160,000 cars have used China's "first AI chip for automotive regulations", and mass production is accelerating

At the Shanghai Auto Show, a number of autonomous driving suppliers were vying for the "admission ticket" for smart electric vehicles.

Against this backdrop, Horizon Robotics, a well-known player in China's automotive AI chips, has attracted more attention and been highly sought after.

How to say?

The most direct thing is that the Changan UNI-K, which fully unleashes the autonomous driving capabilities of the Journey 2 chip, is about to be mass-produced and delivered.

On the other hand, GAC, Chery, Dongfeng Lantu, SAIC Zhiji… have confirmed that their new models will use Horizon's intelligent driving solutions:

Last year, Horizon officially announced that its shipments of automotive chips exceeded 160,000 pieces, entering the stage of "land grabbing".

Within just a few days of the auto show, Horizon Robotics also announced intensive cooperation with multiple manufacturers. Among them, in addition to car manufacturers, there are more players in various links of the automotive industry chain.

Horizon has even transcended its identity as a chip company and released a full-scenario intelligent vehicle solution.

So, what stage has China’s first mass-produced automotive AI chip reached now?

What did Horizon do?

To sum it up in three words: fast, accurate and ruthless.

It is said that a smart car is four wheels plus a computer, so the on-board smart chip is comparable to its core engine.

In order to play its role, a key and necessary prerequisite is to get on the bus.

Horizon's speed of "getting on board" is fast, really fast.

This may be the most direct feeling of the horizon for the outside world.

In just the few days since the opening of the Shanghai Auto Show, news of "official announcements of cooperation with many car companies and Tier 1" has come one after another.

For car companies:

Horizon Robotics signed a strategic cooperation agreement with JAC Group, and its new car Sihao QX will be equipped with the Journey 2 chip.

Horizon Robotics and Ideal have reached in-depth cooperation; the two parties have created a high-performance, open and easy-to-use intelligent driving and intelligent interactive computing platform based on the Journey series of chips.

SAIC Maxus' latest concept car is based on the Journey chip and develops advanced intelligent assisted driving solutions adapted to Chinese scenarios.

Dongfeng Lantu FREE also demonstrated its active night vision driving system based on the Horizon Journey 2 chip at the Shanghai Auto Show.

In the Tier 1 camp:

Horizon Robotics has teamed up with Continental to establish a smart driving joint venture to jointly develop advanced driver assistance systems.

Asia Pacific Holdings will use Horizon's technology platform to create smart driving products.

Neusoft RichAuto will integrate its self-developed full-stack autonomous driving software with Horizon's chip platform to promote the mass production of the solution.

In addition to these, ADAYO Huayang, Desay SV Automotive, which makes body electronic systems, and semiconductor company Will Semiconductor have all reached strategic cooperation with Horizon Robotics.

The 10-day Shanghai Auto Show is still ongoing, but Horizon is laying the foundation for "quick on-board" at an average rate of almost one order per day.

Moreover, judging from the manufacturers that have reached cooperation, autonomous driving software suppliers, Internet of Vehicles companies, electronic architecture parts suppliers, and even traditional auto parts manufacturers are not left out.

But in addition to speed, there is a second very intuitive feeling: accuracy.

What Horizon has to do is very precise, and that is mass production and delivery.

The most eye-catching event was during the Shanghai Auto Show, when Horizon and Changan Automobile unveiled for the first time the UNI-K autonomous driving assistance mass production black technology.

It is understood that the capabilities demonstrated by UNI-K are high-level autonomous driving assistance and in-vehicle intelligent interaction systems equipped with the Horizon Journey 2 chip.

This is not a PPT that Horizon Robotics brought out for the auto show, but the first public unveiling means the launch:

This function will be officially put into mass production in the near future.

And it's not just verbal talk, but the "basic skills demonstration" has already been achieved.

Last year, Changan Automobile launched the first model in the UNI series, UNI-T, which is equipped with the intelligent cockpit NPU computing platform based on the Journey 2 chip.

UNI-T took advantage of the opportunity to win a "national first":

The first mass-produced model independently developed based on China's AI chip.

Since its launch in June last year, cumulative sales have exceeded 100,000 units.

In addition to Changan Automobile, Chery's pure electric SUV Ant is also equipped with the Journey 2 chip.

In this car, Journey 2 helps Chery Ant achieve L2+ level driving assistance functions.

