Development Trends of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Industry

Xu Liuping: Facing the challenges of redefinition and positioning of the automotive industry chain, recognizing demand is the basis, innovation is the key, and win-win cooperation is the way out

Xu Liuping believes that intelligent networking is an important fundamental change in the four modernizations of the automotive industry (intelligence, networking, electrification, and sharing), which will bring great changes and redivision of labor to the industry. He focused on the redivision and positioning of the automotive industry chain under intelligent networking. He believes that demand is the foundation, innovation is the key, and win-win cooperation is the way out. His specific views are as follows:

1. Demand is the foundation. The automotive industry has developed to this day. No matter how it changes, it is first and foremost for serving people. Whether it is used as a family car, a private car, or a shared car, it is a function that meets the diverse needs of human beings. This function is the fundamental strength of the industry.

2. Innovation is the key. The development of the automotive industry today, especially in intelligent networking, whether it is artificial intelligence, big data, Internet, etc., this series of technological innovations and changes can lead and drive the development of this industry. In this development process, the changes in technology itself are both gradual and leapfrog, so we can see a series of innovations, whether gradual or leapfrog, which will produce huge changes in products, from technology to services, to the entire application, and infrastructure.

3. Win-win cooperation is the way out. Whether it is traditional car manufacturers in the automotive industry or new forces outside the industry, or even companies in the fields of communications and the Internet, they must cooperate for mutual benefit. Rebuilding the automotive industry, whether in the foundation or the platform in the application, hardware, or software fields, the horizontal common foundation can be shared through co-construction; in the basic platform part, an alliance can be built; in the individual application part, full competition can be achieved and each can show its strengths. Vertical field cooperation and co-construction and sharing of value are also the basis.

Zhang Baolin believes that the current development of intelligent connected vehicles requires the industry to jointly overcome and cope with three unprecedented challenges. Among them, the unprecedented industrial integration will bring about three reconstructions. He particularly emphasized the opportunities for various participants under the reconstruction of the industrial chain. The upstream and downstream of the industrial chain will be reshuffled, and vehicle hardware will be the first industry to benefit. The following are the three unprecedented specific contents:

1. The depth of industry changes caused by intelligent connected vehicles is unprecedented.

1) The transformation of product form is amazing.

2) The profound changes in travel methods are exciting.

3) The depth of the transformation of the transportation system is remarkable.

2. The industrial integration impacted by intelligent connected vehicles is unprecedented, bringing about three reconstructions.

1) The technology chain will be rebuilt. Compared with traditional cars that focus on chassis and power, intelligent connected cars will make extensive use of information interaction technology to rebuild the technology chain that integrates people, cars, and roads.

2) The industrial chain will be restructured. The trend of intelligent networking continues to deepen, bringing investment opportunities similar to the Apple industrial chain to parts companies. The upstream and downstream of the industrial chain will be reshuffled, and vehicle hardware will be the first to benefit. Vehicle and parts companies that master software integration and intelligent technology will gradually seize more market share.

3) The value chain will be reshaped. With the rapid integration of automobiles with electronics, communications, the Internet and other fields, intelligent connected vehicles will bring disruptive changes to the automotive industry. New market demands, product attributes, production methods and business models will reshape the value chain, and the huge value of intelligent connected vehicles will be fully explored and amplified.

3. The implementation of intelligent connected vehicle solutions is unprecedentedly difficult.

1) The difficulty lies in the long period of realization. It will take at least ten years for driverless cars to grow into high-impact commercial products, and autonomous driving in all environments is expected to be realized in 2030 or even longer.

2) Difficulties lie in the many technical bottlenecks. my country's basic technology for intelligent connected vehicles is still very weak. There is still a long way to go to master technologies such as chips, underlying operating systems, and high-performance sensing components, and to achieve the rigid goal of China's intelligent connected vehicle industry chain being complete, autonomous, and controllable as set out in the program for building a strong transportation nation.

3) Difficulty in coordination. The development of intelligent connected vehicles is a highly complex system project involving cross-professional and cross-industry. It cannot be simply achieved by relying on a certain automobile company, Internet company or communication company. It requires the country, industry, enterprises and even all aspects of society to divide the work and cooperate in a symbiotic, co-construction and win-win business model.

The most important point is that he pointed out how the intelligent connected vehicle industry can accelerate the transformation of commercial demand and release general demand space. The core points actually reflect that in the process of industrialization of intelligent connected vehicles, car companies are gradually commercializing application scenarios based on maturity rather than autonomous driving levels.

1. Focus on the demand ecosystem. Accelerate the transformation of commercial demand and release space for general demand.

On the one hand, by combining the maturity of technology and the matching of scenarios, we will accelerate the transformation and implementation of commercial needs, and continuously meet the growing demand for safety and economy in commercial scenarios such as park logistics, self-driving buses, and freight on fixed-route highways.

On the other hand, we must truly be guided by customer demand, gradually expand private driving scenarios, and continuously improve the acceptance and penetration of intelligent connected scenarios, so that consumers can enjoy the safety, efficiency and convenience brought by intelligent networking in steps and stages through functions such as automatic valet parking and smart driving in congested urban areas, thereby releasing massive demand for higher-level general scenarios.

2. Focus on application ecology. Improve technical product capabilities and strengthen facility service layout.

The focus of industrial development at this stage is to strengthen the application ecosystem. Based on the continuous maturity of technological products and the continuous improvement of supporting facilities such as roads, networks, and clouds, more intelligent connected vehicles can be put on the road as soon as possible under the premise of safety, providing actual operation data support for continuous and dynamic iteration and upgrading.

In terms of technological products, we must promote the empowerment of new generation products, especially new energy vehicle products, through smart cockpits, smart connectivity, and autonomous driving based on the continuous progress of key technologies such as on-board chips, central computing platforms, and high-precision maps.

In terms of facility services, we must not only make full use of the large-scale popularization of 5G technology, as well as its ultra-reliability and low-latency characteristics, to achieve the upgrade of the entire intelligent connected industry chain, but also comprehensively promote the construction of supporting facilities such as smart roads, big data centers, and cloud platforms, and improve the future architecture of people, vehicles, roads, networks, and clouds.