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Integrated Systems And Specialized Vehicles
Integrated Systems And Specialized Vehicles
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Industrial Intelligence
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Intelligent Transportation
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Auto China Forum Appearance | Jingwei Hirain President & CTO Fan Chengjian: Seizing the Strategic High Ground of Intelligent Chassis through System-Level Innovation
Release time:
2026-04-14 13:57
On April 11–12, the Intelligent Electric Vehicle Development Forum (2026) was held in Beijing. Dr. Fan Chengjian, President and CTO of Hirain, was invited to attend. He provided an in-depth analysis of the strategic role of the intelligent chassis in the transformation of vehicle architecture and shared the company’s latest practices in key technological breakthroughs and large-scale mass production.
“An automobile is an embodied intelligent robot with wheels. In addition to a ‘brain,’ it must also have a well-developed ‘cerebellum.’”
Fan Chengjian opened with a vivid analogy: as humans grow from infancy to adulthood, the size of their limbs increases significantly, yet the cerebellum can continuously adapt and precisely control the body. Similarly, the intelligent chassis serves as the “cerebellum” of a vehicle—it determines whether the car can achieve stable and precise motion control under various conditions.
During his speech, one remark resonated strongly within the industry:
“We have always believed that the intelligent chassis is not only a key pivot in the transformation of the underlying automotive architecture, but also a strategic high ground for companies to proactively position themselves for future competition. Based on our understanding of industry trends and technological evolution, we continue to focus on core areas such as steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire, intelligent suspension, and integrated domain control. We are driving breakthroughs in key technologies, improving our product systems, and advancing engineering implementation, using system-level innovation capabilities to support the development of intelligent vehicles and help China’s automotive industry move toward a new stage of higher level and higher quality.”
Centered on this strategic focus, Jingwei Hirain presented its own technological evolution path and industrialization achievements.
▎Dual-track approach of rules and AI: safeguarding safety while accelerating development
Amid the wave of “AI + automotive,” Fan Chengjian used the example of steering feel simulation in steer-by-wire (SBW) to illustrate the company’s pragmatic exploration. The team introduced neural networks and collected driving data from different drivers, comparing AI outputs with traditional physics-based rules using a shadow mode.
He also emphasized that while AI significantly accelerates development and optimizes error distribution, the chassis is directly related to life safety. Regarding the industry challenge of proving functional safety for black-box algorithms, Jingwei Hirain concluded: “A combination of rules and AI is currently the optimal solution.” Just as large models require safety rules as a safeguard, the final form of chassis control still needs physical rules to ensure safety.
▎Toward the end-to-end era: building a “safety boundary” between intelligent driving and chassis with VMCU
As intelligent driving moves fully toward end-to-end systems, what role should chassis teams play? Fan Chengjian pointed out that intelligent driving and chassis systems have mutual expectations: intelligent driving expects the chassis to perform final torque safety checks under extreme conditions such as slippery or off-road scenarios, while the chassis expects intelligent driving to keep the vehicle away from such extreme conditions.
To address this, Hirain proposed a solution: creating an abstract chassis domain controller (VMCU) software layer. This layer shields upper-level intelligent driving systems from differences in underlying actuators. The intelligent driving system only needs to issue trajectory commands, while the chassis domain controller integrates vehicle state for coordinated control and safety assurance.
In a project with an OEM, Hirain’s chassis system was successfully integrated with an intelligent driving supplier. By deploying an MPC algorithm in the chassis domain controller and utilizing road information provided by the intelligent driving system, the team achieved proactive suspension control beyond line-of-sight—becoming a representative case of deep integration between chassis and intelligent driving.
▎Exploring the chassis “world model”: full-domain hardware supporting state estimation
Drawing an analogy to large models that achieve intelligence by predicting the next token, Fan Chengjian proposed a “world model” from the chassis perspective: achieving control intelligence by predicting the vehicle’s next state. Faced with massive variables such as load and road conditions, chassis state estimation must adopt a hybrid model combining physical equations and data-driven approaches.
To achieve such high-precision estimation and control, full-domain hardware support across the X, Y, and Z axes is essential. Jingwei Hirain has already established a comprehensive product lineup in braking—from ESC to 2-Box hydraulic brake-by-wire systems, and further to fully electronic EMB systems. In steering, C-EPS, DP-EPS, and R-EPS have formed a mature mass-production system covering A-segment sedans to large SUVs, while steer-by-wire (SBW) is ready for mass production. In suspension, products ranging from single-chamber air springs to magnetorheological dampers have achieved mass production coverage.
With all three axes of by-wire hardware in place, the VMCU can elevate kinematic control software across the axes, enabling automakers to transition from distributed control to a centralized integrated domain control architecture.
From independent innovation in key components to deep empowerment through system-level integrated domain control, Jingwei Hirain comprehensively demonstrated its technological foundation and determination for industrialization as a dedicated player in the intelligent chassis field at this forum.
“The chassis is the part of the vehicle, besides intelligent driving, that has the most sensors,” Fan Chengjian emphasized. Only when dozens of chassis sensors—such as wheel speed and acceleration—are truly integrated with intelligent driving data from cameras and LiDAR, and the system becomes explainable and reliable, can intelligent vehicles truly move toward the ultimate end-to-end paradigm.
Hirain will continue to focus on core technologies, delivering products and services with higher safety, higher performance, and greater value, and supporting China’s automotive industry in moving up the global value chain.