Halfway through 2019, China's Internet of Vehicles finally came out of its first year

　　Internet of Vehicles technology can be said to be a typical example of the fluctuations in technological development. At the recent CES Asia, the automotive industry occupied two venues, with overseas automakers such as Audi, Honda, and Ford showcasing their local Internet of Vehicles ecosystem, and local technology companies such as Baidu Apollo releasing the "Internet of Vehicles Specifications". Looking back, we can also see that Tencent has released a fully voice-interactive in-car WeChat app, and Huawei has established a smart car BU. In the Greater Bay Area, a large number of companies related to the Internet of Vehicles are springing up like mushrooms after rain.

　　The concept of Internet of Vehicles is not new, but it has become particularly popular in 2019. I believe many people still remember that just two or three years ago, this technology was often labeled as "concept hype" and "difficult to implement".

　　“Every year is the first year of China’s Internet of Vehicles”

　　In 2016, as Didi, Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba, which had once made high-profile plans for the Internet of Vehicles, failed to demonstrate sufficiently marketable products, a number of Internet of Vehicles startups, represented by Paipu, began to close down, and the once highly sought-after Internet of Vehicles began to fall out of favor. There is even a cynical saying that since the concept of the Internet of Vehicles was proposed in 2010, every year has been the "first year of China's Internet of Vehicles."

　　Although this statement is a bit exaggerated, it is not without basis. The series of products previously launched by BAT, such as Lubao and Wedrive, have not been popularized in practice, and the user experience is not good. Sometimes, the car has even driven half a kilometer and the car networking system has not been completely turned on. Due to the difficulties in commercialization, many other startups have begun to sink to the downstream of the industrial chain and have started selling in-car entertainment screens instead of doing technology research and development.

　　The reasons behind this can be analyzed from two levels: technology and market.

　　From a technical perspective, the maturity process of Internet of Vehicles technology is not only slow, but also requires overcoming many gaps.

　　For example, it is difficult for people to pay attention to other devices in driving scenes, and the interactive technology is not strong enough, so the application value of the Internet of Vehicles has been difficult to play. And the keyword of the Internet of Vehicles is "network". When the data upload and download speed is not strong enough, the role of the Internet of Vehicles can only stay in the control + entertainment of the car, and it is difficult to form linkage with a wider range of scenes.

　　At the same time, due to the lack of close ties between Internet of Vehicles manufacturers and automobile manufacturers, the function development of the Internet of Vehicles has not been native enough, making it difficult to truly control certain functions in the car through the Internet of Vehicles system.

　　From a market perspective, the lack of close ties with automobile manufacturers has also led to difficulties in bringing the Internet of Vehicles to market.

　　First and foremost, when the Internet of Vehicles is independently promoted by technology companies, this cost can only be borne by the technology companies themselves or passed on to consumers. Data shows that consumers have to pay several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan to install a set of Internet of Vehicles system with in-car entertainment + telephone communication + partial fault detection in their cars. This price may not cause consumers to be sensitive when purchasing a car, but if they want to spend this price to buy a set of "equipment" after buying a car, I am afraid that there will be obstacles in consumer tolerance and expectation management.

　　However, due to the small number of users and unstable network connection, the application ecology of the Internet of Vehicles is also very barren, and it is difficult to touch the service port. It is also difficult to realize the ecology of the Internet of Vehicles. It is difficult to find other profit channels besides the hardware itself.

　　In this case, it is not surprising that the Internet of Vehicles has remained in its first year.

　　Variables emerge: Who is the driving force behind the Internet of Vehicles in 2019?

　　So what variables have emerged from the cold reception in 2016 to the renewed popularity in 2019?

　　In fact, what has allowed the Internet of Vehicles to make progress again is, on the one hand, the overall technological progress this year, and on the other hand, the changes in the automotive segments.

　　The rapid development of AI technology and 5G technology in recent years is actually closely related to Internet of Vehicles technology.

