At this Shanghai Auto Show, domestic chips are “going crazy”

Domestic chips "kill like crazy"

The 2023 Shanghai Auto Show has basically become a showcase for domestic chips. At this auto show, domestic chip manufacturers such as Horizon and Black Sesame won multiple cooperation models or brands, including BYD Han, Star Era ES, Dongfeng Passenger Car eπ, Lynk & Co 08, Nezha GT, and Hechuang V09 wait. Behind the auto show sales is the speed, accuracy and ruthlessness of domestic chip players.

Fast refers to shipments and models. According to rough statistics, the shipment volume of domestic smart driving chips so far has exceeded 3 million pieces, and more models are being awarded.

Accurate means that on the basis of L2, domestic chips can quickly respond to the needs of car companies such as high-speed NOA and integrated driving and parking, and launch corresponding solutions. The ruthlessness is mainly reflected in the cost. This auto show has lowered the cost of autonomous driving domain control to less than 1,500 yuan, and even announced that the entire solution will be less than 3,000 yuan. After watching this auto show, the competitive situation of chips has become clearer: domestic chip companies Horizon, Black Sesame Intelligence, Xinchi, Huixi Intelligent and other teams have formed a team to besiege foreign chip players such as Nvidia, TI, Mobileye and so on. There are two main battlefields:

High computing power chips: Use Horizon J5 and Black Sesame A1000 to compete with NVIDIA Orin;

Low computing power chips, such as Horizon J3 and Xinchi V9P, compete with TI's TDA4.

In the chaotic war, some foreign chips have gradually fallen behind. At this auto show, we rarely see Mobileye EyeQ mass-produced in new cars. It used to be boring to compete in computing power, but now domestic chips focus on speed and cost-effectiveness, which has turned the tables.

Horizon J5 wins over BYD, domestic chips sweep the market

In the high-computing power chip market for autonomous driving, NVIDIA Orin was the first product to be mass-produced, and is still considered the first choice by Wei Xiaoli. Even BYD, which has little voice in the field of smart driving, has chosen Orin for some models. According to HiEV, BYD's million-dollar luxury brand looks up to its U8, a hard-core off-road vehicle that can go sideways, which is equipped with OrinX chips. BYD's N7, another important brand of BYD, will also be equipped with a single OrinX to support smart driving in urban scenarios. "Based on Momenta's algorithm, we believe that 200TOPS can meet the requirements of urban scenarios, leaving 54TOPS for redundancy. Denza N7 is based on a single OrinX. When it is launched in June this year, it will have basic L2 functions, and high-end functions will continue Release." said a Denza insider familiar with the N7 smart driving program. Although the new NIO ES6 and Xpeng G6 released this time have not yet announced the self-driving chip configuration. However, according to the NT2 platform and G9/P7i plan, the new Weilai ES6 will be equipped with four OrinX, and the G6 will most likely have a single and double OrinX configuration.

When Nvidia Orin got on the car, there was an opponent following it, and that was Horizon's J5. To use a movie and TV meme, "The horizon for cars that NVIDIA can ride on must be on the horizon, and cars that NVIDIA can't ride on must also be on the horizon." Among the new car-making forces, Ideal uses two chip solutions: NVIDIA OrinX and Horizon J5. NIO uses four NVIDIA OrinX chips, and Yu Kai previously revealed that the Horizon J5 has won the model designation of NIO's sub-brand Alpine. Nezha Automobile announced at the auto show that it will build a high-end NOA intelligent assisted driving system based on J5. The first cooperative model will be mass-produced in 2024. Among traditional car companies, Horizon J5 is entering BYD's supply chain. At this Shanghai Auto Show, a BYD Han EV appeared on the side of Horizon's booth. On the same day, BYD and Horizon jointly announced that the self-developed BEV fusion sensing solution based on Horizon J5 will be mass-produced within the year.

According to HiEV, BYD Han EV will be equipped with the J5-based 5R11V smart driving solution. Winning over popular brands such as BYD, NIO's Alps, and Nezha means that J5 has officially broken out of the circle and become an important player in the large computing power chip against Nvidia Orin. Another domestic chip player, Black Sesame Intelligence, is also setting off another wave of new energy brand smart driving. At this auto show, the models equipped with the Black Sesame Intelligent A1000 chip mainly include the Hechuang flagship pure electric MPV V09 and Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle eπ model. The Lynk & Co 08 will also be equipped with a dual A1000 chip smart driving solution.

