Is an L3 Architecture Worth Considering for an MPV?

I spent the weekend tinkering with the L3 architecture rhetoric of the Voyah Dreamer and hit quite a few pitfalls. A friend wants to switch to a seven-seater car and saw Lu Fang say that if an MPV isn’t ready for the L3 era’s architecture, it shouldn’t rush to claim it’s the best MPV. He asked me, "Does that mean autonomous driving is required to buy an MPV in the future?" I’ve been using the Stelato G9 for three weeks, with full smart driving features for a month, so I dragged him to the dealership for an afternoon.

First, preparation. I brought my phone key, a tape measure, and an iPhone I’d been using for less than a week to test CarPlay. CarPlay mirrors the phone interface onto the car’s infotainment system, moving navigation, music, and calls directly over. As someone from a smart home product background, my first reaction wasn’t how big the screen is, but whether users need this scenario and if the installation barrier is high. An MPV is a multi-purpose vehicle geared towards family and business use, typically with six or seven seats. L3 is conditional autonomous driving; the car can take over in limited scenarios, but humans must be ready to resume control at any time, making liability boundaries tricky.

Getting hands-on, I checked the second row first. The electric sliding door opened, and the floor height wasn’t too high; elderly people could lift their legs in more easily than I expected. This point is very practical, more useful than the eye-catching through-lights. I previously wrote about through-lights, and my judgment remains the same: what MPV users truly care about are sliding doors, floor height, seat access, and child seat interfaces, not the light strips at launch events. The Dreamer’s basic experience passes muster; armrests, cup holders, and second-row seat adjustments feel designed for families with kids and business reception.

Then I looked at the infotainment system and smart driving. In the settings page, I first saw driving assistance and parking assistance, with finer switches further down. The so-called "L3-ready architecture" doesn’t have an intuitive entry point. It feels more like capabilities hidden in the spec sheet: Huju Chassis P, Huawei Qiankun Smart Driving ADS 4, steer-by-wire chassis, power redundancy, and ECU adaptation. Huju Chassis P is Voyah’s promoted chassis solution; the name doesn’t matter, what matters is the steer-by-wire and redundancy. Huawei Qiankun Smart Driving ADS 4 is Huawei’s advanced smart driving solution. Steer-by-wire simply means braking and steering are controlled more by electrical signals. ECU stands for Electronic Control Unit; for L3 stable takeover, critical links need backups. Over the past two weeks, looking at wiring harnesses and touching ECU adaptations, I realized more and more that architectural reservation isn’t just about swapping screens.

Here’s where I hit pitfalls. The first pitfall is concepts.

Salespeople talked about Qiankun Smart Driving, Huju Chassis P, and L3 architecture together. It sounded comprehensive, but in my testing, what daily users perceive is still automatic parking, adaptive cruise control, and lane keeping. I partially agree with Lu Fang’s turning point argument—MPVs have indeed shifted logic from fuel to new energy—but the turning point didn’t appear today. Using a buzzword to patch up the experience easily confuses users.

The second pitfall is connectivity. My friend’s phone key failed to connect the first time; Bluetooth pairing failed. Having used Bluetooth for three weeks and messed around with gateways, I knew it was likely due to permissions, background processes, or unlinked car account systems. The car prompted login, privacy agreement, and connection method selection. The flow isn’t complex, but clicking through it consecutively feels fragmented. Since starting with CarPlay recently, what I care about most is whether it can seamlessly bring habits cultivated on the phone into the car, rather than forcing me to learn a new car logic.

The third pitfall is the installation barrier. L3 architecture sounds high-end, but for ordinary users, it’s a burden. Tell them there are five major safety redundancies, and they only know they might upgrade later. Tell them it requires coordination of wiring harnesses, ECUs, domain controllers, and certifications, and they’ll ask if they can drive safely now. Previously, I said Tesla’s upgrade difficulties were mostly commercial considerations; now I’m more certain that the difficulty lies in the engineering chain and rollout pace, not just a phrase like "future-proof."

However, there were surprises too. The second-row screens, seat layout, and AC linkage do make it feel more like a mobile living room than many SUVs. I’ve used remote fast cooling/heating for four weeks and deeply understand the value of pre-cooling before getting in during summer. If an MPV can integrate phone connectivity, accounts, voice, and seat memory, the experience will be much smoother. The Stelato G9 has given me the feeling lately that smart driving isn’t a separate button but the default expectation upon entering the car.

The conclusion is: it depends. Who is it for? Those who view the MPV as a second family car or business reception vehicle, valuing sliding doors, floor height, seats, and basic smart driving capabilities. Who is it not for? Not for those ordering based solely on the word "L3," nor for those expecting architectural reservations to instantly yield a complete autonomous driving experience. L3 architecture can exist, but preferably without confusing the user.

Finally, leaving a question. If an MPV currently only offers you sliding doors and comfort, with L3 merely as a future reservation, how much extra would you be willing to pay for this "maybe later"?