　　AI technology brings about a comprehensive evolution of interactive technology. The clear understanding of voice, gestures and even expressions can change the previous situation where drivers have no time to take care of in-vehicle interaction issues. At the same time, the popularity of AI technology has continuously reduced the cost of algorithm applications and computing chips, allowing more devices to be intelligent. This includes adding more sensors inside the car to expand the control range of the Internet of Vehicles system, and a series of equipment and products such as traffic lights, parking lots, charging piles, etc. during travel can also be connected to the Internet of Vehicles system through intelligence.

　　As for the fierce momentum of 5G technology, its powerful data carrying capacity and transmission speed meet the massive data demand generated in the process of digital travel. The increase in network speed also ensures the timeliness of information flow between people and cars, cars and cars, and cars and roads, allowing vehicle networking technology to not only meet entertainment needs, but also participate more in driving itself.

　　The changes in the automotive field itself have also caused resources to shift toward the field of Internet of Vehicles.

　　First of all, the decline of the automobile market itself has become increasingly obvious in the past few years. For automobile manufacturers, it is an important task to show changes to consumers as soon as possible, so naturally automobile manufacturers will be more active in the field of Internet of Vehicles. At the same time, because of the difficulty in exploring the field of autonomous driving, technological investment in the automotive field will also be tilted towards the field of Internet of Vehicles, which is easier to implement. Like Audi's connect interconnection system, it can control a series of functions of the vehicle from volume adjustment to vehicle settings. In addition to self-research, more automobile manufacturers choose to cooperate with technology companies. For example, Honda chose to cooperate with Alibaba and Kedax to jointly develop the third-generation HONDA CONNECT; Ford cooperated with Baidu to develop a new SYNC system with AI technology; Alibaba's Banma Zhixing is a partner of SAIC Roewe.

　　The deep involvement of automobile manufacturers will greatly enhance the experience of the Internet of Vehicles. Planning for the Internet of Vehicles can be started during the assembly, production and even design of the car. For example, a microphone array can be added to the steering wheel to improve the accuracy of sound reception and thus improve voice recognition capabilities.

　　Under the influence of technological and market variables, we can see another wave in the field of Internet of Vehicles in 2019.

　　Old players re-enter the new environment, and the Internet of Vehicles is moving beyond its first year

　　In the new wave era of Internet of Vehicles, we can clearly see three models of future development of Internet of Vehicles.

　　The first category is the application ecosystem model represented by Tencent Car.

　　Although Tencent has previously released in-car QQ, due to various restrictions, this product has always been relatively useless, with only the relatively practical use of sharing locations between cars. But now, through the improvement of voice interaction, the setting of dedicated steering wheel buttons for in-car WeChat and the in-car WeChat navigation function, the existence of in-car WeChat can obviously play a greater role.

　　With WeChat, a national-level app, as a platform, cars and mobile terminals can achieve seamless service connection. For example, WeChat friends can recommend the location information of restaurants, shopping malls, etc. through chatting, and users can directly navigate through voice interaction on the car side. The existence of Tencent's small scene, a cross-OS development platform, also allows developers to transplant mobile phone products to the car side. Let users interact with parking lots, charging piles, car maintenance and other services more closely through the Internet of Vehicles.

　　In this way, the Internet of Vehicles has the possibility of monetizing traffic.

　　The second category is the underlying technology service model represented by Huawei.

　　Compared with many technology Internet companies that are more closely integrated with the software ecosystem, Huawei and other ICT companies have more advantages in software and hardware technologies. For example, many of Huawei's in-vehicle computing platforms and intelligent driving subsystem solutions, 4G/5G in-vehicle mobile communication modules, T-BOX and in-vehicle networks are all more basic technologies serving the Internet of Vehicles.

　　In other words, these technologies can be applied to concepts such as Internet of Vehicles, smart cars, autonomous driving, and vehicle-road collaboration. It can be said that as technology is upgraded step by step, cars and the entire travel field will need improvements in ICT, hardware systems, and software platforms. In the future, manufacturers will definitely need to provide additional services for these underlying needs.