The race for smart cockpits: How do Baidu, Huawei, and Alibaba deploy their forces?

Recently, an interesting phenomenon in the automotive industry is that many car companies will place special emphasis on their own smart cockpit functions at new car launches.

For example, Baidu announced on November 29 that Jidu Auto, which will be launched in 2023, will adopt the smart cockpit system jointly developed by Baidu and Qualcomm for its first model.

On December 2, SAIC MG launched its new car MG ONE, which is the first model equipped with the Luoshen smart cockpit system. On the same day, Jinkang Seres, a subsidiary of Xiaokang Shares, released the first SUV equipped with Huawei's Hongmeng smart cockpit.

Not only car companies use smart cockpits as a publicity highlight, but in the ICT300 evaluation standard for automotive intelligence formulated by Pacific Automotive Network, the score of smart cockpits is higher than the performance score, accounting for 1/3 of the score, second only to autonomous driving. At the same time, smart cockpits have also led to the rise of related secondary suppliers. According to the Tianyancha APP query, the number of companies related to smart cockpits has reached 211, which shows how hot the track is.

From car companies using smart cockpits as a selling point to the tilted scores of intelligent evaluation standards, it is not difficult to find that smart cockpits are likely to be one of the industry's focuses for a long time before there is a major breakthrough in autonomous driving technology. So, what impact will smart cockpits have on the automotive industry? How do Internet giants get involved?

Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei each have their own agenda

As we all know, the car cockpit is an important component closely related to the driving experience. With the evolution of automobile technology, the underlying technology, form and function of the cockpit are also gradually evolving. However, with the growing demand for new energy vehicles and the emergence of cloud computing, IoT, autonomous driving and other technologies, the car cockpit-related technologies have exploded and are facing unprecedented changes, which also provides opportunities for Internet giants to enter the market.

Traditional Internet giants are basically all planning smart cockpits, but their differences are actually huge. Their genes are different, and the challenges they face are also different. This is not only their original intention for planning smart cockpits, but may also foreshadow the future pattern to some extent.

Tencent: C-end applications + content ecology

For Tencent, which does not make cars, the smart cockpit is actually the area where it is easiest to continue its social gene advantages. Tencent's ambition is hidden here, but Tencent has been relatively low-key.

Wang Wan, general manager of Tencent Auto Connect, modestly said, "Automakers are the ones who understand cars best and pay the most attention to driving experience. Tencent's role is to provide digital assistants and toolboxes."

Recently, Tencent released a new generation of intelligent cockpit solution TAI4.0, which upgraded the in-car version of WeChat and added basic C-end application functions such as car navigation and location sharing. On this basis, functions such as National Karaoke, Tencent Conference, and 3D City Exploration are also ready.

It is not difficult to find that Tencent’s layout for the smart cockpit hides an ambition. By migrating its own mobile applications and content ecosystem to the in-car scene, the car will be turned into a “second space” for work and a “third space” for leisure and entertainment.

Alibaba: Platform-based OS empowered by cloud computing

In October this year, Banma Intelligent Driving, a joint venture between Alibaba and SAIC, released the AliOS intelligent driving system core, which will be provided to car companies free of charge next year. The purpose is to achieve the integration of smart cockpit, autonomous driving and other software through the car operating system.

Operating systems are a tough business. Alibaba does not have the same ecosystem as Tencent, but one of the reasons why it is confident in doing so is Alibaba's leading position in the field of cloud computing in China. Like mobile applications, many in-vehicle applications are distributed application software. Alibaba is a leader in the field of cloud computing in China, which means that it has mastered the initiative to coordinate cloud, edge, and end data resources in a unified manner, which is equivalent to "curving" to improve the efficiency of the operating system.

In addition, like Tencent, Alibaba also provides car companies with basic service toolkits such as maps and voice, which serve as the foundation of the application ecosystem that it can dominate. However, Alibaba is engaged in the underlying operating system after all, and the competition between it and Tencent is basically not on the same dimension. Instead, it is in great competition with Huawei.

Huawei: HarmonyOS smart cockpit entrusted with an important task

Huawei's situation is rather special. Its intention and commercial value in developing the smart cockpit can be viewed in two stages.

