting in 2021.

Speaking of R&D, Human Horizons does have some impressive names involved in that side of the business, including 35-year Jaguar and Ford veteran Mark Stanton as chief technical officer. Former Bugatti designer Camilla Kropp is also on the crew.

The moneyman for the Shanghai-based company is Ding Lei, the former president of Shanghai General Motors who set up Human Horizons in 2017.

As stated back at the beginning of all this, the HiPhi X is pitched as a “self-learning smart vehicle”.

What does that mean? Well, the way Human Horizons explains it the HiPhi X has been based on a “human oriented architecture” which is over-the-air upgradable and has a secure software-developer platform to enable feature and app development.

Overlaying that is an advanced highly-personalised onboard artificial intelligence assistant, HiPhiGo, that has been developed with Microsoft.

HiPhiGo has an array of intelligent functions and a level of reasoning and continuous learning while interacting with its occupants, the surrounding environment and the vehicle’s parameters.

The HiPhi X also has a “neural network” consisting of six “super brain” domain controllers, connected by 1G ethernet which provides a higher transmission rate than traditional CAN networks. That allows HiPhi X to analyse massive amounts of information and make decisions utilising cloud computing with a powerful data analysis engine.

Got all that? Basically, this thing has got lots and lots of powerful and upgradable gizmos that can do lots of stuff and learn on the run to do even more.

Not much to go wrong then…