Chips = the future? Auto companies need to "fill in chips" to win the market

Chip quality has always been an important factor affecting the market competitiveness of technology companies. It largely determines the development status of the company and is regarded as the core link in the company's production and R&D.

However, recently many technology companies, such as smartphones, computers, cars and other technology products, have been troubled by the same problem, that is, chip shortage. Among them, GAC Toyota, SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen and many other domestic mainstream car companies admitted that the chip shortage has caused certain impacts on their production operations.

At this moment, let us go back to the origin of the problem and explore the reasons for the chip shortage in the current automotive market.

The “New Four Modernizations” have raised the requirements for chip standards　

"The uncertainty brought about by the market environment has affected the chip supply of some specific automotive electronic components. In addition, the full recovery of the domestic automobile consumer market has further driven the growth of demand, making the situation more severe." Previously, Xu Ying, the relevant person in charge of the Public Relations Department of Volkswagen Group (China), publicly responded to market concerns.

It is reported that the chip shortage problem faced by Volkswagen this time is mainly concentrated in two aspects: electronic control units and body electronic stability systems. With the positive progress of the domestic epidemic and the high maturity of the relevant industrial chain, this problem may soon be solved.

Therefore, in January, Stephan Wöllenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), revealed that the situation of chip shortages faced by the company will be clearer at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show. It is not difficult to see that Volkswagen has great confidence in solving the current chip problems.

According to Volkswagen, the chip problem commonly faced by major automakers will soon be solved and will no longer be a shackle that hinders the development of automakers.

However, in the view of many industry insiders, the chip difficulties faced by the automotive industry are far more than the immediate difficulties.

Zhou Heliang, honorary chairman of the China Electrotechnical Society, told a reporter from China Consumer News that in addition to the short-term impact of traditional chips on the automotive industry, automobile companies that are accelerating their intelligent development need to prepare for the future and consider how to meet the chip demand for in-vehicle intelligent configuration. Without chips as a foundation, many car companies' ideas cannot be truly implemented.

At present, the global automobile market is at a critical juncture of transformation and upgrading. Against this background, the field of smart cars has become the main battlefield for competition among automobile companies.

In November 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", proposing that the sales of new smart connected vehicles will account for 30% by 2025. With policy support, smart cars have entered the fast lane of development.

For consumers, the in-car intelligent voice system, reversing image system, and real-time online navigation that people often use in daily life are all representative products of intelligence. The reporter noticed that the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class long-wheelbase version, Beijing Hyundai's new generation Sonata, and Ai Chi U5, which were launched this month, are all equipped with intelligent technology, which is also an important layout for car companies to embrace the development of the "new four modernizations" with practical actions.

In the eyes of many people, this may be what a smart car should look like. In fact, this is just the beginning of the transformation of traditional cars into smart cars.

Yang Diange, dean of the School of Vehicle and Transportation Engineering at Tsinghua University, said in an interview with a reporter from China Consumer News that the focus of future automotive industry development will be on artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other advanced technologies, which requires auto companies to abandon traditional car-making concepts and respond to market changes with new thinking. "The road to intelligence will never be achieved overnight, nor will it be fully realized in the short term. Instead, it requires a little bit of technological accumulation and multiple technological empowerment. The in-vehicle intelligence that consumers most commonly use is just the beginning of this good show, and the chips that meet the vehicle's intelligent functions will become the next focus of competition in the automotive market." Yang Diange said.

The overall automotive market is moving towards intelligence, resulting in a situation where demand for related intelligent chips is in short supply.

A doctor who once worked for a well-known domestic new energy vehicle company and was responsible for chip-related work told a reporter from China Consumer News that the requirements for computing power of smart cars have increased significantly in recent years. Previously, automotive chips mainly controlled the engine and in-car electronic equipment, but in recent years, smart cars have been equipped with different standards of assisted driving functions, active safety systems, steering control, artificial intelligence and other chips, and the requirements for chip levels and specifications have increased significantly.

Over the past decade, the automobile consumer market has maintained a relatively rapid development. The explosion of smart cars in recent years has thrown a difficult task to automobile companies: the consumer market's appetite for smart configurations is growing, and the demand for chips has also increased.

It can be foreseen that the demand of automobile companies for high-level chips will continue for a long time in the future.

Autonomous driving requires high-computing chip support

According to the development plan of the automobile industry, the long-term plan of the automobile industry is to use smart cars as a carrier to achieve high-level autonomous driving of the entire vehicle. Starting from January 1, the recommended national standard "Automobile Driving Automation Classification" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was officially implemented. The standard clarifies the classification principles, elements and judgment methods as well as the technical requirements of each level.

With the implementation of autonomous driving level standards, autonomous driving will usher in new development opportunities.

In 2020, the commercial application of 5G technology has allowed the long-awaited consumer market to see the possibility of rapid development of autonomous driving. In fact, the realization of high-level autonomous driving also requires the protection of vehicle networking, namely V2X.

In the process of vehicle autonomous driving, based on various information inputs from sensors, radars and cameras, and through artificial intelligence technology decisions, the vehicle itself can achieve autonomous driving to a certain extent. However, the vehicle itself has great limitations. For example, when driving in bad weather or on complex roads, the autonomous driving system is prone to jamming, which in turn affects the safety of road participants and the vehicle itself.

For this reason, the Internet of Vehicles, which can interact with surrounding vehicles, infrastructure, and roads and significantly enhance the perception of the surrounding environment, has become an essential element for achieving full-scenario autonomous driving. Simply put, without the Internet of Vehicles, there is no autonomous driving system in the strict sense.

The basis for the application of Internet of Vehicles technology lies in chips with high computing power and high energy efficiency. The aforementioned doctor said that high computing power means that the vehicle can complete artificial intelligence calculations faster, while high energy efficiency means that less energy can be used to complete the calculations, on this basis, autonomous driving can be achieved more efficiently and stably.

The reporter learned that meeting the requirements of high-level autonomous driving chips has become a new competition point for automobile companies. Due to current policy and regulatory restrictions, the autonomous driving capabilities of mainstream domestic automakers are generally at level L2 and below. However, from local policies, it is known that the requirements for autonomous driving on social roads are becoming more and more relaxed.

In February, the Beijing Autonomous Driving Vehicle Road Test Report (2020) jointly compiled by Zhongguancun Zhitong Intelligent Transportation Industry Alliance and Beijing Intelligent Vehicle Industry Innovation Center showed that by the end of 2020, Beijing had opened 200 test roads with a total length of 699.58 kilometers in Haidian District, Shunyi District, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and Fangshan District. In addition, on the 2nd of this month, Nanshan District of Guangzhou announced plans to open intelligent networked vehicle test roads throughout the district and build an autonomous driving test base in the Qingsheng block of the district, actively promoting the construction of a pilot area for intelligent networked vehicle road testing.

As the number of roads open for testing increases across the country, the prospect of autonomous vehicles with higher levels of capabilities hitting the road is just around the corner.

In recent years, international mainstream chip manufacturers, such as NVIDIA and Intel, have successively launched high-computing power main control chips for advanced autonomous driving. Among them, Tesla, which has a good strength in the field of autonomous driving, has adopted two generations of NVIDIA autonomous driving platforms. It is reported that the current NVIDIA chip computing power has reached 2000TOPS, which basically meets the requirements of L5 level and is in a leading position in the market.