In the short term, Huawei is vigorously promoting its HarmonyOS by using the smart cockpit scenario. After being suppressed by the United States, Huawei's mobile phone business suffered heavy losses and even sold its sub-brand Honor. Just like Baidu's heavy investment in AI, Huawei has high hopes for Hongmeng. After all, 160 million is the "lifeline" of an operating system, and Huawei wants to achieve this goal quickly.

It is understood that Huawei is quite active in the layout of cockpit software applications. The HarmonyOS smart cockpit system covers a variety of in-car scenarios such as entertainment, games, parent-child, etc., and has more than 180 applications. Through this "building a forest on sand" approach, Huawei's in-car APPs even surpass Tencent, which has a more innate advantage in the application ecosystem.

But in fact, there is still a lot of uncertainty about who will be stronger and weaker in the battle for the car-machine application ecosystem. After all, Tencent can transplant countless small programs into the car in the future.

Huawei and Tencent are both making efforts to support developers. Huawei provides developers with cockpit development guides, HMS-A documents, sample codes, car simulators and other support tools; Tencent has also developed a set of in-vehicle native application frameworks based on WeChat mini-programs, including full voice interaction, scenario-based service push and other toolkits, which reduces the learning cost of cross-scenario development for many WeChat mini-program developers.

Therefore, although Huawei and Tencent are not on the same level, their short-term competitive relationship is quite obvious. In the smart cockpit scenario, Huawei is paving the way for Hongmeng OS with its application ecosystem, while Tencent wants to migrate mobile applications to new scenarios and also regain some of the user attention that has been taken away by short videos.

However, in the long run, the competitive relationship between Huawei and Alibaba will gradually become more prominent. There are two reasons:

First, Hongmeng OS will likely have difficulty opening up the overseas market due to continued restrictions, and the domestic market will become Hongmeng's main market. Therefore, in the long run, the competition for operating systems is the competition for basic services that software applications rely on. Therefore, cloud computing, which is also a basic service, will become a key bargaining chip.

Second, Alibaba and Huawei currently occupy the first and second places in the domestic cloud computing market respectively, and the competition between the two leading "cloud players" is likely to continue for a long time.

Therefore, Tan Qing said AI believes that for Huawei and Alibaba, future competition will test not only the operating system ecosystem of the smart cockpit, but also the cloud computing service capabilities of both parties.

How does the struggle for discourse power affect the direction of the overall situation?

Smart cockpits have different meanings for Internet giants, OEMs, suppliers, and users, so the competition around smart cockpits will have a profound impact on the industry landscape. In the eyes of TanQing AI, there are mainly two aspects:

First, the differentiated competition in smart cars has forced OEMs and technology companies to reach in-depth cooperation. Internet technology companies see an incremental market, while new car manufacturers and traditional car companies mainly seek to differentiate their car products around smart cockpits.

According to statistics from Auto Zongheng, from the perspective of functions that consumers can perceive, the smart cockpit covers at least 40 functions related to new technologies, such as remote start, night vision system, full LCD instrument panel, temperature zone control, etc.

There are so many cockpit technologies that can reach the user's senses that it is impossible for any OEM to develop them completely on its own. More importantly, the smart cockpit is like a smartphone. The high integration of multiple functions places high demands on the car chip. Therefore, if OEMs want to seize the opportunity of smart cockpits becoming a selling point for new energy vehicles and achieve brand differentiation, they must cooperate with technology companies.

For example, in June this year, Huawei HiSilicon signed a cooperation agreement with BYD. In the future, Huawei will still provide BYD with Kirin 710A chips to compete with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A chips. Horizon Robotics has reached a cooperation agreement with Changan Automobile to equip Changan's new SUV model UNI-T with Horizon Robotics chip "Journey 2", which is known as the world's first mass-produced model equipped with domestic AI chips.

It is worth noting that some car models have more than two partners. For example, the Geely Boyue X, which was launched in October, has a smart cockpit system jointly built with Baidu, Huawei, Tencent, Ecarx and other giants. Although there is competition between different technology giants, they are able to overcome their differences and work together to build the same car and showcase their respective technologies on the same car. This is unimaginable in the Internet industry.