First electric car with “Huawei Inside” software goes into production: ArcFox Alpha-S

Huawei has distinguished itself as a smartphone brand in the global market, but the company is investing in all branches of modern technology, including automotive. We’ve been seeing the idea of car software in the company’s on-stage presentations for years, but only now are we seeing the first cars that include “Huawei Inside” technology on board, as we’ve seen recently with those running Android Automotive. The first such model is called the ArcFox Alpha-S, a car that’s going into production now.

The ArcFox Alpha-S with Huawei Inside was already released in limited edition earlier this year

This partnership isn’t exactly new, with the two companies, Huawei and ArcFox, announcing that they would collaborate on the software and infotainment area of the Alpha-S cars as early as last year. However, it’s only now that the car is starting to go into mass production at ArcFox’s factories, having previously shipped a limited run to customers since January.

ArcFox Alpha-S integrates not only Huawei Inside technology, which is a version of HarmonyOS software tailored to in-car infotainment screens, but also the HiCar solution, which underpins the control of other more advanced in-car features such as Level 3 autonomous driving. The car is equipped with hardware capable of 400 TOPS (tera operations per second) and includes obstacle detection technologies such as three LiDAR sensors, six mmW radar sensors, 12 ultrasonic sensors and nine ASD units, in addition to four cameras that can see 360 degrees around the car.

Most likely, however, we won’t see the ArcFox Alpha-S machine outside of China. Chinese electric car brands usually remain exclusive to their home region. Also, in Europe, car systems like Android Auto and Automotive or CarPlay have become quite common, and customers prefer to be able to connect their existing phones to their cars rather than using other companies’ systems or even those of car manufacturers. A car with a Huawei Inside system should still offer these capabilities, however, in addition to integrating with Huawei’s ecosystem of devices.