Smart cars compete in price-performance ratio, what should chip companies do?

HUD head-up display for driving navigation information , instrument screen for displaying 3D car models and vehicle driving status information, game screen for passengers to play 3D games and mobile games, video display for watching online videos, and intelligent driving screen for assisted driving function - at the 2024 (18th) Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (abbreviated as) Auto Show held from April 25 to May 4, reporters saw the "Cabin, Parking and Travel in One" solution that uses a single chip to support five in-vehicle screens at the Core Engine Technology booth. The staff told reporters that the solution supports up to 7 in-vehicle high-definition display screens at the same time, and the supporting role behind it is the "Dragon Eagle No. 1" automotive-grade processor launched by Core Engine Technology for the "Cabin, Parking and Travel in One" platform .

At this auto show, cross-domain integrated computing solutions such as cabin-parking integration, driving-parking integration, cabin-parking-driving integration, cabin-driving integration, and cabin-driving integration emerged in an endless stream. Behind this is the expectation of many automakers for automotive processors with higher integration and better cost-effectiveness.

Wang Kai, founder, director and CEO of CoreEngine Technology, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Electronics News that to improve the cost-effectiveness of the entire vehicle system, it is necessary not only to tap the potential of the chip itself, but more importantly to provide vehicle manufacturers with more systematic and highly integrated chip solutions, thereby improving the performance of the entire vehicle system while optimizing the consumer experience. At the same time, facing the changes in the automotive supply chain and the latest needs of automakers, chip companies must have differentiated services and rapid response capabilities.

Keywords for improving the cost-effectiveness of automotive chips: systematic thinking and breakthrough innovation

During the Beijing Auto Show, reporters felt that automakers no longer viewed automotive chips from a single perspective of " computing power is king", but instead focused on comprehensive indicators including performance, cost, and power consumption. Under this trend, "cost-effectiveness" is increasingly becoming a "stepping stone" for chips to be installed in cars.

The new expectations of car companies for chips have added a new focus to the innovation direction of automotive chips. Wang Kai told the reporter of China Electronics News that the innovation of automotive chips can be divided into three stages.

At the current stage, computing power is still an important breakthrough point for automotive chips. In the past, drivers used mobile phone apps to navigate and play music while driving, because the computing power of automotive chips at that time was insufficient. To fully use the cockpit and self-driving functions of the car, on the one hand, we must start from the needs of the car and take factors such as safety islands and chip cascades into consideration at the beginning of chip design; on the other hand, we must provide car companies with more powerful computing power through improvements in process, architecture, cluster capabilities, etc.

The second thing to consider is the safety and reliability of the car. The essence of the car is safety. Chip companies must strictly control safety and pass automotive safety standards such as AEC-Q100 and ISO26262 (functional safety of road vehicles). At the same time, they must also meet the information security needs of the car, provide security subsystems, and in-car safety applications such as secure boot, secure communication and authentication.

The third stage is to consider the cost of the entire system and higher-level requirements. When designing a chip, we must start from the system requirements and combine the chip functions with the software to provide better cost-effectiveness while achieving higher performance.

To coordinate the software and hardware of the whole vehicle with a systematic mindset , a more integrated and higher-level underlying architecture is needed.

"To truly improve the cost-effectiveness, we must not only tap the potential of the chip itself, but more importantly, provide car manufacturers with a more systematic solution. If one chip can replace two or even more chips, not only can the number of chips be reduced, but also peripheral devices such as power management and PCB boards can be saved. It can also improve the performance of the entire vehicle system and optimize the consumer experience, bringing more economic and brand benefits to car manufacturers." Wang Kai told the reporter of China Electronics News.

In L2 and L2+ level autonomous driving , CoreEngine has launched a single-chip solution for cabin, parking and driving based on its "Dragon Eagle No. 1" automotive processor, integrating smart cockpit, automatic parking and assisted driving functions with one chip. The processor has an 8-core CPU , a 14-core GPU, and an independent NPU with 8 TOPS AI computing power , which can support up to 7-screen high-definition image output and 12-channel video signal access.

The next stage of intelligent driving, the "cabin-driver integration" trend, requires automotive processors with higher computing power. CoreEngine has launched the AD1000 autonomous driving chip series, which provides CPU, GPU, and NPU computing power comparable to international advanced autonomous driving chips, and realizes autonomous driving in all scenarios such as high-speed NOA and urban NOA. "In the process of launching AD1000, we matched operators, algorithms, and tool chains, which enables car manufacturers and partners to quickly apply chips to autonomous driving."

When the level of autonomous driving reaches L3 and L4, car companies with different positioning will have more choices. Some car companies will choose to integrate the cockpit and the driver, while some models will not necessarily choose to integrate two high-computing chips into one SoC because the cockpit and the driver have many functions. "Car models with cabin-driver integration at L3 and above may not be rigidly needed, but we have seen the demand for high-level autonomous driving such as high-speed NOA, which will require a cabin-driver integration solution. We are about to launch the S1000P solution."

But cost-effectiveness is by no means equal to involution price. Wang Kai gave an example to the reporter: the reason why smartphones "beat" feature phones and became the main theme of the mobile phone market is not because they are cheaper than feature phones. In fact, the average selling price of smartphones is much higher than that of feature phones, but it brings more functions and convenience to consumers, continuously discovers new customer needs, and thus replaces feature phones.

"In many cases, only some breakthrough innovations can truly improve the cost-effectiveness. We can infer the technical needs from the experience innovation, and then explore the innovation and invention points from the technical perspective, so that the car machine and the whole vehicle system can have higher performance while reducing costs." Wang Kai said.

Facing changes in supply relationships and customer needs: Providing differentiated services and rapid response capabilities

Unlike the pyramid-shaped supply chain of traditional automobiles, the supply chain of smart cars is moving from a chain to a network. Complete vehicle companies not only deal with first- and second-tier suppliers, but also go deep into the upstream of the industry chain and communicate and cooperate directly with chip companies. On the one hand, this provides more cooperation opportunities for chip manufacturers; on the other hand, it also puts higher requirements on the responsiveness of chip manufacturers.

Wang Kai believes that the supply chain of smart cars is becoming flatter, and has formed a triangle supply relationship between vehicle manufacturers, Tier 1, and chip suppliers. "The traditional supply chain transmits information from the car manufacturer layer by layer, and the chain is relatively long, and some demands are blocked in the middle. Now the supply chain tends to be a 'triangle'. Chip manufacturers will communicate with Tier 1 and directly with car manufacturers. This has two advantages. First, the requirements of car manufacturers for chips will be clearer. Second, efficiency will be improved, reducing information loss in the middle links, and making the connection between car manufacturers and chip manufacturers closer."

In addition to changes in the supply chain system, the need for car companies to seek sales value through differentiated competition has also brought new challenges to chip companies. For smart cockpits, chip manufacturers must support customers in integrating the required functions and differentiate from the application perspective; for autonomous driving, chip manufacturers must not only make chips and related BSPs, SDKs , and middleware well, but also provide customized designs based on customers' planning for the entire vehicle system. For example, some customers need 12 cameras , while others need 8 cameras, which will be reflected in the chip design level.

How should automotive chip companies respond to the new supply system and the needs of automakers? Wang Kai made three suggestions. The first is to respond quickly, cooperate with car manufacturers and first-tier integrators, and quickly integrate the functions required by vehicle manufacturers; the second is to provide customized design on demand and tailor chip functions according to the needs of vehicle manufacturers. The third is to optimize functions from a system perspective, integrate perception algorithms and tool chains, and provide differentiated solutions.