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A preview of the week's car camera news

An investor asked a question on the investor interaction platform: Hello, Secretary Dong, is the company’s current in-vehicle product technology industry-leading?

O-Film Technology (002456.SZ) stated on the investor interaction platform on June 20 that the company's automotive camera products, 2M front-view trinocular and 8M front-view binocular, will soon be put into mass production; 3M and 8M surround-view rear-view cameras have been put into mass production ; 1M and 2.5M surround-view cameras have been put into mass production; 2M electronic exterior rearview mirror camera with heating function has been put into mass production; 1M and 2M in-cabin DMS and OMS cameras have been put into mass production, and 5M is under development; among the automotive ToF products, the automotive ToF module with VGA resolution has achieved the first large-scale mass production, and the human eye safety has been certified; in addition, the event-driven camera module is also under intensive development.

The company has launched a perception system solution, including a front-view 8M binocular camera module, 5 8M surround-view rear-view cameras, 4 3M surround-view cameras, 1 DMS ToF camera, 1 forward digital 4D millimeter-wave radar, 5 multi-mode corner surround radars, and 1 set of pure solid-state laser radar combinations to help achieve a higher level of autonomous driving for smart cars. The core competitiveness of the company's automotive business is the ability to provide system-level solutions. The company is based on advanced sensors and actively expands its hardware, software and algorithm capabilities. It can customize and develop automatic parking systems, surround-view systems, integrated driving domain controllers, body domain controllers with integrated Ethernet gateways, instrument center controls, HUDs and other system-level products.

Recently, Infineon Technologies and Paiande, which specializes in 3D ToF (time of flight) systems, have developed the second-generation REAL3 image sensor for automotive use. This sensor complies with the ISO26262 standard and has a higher resolution. This product can achieve the same functions in the car as mobile consumer terminals, while always meeting automotive-grade standards and even improving passive safety. For example, reliable and secure facial recognition allows seamless access to any service that requires identity authentication, such as payment, battery charging or access to private data. "

In addition, this 3D image sensor also enables the in-vehicle camera to meet the various requirements of driver status monitoring and accurately determine whether the driver has dangerous driving behaviors such as distraction and fatigue. In this way, only one ToF camera is needed to create a driver status monitoring system that can safely perform 3D facial recognition.

The sensor adopts a 9x9mm2 plastic BGA (ball grid array) package and achieves a VGA system resolution of 640x480 pixels using a micro-photosensitive area of ​​only 4mm. Thanks to this, the in-vehicle camera in automotive applications can now be made as small as a smartphone camera. The REAL3 sensor has a high resolution, making it suitable for wide-field camera applications, such as front passenger all-round monitoring systems. Using the generated three-dimensional body model, the body shape and weight of the occupants can be accurately estimated, and highly accurate occupant and seat position data can be obtained, thereby providing key information for the deployment and restraint system of smart airbags. This single-chip solution is not only compact, but also meets the AEC-Q100 Grade 2 standard and is the first solution developed in accordance with the ISO26262 (ASIL-B) standard. In addition to safety-critical applications, 3D data can also be used to implement body comfort features, such as gesture control, or interior lighting systems that can intuitively sense the movements of passengers and automatically adjust the lights. In addition, the image sensor can also be used in environmental perception scenarios in cars like Flash LiDAR. In terms of safety, it is also an ideal choice for mobile robots, drones and other similar autonomous control applications. Because in these application scenarios, reliability and safety are necessary to protect operators.

Recently, Tongxingda stated on the investor interaction platform that the company recently established a holding subsidiary, Nanchang Tongxingda Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd., with a focus on expanding the company's industrial layout in the field of automotive optical displays and better grasping new opportunities brought about by industry changes and technological upgrades.

The demand for vehicle camera modules is growing rapidly. Industry data shows that the entire camera module market has grown from $20.1 billion in 2014 to $51 billion in 2020, and then to $60 billion. Vehicle camera modules are expected to maintain a high growth rate of more than 30% per year. This is mainly because the number of camera modules installed in cars is increasing rapidly as the autonomous driving market expands. In 2020, the average number of camera modules in an autonomous car was only 2-3, while now there are basically 7-8, and it is expected that each new car will be installed with an average of more than 12 camera modules in the future.

At present, the automotive camera industry is dominated by South Korea, Japan and China, and almost all camera lens manufacturers are making full efforts to develop the automotive camera field. Since the automotive camera module industry is highly customized, it also provides opportunities for many camera module processing companies. Among them, the competitive advantage of production capacity scale has also been increasingly valued by the industry, and the production capacity war for automotive camera module processing has also spread rapidly.

Tongxingda also believes that as the market and policy environment mature, the wave of automotive intelligence is surging. As the core perception hardware that is indispensable in automotive intelligence, the application of vehicle cameras has expanded from traditional rear-view cameras to full-scene and multi-directional cameras, from single cameras to multiple cameras, and from imaging lenses to perception lenses, etc., with broad prospects. The establishment of automotive electronics is to focus on expanding the company's industrial layout in the field of optical display, better grasp the new opportunities brought about by industry changes and technological upgrades, and has positive significance for the company's long-term development.

Recently, Ruichuang Micronano reached a strategic cooperation with TuSimple, a global driverless technology company. The two parties will jointly promote the application of automotive infrared thermal imagers in the field of domestic autonomous driving truck freight.

This strategic cooperation is aimed at the Chinese market. The two parties will focus on the L4 autonomous driving truck pre-installation fixed-point project that deploys on-board infrared cameras, aiming at the large-scale mass production of advanced driver assistance (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) systems. They will jointly explore high-performance, automotive-grade, pre-installed mass-produced on-board infrared sensing solutions for logistics and freight scenarios, and promote the commercial operation and large-scale expansion of TuSimple's autonomous driving trucks and unmanned freight network (AFN).

Logistics and freight scenes are mostly high-speed scenes, which require higher environmental perception performance. Asens automotive-grade automotive infrared thermal imagers are based on strict automotive standards and reliability verification, which can fully meet the high-standard product requirements of TuSimple trucks. At the same time, automotive infrared thermal imagers have irreplaceable advantages in driving scenes: the detection distance far exceeds that of ordinary cameras; no other light sources are required, and clear images can be formed in low-light and no-light scenes; they are not affected by glare, haze, dust and other bad weather, and are a favorable supplement to the environmental perception system of unmanned freight trucks.

Ruichuang Micronano is a world-leading intelligent sensing technology solution provider with a full range of automotive infrared thermal imager products and full-scenario automotive night vision system solutions. Through this cooperation, both parties will give full play to their respective advantages, achieve resource complementarity, and jointly promote the commercialization of driverless technology.