In the early 20th century, cars didn't have keys.

At that time, cars still required manual starting. To start the car, a crank was needed.

Start the engine by turning the crank handle.

Today, there are still many tractors and agricultural equipment in vast rural areas that retain this original starting method.

This can be regarded as the earliest prototype of a car key.

However, most people cannot use this domineering key, especially female drivers.

Because to activate this "key", you must first have enough arm strength.

If you are not careful, this "key" will fly up and break your front teeth.

This period lasted quite a long time, and there were some changes in the process. Finally, in 1980, the convenience of car keys was further improved.

At that time, the "remote key" technology used by Ford for the first time allowed the vehicle to be unlocked remotely by simply pressing the button on the key. However, when the car needed to be started, the key still needed to be inserted into the ignition ring and turned.

Currently, 99% of cars sold in China use this type of key.

Obviously, as a high-end luxury car, Xingchen Auto cannot continue to let the key stay at this stage.

The smart keys and one-button engine start functions that can be seen everywhere in later generations are equipment determined by Cao Yang himself.

Regardless of whether the development team can complete the development themselves, it needs to be used.

Because this kind of smart key that can automatically unlock and lock has appeared in 1998, and was first used in Mercedes-Benz cars.

As long as you have the key on your body, you can unlock and start the vehicle without taking out the key. For people of this era, it seems very classy and respectable.

Later, luxury brand models such as BMW and Audi naturally followed suit.

However, they are only used on their respective high-end models. Entry-level low-end models still use traditional keys.

"Mr. Cao, according to what we have learned from the current investigation, Bosch, Continental and Denso have a relatively rich accumulation of smart keys. If we directly find them to develop together, the schedule is expected to catch up with the production of Xingchen 1."

"We will consider independent research and development later when we have enough time to accumulate relevant technologies."

Zhou Zhichao, the Minister of Electronics and Electrical Appliances, is under the greatest pressure among the ministers.

As high-end luxury models, many special equipment are related to them.

Just like the smart key being discussed now, as well as the navigation, adaptive cruise system and headlight design that are always not satisfactory to Cao Yang.

These are all parts that are the responsibility of the Electronic and Electrical Department.

"Among the many trendy electronic devices in cars, the smart key system is very eye-catching."

"Keyless entry technology brings excellent convenience, and one-button start brings a full sense of technology."

"And just the change from turning the key to pressing the button is enough to make many bosses pay a lot more money."

"This technology will definitely be a selling point in the future and can be continuously improved."

"We cannot leave such critical things to outside suppliers."

When Cao Yang said this, he couldn't help but think of the line "engine start" of the Bentley car in the movie 2012 during the critical moment.

At that time, you can definitely consider implanting it in some movies, or even directly investing in some movies and TV series in order to improve the style of Star 1.

He would not trust such an important function to be handed over to manufacturers such as Bosch, Continental and Denso, which have strong competitive relationships with Nanshan Group.

Let’s not talk about whether others will cause you some troubles. In terms of price alone, these manufacturers will definitely form a very good tacit understanding and give Xingchen Automobile a hard time.

Anyway, there is absolutely no manufacturer in China that has the production capacity for smart keys.

"Mr. Cao, your analysis is very reasonable."

"The keyless entry system not only provides sufficient convenience, but also ensures safety. It is a high-end configuration that is very popular among consumers."

"But although the smart key seems to be a very small part, it takes a lot of time to develop, and the technical threshold is not low."

"In principle, the smart key uses rfid, which is radio frequency identification technology, and has a verification action during the process of opening the car door."

"When the vehicle is locked, signals will be sent out continuously."

"When the smart key appears within the signal range, there will be a response to complete the key-checking behavior."

"When consumers walk to their cars and touch the door handle, the door locks automatically open."

"After entering the car, as long as the key is in the car, the driver only needs to step on the brake pedal and press the start button, and the engine will start automatically, eliminating the trouble of finding the car key."

"But in order for smart keys to fully meet functional and safety requirements, the requirements for chip design are very high, and they also need to communicate with the ECU to ensure reliable performance."

"Although we have established a semiconductor joint venture with BYD, we also have technical cooperation with Huawei, and we even have a semiconductor division within the research institute."

"But our work is just in its infancy, and there is no way to complete the chip design of the smart key in a short time."

"When there are a lot of programming failures, or insensitive responses or even errors, then the gains outweigh the losses."

Zhou Zhichao obviously does not have the confidence to develop a smart key by himself.

This thing looks like a small thing, but its technical content is still very high.

Each OEM is basically a partner with its own fixed traditional key or functional key.

Mercedes-Benz cars basically use Bosch key systems.

As for Toyota, Denso will definitely provide these parts.

For Honda cars, they also have their own Honda locks to provide them.

If this technology is mastered by other third parties and accidentally used to steal cars, things will be very serious.

In 2004, unlike later generations, there were surveillance cameras and cameras everywhere.

In this era, car theft is still a common occurrence, and vehicle theft and rescue insurance is still a separate type of insurance.

"If the chip design of the smart key can be solved, can your electronic and electrical department complete the design of the smart key on time?"

Zhou Zhichao said a lot of things, but it cannot be said that what he said was unreasonable.

However, Cao Yang obviously didn't want to hear it.

Doesn't he stay at Xingchen Automobile Research Institute every day just to help "solve" these bottleneck issues?

"If there are no problems with the design work related to the chip and programming, then the design of the smart key will not be difficult, and we can definitely complete it ourselves."

Zhou Zhichao didn't even think about it and immediately said it could be done.

As the head of the Electronic and Electrical Department, he still has this ability to make judgments.

"By the way, what are you going to do with the small battery on this smart key?"

Logically speaking, this question should be asked to the purchasing department and should be a supply issue.

But in fact, a lot of the work done by the purchasing department has already been done by researchers in the development stage.

Obviously, specifying which type of battery is a matter that requires technical verification during the development stage.

Otherwise, if one of your smart keys runs out of power in two months, consumers won't be able to scold you to death?

"For the small battery, we are currently planning to use batteries provided by Panasonic."

"Of course, we are also communicating with BYD. If they also produce this kind of battery in the future, there will be no problem in switching to their battery."

"However, their current battery division mainly produces mobile phone batteries and computer batteries. This small button-like battery is not their focus yet."

"We only plan to produce 10,000 units of Xingchen 1, which will not use many batteries in total."

When Zhou Zhichao said this, Cao Yang felt that he had found a good entry point.

Battery!

People today are not yet fully aware of its importance.

Can Cao Yang still not realize it?

One of the previous cooperation projects between Nanshan Group and BYD was the research and development of batteries.

But so far, it seems that no specific product has been released.

Taking this opportunity, a battery factory was set up in Nanshan Auto Parts, specifically responsible for the production of button batteries.

Starting from the button battery of the smart key, it can also be sold externally and provide button batteries for various remote controls.

After accumulating for a period of time, we will further consider developing batteries for use in cars.

Whether it is fhev battery, phev battery or bev battery, it will have broad application prospects in the future.

Especially in the short term, FHEV batteries can be considered to be combined with Xingchen Automobile to launch FHEV versions of models.

It does not require charging, and it can provide strong enough power when starting, which also improves the quietness of the car.

Toyota's Lexus has gone down this road before.

"Panasonic batteries can be used as an alternative. There are only 10,000 batteries anyway. Even if you buy them and don't use them, it won't have much impact."

"But taking this opportunity, I will let Nanshan Auto Parts start their own research and production of button batteries."

“Our subsequent smart keys will be equipped with Nanshan’s own batteries as much as possible.”

Cao Yang's decision surprised Zhou Zhichao.
To be continued...