It is understood that Horizon's automotive chip shipments in 2020 have reached 160,000.

During the Shanghai Auto Show, Dongfeng Lantu FREE, JAC Sihao QX, GAC Trumpchi GS4 Plus, SAIC Maxus MIFA concept car and other models announced that they will be equipped with Horizon Journey chips. It is reported that more models equipped with Horizon Journey series chips will be released in succession.

It seems that it is indeed fast and accurate enough.

But the reason why Horizon can achieve these two points is that there is a more important point behind it, that is, it is ruthless enough.

This kind of "ruthlessness" should refer to the ruthlessness of technical strength.

Take Journey 2 as an example. Since its launch in 2019, it has been crowned with the halo of "China's first automotive-grade AI chip".

And in just half a year, mass production was achieved.

As time goes by, major car companies have chosen this chip for their cars, which shows its performance strength.

Not only that, Horizon's technological strength is also reflected in the iteration of chips.

Less than half a year after the mass production of Journey 2, Journey 3 was launched, with further improvements in performance.

Let’s not talk about performance data first, let’s test it on the road directly!

In actual tests with the Journey 3, the test vehicle was able to easily handle long tunnels, large-curvature curves, and merging into and out of ramps.

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It is understood that this test ride car is equipped with Horizon Matrix Pilot assisted driving solution, based on Journey 3. Through 6 high-resolution cameras, it can achieve a 360-degree perception range of up to 250 meters.

According to Horizon's plan, the next-generation Journey 5 will be officially released in 2021, and the more powerful Journey 6 will be launched later.

Why Horizon?

How can an AI chip company leverage the entire smart car industry chain?

To answer this question, we need to first know what car manufacturers want.

In a series of signings signed by Horizon, it is obvious that car companies have a demand for intelligence, and it is a very urgent one.

Why?

Since the beginning of 2020, Tesla's market value has skyrocketed, even exceeding the total of several traditional auto giants.

Compared to Toyota, which took 60 years to become the No. 1 automobile company in terms of market value, it took Tesla only 17 years from its founding to become the king.

In the eyes of Wall Street analysts who have driven its market value to soar, Tesla is the iPhone of the century-old automotive industry - intelligence is the core key.

Therefore, in the face of the "intelligent" trend, problems also arise:

How can automobile manufacturers seize this wave of dividends?

The "2019 China Automobile Consumption Trend Report" (jointly released by ByteDance-Automotive Data Strategy Research Institute and China Automobile Dealers Association) shows that the attention paid to automobile intelligence has increased by 30.8% year-on-year compared to 2018, and the attention paid to automobile networking has increased by 52.3% year-on-year.

The report also shows that consumers have a high demand for intelligent driving assistance configuration/intelligent safety configuration, which is very attractive in the purchasing decision-making process.

It can be seen that automobile intelligence is a clear trend, and the market is driving companies to make corresponding choices.

So what are the demands and goals of each car company?

The UNI series of Changan, a traditional car manufacturer, aims to create high-end technology mass-produced cars. SAIC Maxus, in cooperation with Horizon Robotics, aims to "target advanced intelligent assisted driving solutions for Chinese scenarios."

As for the new force Ideal, it will use the Journey series to create a high-performance, open and easy-to-use smart driving and intelligent interactive computing platform.

In a nutshell, what car companies are looking for is advanced intelligence and a safe and stable supply of chips.

Horizon's chip, or more accurately, an intelligent solution based on chips, can precisely meet the needs.

Journey 2 was officially released in 2019. With typical technical advantages, it can provide more than 4TOPS (1TOPS=1 trillion calculations per second) of equivalent computing power, with a typical power consumption of only 2 watts. Combined with efficient algorithms, the number of frames that can be processed by each TOPS of computing power can reach more than 10 times that of a GPU with the same computing power.

But what the outside world tends to overlook is that Horizon Robotics was founded in 2015, and before launching mature products, it made complex and detailed planning for the underlying chip architecture and technical routes.

Common smart car chips, taking Tesla FSD and Qualcomm 820A as examples, one is responsible for autonomous driving and the other is responsible for the smart cockpit, and they cannot be connected.

The uniqueness of Horizon's products lies in its focus on AI accelerated computing, which allows it to achieve multiple functions with one chip, including autonomous driving and intelligent interaction.