In addition, the integrated parking and parking solution based on the Black Sesame Intelligent A1000 will also be installed on Jiangxi Automobile Group’s Sihao series models. More high-power computing chips, such as Horizon J6, Black Sesame Smart A2000, and products from Cambrian and Huixi Smart are already on the way. According to HiEV, the chips planned by Huixi Intelligent will start at 200TOPS and will involve product planning of 400TOPS. The first chip is expected to be tape-out within the year. Houmo Intelligent's first mass-production smart driving chip using an integrated storage and computing architecture will be released in May this year, with a physical computing power of more than 100 TOPS. The high-computing power chip market is full of gunpowder, while the low-computing power chip market has already been ablaze with war.

Horizon, Black Sesame, and Xinchi surround TI TDA4

Compared with hundreds of TOPS large computing power chips, independent brands have more mainstream demand for more than a dozen TOPS low computing power chips. After all, most of the main sales models of independent brands are priced below 200,000 yuan.

In the low computing power chip market, in the early days, the main choice was the Mobileye EyeQ series. Now, TI's TDA4 has become the choice of more domestic car companies.

Nezha S and Lantu Free are both equipped with TDA4 chips. According to HiEV, the latest Lantu light chase released at this auto show uses dual TDA4 chips.

But when it comes to cost reduction, domestic chip companies are better at it. Horizon J3, Black Sesame Smart A1000 L, and Xinchi V9P are encroaching on the TI TDA4 market. Horizon J3 is the most active. The latest Nezha GT released during the auto show is aimed at "the best sports car under 2 million yuan" and will adopt a dual J3 configuration. Chery Xingtu's new energy brand Xingera, its first model ES, will also use J3 chips.

Horizon J3 brings the cost of integrated parking and parking to an extremely low range. Not long ago, Black Sesame Intelligence announced that it is currently able to achieve a BOM cost of a parking integrated domain controller based on Black Sesame A1000 that supports 10V NOA function within 3,000 yuan and supports 50-100TOPS physical computing power. At this auto show, the cost of domain control based on Horizon J3 can be further reduced to 1,500 yuan. Hongjing Zhijia has released an integrated parking and parking solution based on a single Horizon J3. Based on the 5R5V configuration, this solution can realize high-speed navigation functions such as automatic lane changing and large vehicle avoidance. The computing power of J3 is 5TOPS, so it is also the all-in-one travel and parking solution with the smallest computing power on the market, and may be the lowest cost solution. Taking the 5R5V solution as an example, Liu Feilong, founder and CEO of Hongjing Zhijia, made a calculation with HiEV:

The cost of a domain controller is about 1,500 yuan;

The average cost of cameras is 200 yuan each, and 5V costs 1,000 yuan in total;

The average cost of radar is more than 200 yuan, and the total cost of 5R is 1,000 yuan;

Ultrasonic radar costs 200 yuan each, 12 pieces is about 2,400.

Even more extreme, Freetech's 5R5V solution based on J3 and TDA4 is priced "within 3,000 yuan", including sensors, domain control, and algorithms. Currently, there are autonomous driving companies such as Freetech, NavInfo, MINIEYE (Youjia Innovation), Hongjing Intelligent Driving, Yihang Intelligent, and Heduo Technology that are building intelligent driving solutions based on Horizon J3. In the low computing power chip market, dark horses such as Xinchi Technology and Cambricon have emerged. The intelligent driving chip V9P launched by Xinchi has an AI computing power of 20TOPS. Based on a single chip, it can realize AEB, ACC, LKA and other functions as well as assisted parking and memory parking functions, and can integrate a driving recorder and high-definition 360 surround view.

Cambrian launches SD5223, which is designed for L2+ autonomous driving with integrated parking and parking. It has 16TOPS computing power and supports three product forms: 8M IFC, 5V5R and 10V10R. Among them, the 5V5R solution has a single SOC to achieve integrated parking and parking functions, and can use natural heat dissipation to promote autonomous driving. The driving system covers entry-level models priced at RMB 100,000-150,000. Of course, Cambrian has also deployed the SD5226, a large computing power chip, for L4 high-end autonomous driving, with AI computing power that can exceed 400TOPS. “Judging from the penetration rate and market size of lightweight parking and parking in China, the lightweight parking and parking solution based on 5V5R will replace the 1V5R + integrated parking (APA + AVM) solution and usher in large-scale mass production. "Frtech CTO Shen Junqiang said. At this point, the competitive landscape in the chip field has initially emerged.

High-end market: The main players include Horizon Dual J5, Nvidia Dual OrinX, and Quad OrinX, which adopt multi-sensor fusion solutions including lidar , focusing on models above 300,000 yuan. In the background, there are also Horizon J6, Black Sesame A2000, Cambrian SD5226, etc. preparing for the competition;