Recently, rumors about Xiaomi cars have been flying all over the place. Some media exposed the news that “Xiaomi founder Lei Jun revealed that Xiaomi’s first engineering car has been officially offline”, and at the same time, there are a large number of so-called “Xiaomi engineering” videos on the Internet. In March of this year, Xiaomi Group disclosed in its annual performance report that Xiaomi cars are expected to be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024. The progress of Xiaomi car manufacturing has always affected the nerves of the industry.
From the initial rumors that he wanted to build a car, in March 2021, Lei Jun officially announced that Xiaomi Group would set up a wholly-owned subsidiary to be responsible for the smart electric vehicle business. The official has not yet given an exact response, and the mystery of Xiaomi’s debut car has yet to be revealed.
However, recently, Xiaomi cars have frequently exposed patents in the fields of batteries and autonomous driving. Fans of Xiaomi’s cars may be able to get a glimpse of what the future of Xiaomi’s cars will look like from these patents.
Tianyancha information shows that in terms of battery, charging and other capabilities, Xiaomi Auto Technology Co., Ltd. has been authorized for the “battery pack and vehicle” patent in terms of batteries.
The battery pack includes: a battery box and at least one battery cell; the battery box has a accommodating cavity; each of the at least one battery cell includes a battery cell housing and a battery cell pressure relief valve; the battery cell pressure relief valve is located in the battery cell The first end face of the casing; the cell casing is located in the accommodating cavity, the first end face is close to the bottom inner wall of the accommodating cavity, and an exhaust channel is formed between the first end face and the bottom inner wall of the accommodating cavity. In some embodiments, the second end face of the cell housing is connected to the top inner wall of the accommodating cavity; the second end face is opposite to the first end face.
In this new type of battery pack, after the thermal runaway of the cell occurs, the solid matter and high-temperature electrolyte are ejected toward the bottom inner wall along the direction of gravity, the high-temperature gas is discharged along the exhaust channel, and the solid matter and electrolyte are deposited under the action of gravity, avoiding Conductive structures or other cell contacts.
A patent for a battery pack that avoids contact with conductive structures or other cells after the thermal runaway of the cells occurs
At the same time, Xiaomi’s “thermal management system and vehicle” patent was published. The thermal management system includes a compressor, an indoor heat exchanger, a first expansion valve, a gas-liquid separator and a battery heat exchange component; the outlet of the gas-liquid separator is The inlet of the compressor is connected to the inlet of the compressor, the outlet of the compressor is respectively connected to the inlet of the indoor heat exchanger and the inlet of the first expansion valve, and the outlet of the indoor heat exchanger is respectively connected to the inlet of the first expansion valve and the heat exchange inlet of the battery heat exchange assembly Connection, the outlet of the first expansion valve and the heat exchange outlet of the battery heat exchange assembly are respectively connected to the inlet of the gas-liquid separator, the battery heat exchange assembly is used for heat exchange with the power battery, and the indoor heat exchanger can be used for the interior of the vehicle. Heating.
The thermal management system expands the operating temperature range, so that it can still operate normally at temperatures below -10°C, and does not require additional PTC heaters for heating, which reduces the energy consumption of new energy vehicles in winter.
Patent of thermal management system to reduce energy consumption of new energy vehicles in winter
In addition, the patent for “charging device, method, device, vehicle, electronic device and storage medium” filed by Xiaomi Auto was granted. The charging device includes a controller, a control switch, a rechargeable battery, a first interface, a second interface and a third interface, where the first interface is used for connecting with the charging interface of the vehicle to be charged, and the second interface and the third interface are used for connecting with a pre-charged vehicle. Assuming that the charging device is connected, the controller is used to control the first end of the control switch to communicate with the second end of the control switch, or to control the first end of the control switch to communicate with the third end of the control switch, so as to be connected with the preset charging device. The vehicle to be charged is charged.
The disclosed charging device can actively charge the vehicle to be charged, and can decouple the charging process from user behavior without user operation. Moreover, the charging device can be connected to a preset charging device to charge the vehicle to be charged. It realizes fast charging of vehicles and high-voltage platform charging of vehicles, which improves the intelligence and convenience of charging.
Patent that can actively charge the vehicle to be charged
In the field of autonomous driving, Xiaomi Auto also has a number of patents exposed.
Recently, Xiaomi Automobile applied for a patent that “can prevent collision with roadside driving vehicles”.
The patent relates to a vehicle control method, device, vehicle, storage medium and chip, including: collecting environmental data within a preset range in the driving direction of the vehicle, generating original image data and radar image data, and comparing the original image data and radar image data. Identify the image data, determine the target vehicle image within the preset range, determine the door opening angle of the target vehicle in the target vehicle image, and determine the door opening angle of the first vehicle and the target vehicle through the door opening angle and the vehicle driving parameters of the first vehicle. When there is a risk of collision, the first vehicle is controlled to make an emergency evasion. Thereby, the risk of collision between the self-driving vehicle and the door of the vehicle parked on the roadside is avoided, the safety factor of the self-driving vehicle is improved, and the occurrence of road accidents is reduced.
Patent for “Protect against collision with roadside driving vehicles”
There is also a patent for “predicting a vehicle falling into the water”.
This patent relates to a vehicle falling into water detection method, vehicle, computer-readable storage medium and chip, including acquiring sensor detection information output by an inertial measurement unit IMU and multiple frames of images captured by a camera, according to the sensor detection information, the camera’s internal parameters and the feature points of the multi-frame images to determine the vehicle pose, determine the distance between the vehicle and the water surface according to the vehicle pose, and determine that the vehicle is about to fall into the water when the distance between the vehicle and the water surface is less than a predetermined threshold; it can predict that the vehicle falls into the water before the vehicle falls into the water And send out a signal that the vehicle is about to fall into the water, which improves the safety of the vehicle, reduces the installation of liquid level sensors and their maintenance, and reduces the cost of the vehicle.
Patent for predicting a vehicle falling into the water
In addition, there are two patents for “more accurate identification of traffic lights” and “speed control through signal light status”, which Xiaomi Auto is also currently applying for.
Patented speed control by signal light status
Judging from the approved or pending patents disclosed above, Xiaomi Auto is making breakthroughs and active reserves in new energy and autonomous driving technologies. In July 2021, Xiaomi Auto’s autonomous driving department will recruit 500 autonomous driving technology elites to develop L4-level intelligent driving capabilities. A year later, in August this year, Xiaomi Auto revealed that the first phase of planning and R&D related investment in the field of autonomous driving has reached 3.3 billion yuan.
Of course, a technology patent still has a long way to go from theory to practical application. Through these patents, we can only imagine what Xiaomi cars may look like in the future.