Research on the automotive ecosystem: How will the OEM ecosystem and peripheral hardware develop?

Zoss Automotive Research recently released the "2024 Automotive Ecosystem and In-vehicle Hardware Expansion Research Report", which deeply explores the trends of the automotive ecosystem in terms of peripheral hardware expansion, supplier ecosystem solutions, and OEM ecosystem implementation, and comprehensively sorts out and looks forward to the current development status and future trends of the automotive ecosystem.

The ecological domain will realize the large-scale interconnection between the vehicle computer and external software and hardware, and realize the efficient collaborative perception and computing of multiple devices.

The automotive ecosystem refers to a software and hardware ecosystem centered on the vehicle computer and including various peripheral devices. The vehicle computer can call on mobile phones, cameras, drones , tablets and other terminals sensors and computing power , and realize efficient collaborative perception and computing of multiple devices through the cloud platform.

The expansion of the in-vehicle application ecosystem has always been a hot topic for discussion among OEMs and suppliers, and its development can be divided into three stages. In the first stage, the ecosystem expansion is mainly achieved through the in-vehicle application mall; in the second stage, the mobile phone ecosystem is transferred to the in-vehicle through the mobile phone interconnection; the third stage is the ecological domain stage, when watches, cameras, tablets, and even drones, smart homes , seats, etc. begin to join.

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2024 Automotive Ecosystem and In-Vehicle Hardware Expansion Research Report"

Xiaomi Auto is a representative of ecological domain construction. Relying on its Surge OS system and the huge Mijia ecosystem, Xiaomi Auto can support 1,000+ Mijia devices to board the car without feeling, and can connect without password under the same account to achieve automatic scene linkage.

In order to support ecological expansion, Xiaomi has reserved a large number of interfaces in the central control screen, center console, seat backs, etc. For example:

PIN point expansion interfaces are reserved around the central control screen, and third-party hardware devices can be plug-and-play. There is also a magnetic suction function under the screen, which can absorb a group of physical buttons to add physical button control to the vehicle.

The center console storage space has reserved hardware interfaces, and is also equipped with a power interface and magnetic suction, which can expand more third-party innovative hardware, such as supporting the Mijia car fragrance machine.

The seat back has a 22.5W magnetic charging feature. When the Xiaomi tablet is attached, it becomes a native car computer, which can control more than 30 car control systems such as navigation, air conditioning, seats, audio and video, etc. In addition, the car computer has CarPlay and AirPlay wireless connections, and the seat back expansion also supports iPad, which can control air conditioning, music and seats, etc.

OEMs often start from the scenario and carry out ecological domain expansion design

According to the 2024 Ecological Domain and In-vehicle Hardware Expansion Research Report by Zos Automotive Research, the automotive ecosystem has already included hundreds of hardware categories and thousands of accessible hardware devices. From the perspective of manufacturers, Xiaomi's first batch of cars can support the seamless entry of more than 1,000 Mijia devices, GAC Group's green smart car can support the interconnection of more than 4,000 devices, and Huawei's whole-house intelligence connects more than 7,000 smart products of Hongmeng Zhilian.

Faced with huge hardware resources, OEMs often start from the scenarios when designing the ecosystem, among which the more typical scenarios are smart home, games, watching movies and singing karaoke, virtual reality, shooting, office, camping, charging, smart travel, sports and health, etc. At present, most of the in-vehicle hardware products are optional configurations, and some can be purchased conveniently through the official App mall of the car companies.

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2024 Automotive Ecosystem and In-Vehicle Hardware Expansion Research Report"

In the entertainment scenario, car companies have introduced a series of entertainment equipment such as game consoles (SWITCH, PS, etc.), game controllers, viewing equipment, microphones , car-mounted drones, sports cameras, etc. to realize multi-terminal information linkage with car computers and improve the playability of the cockpit.

Hardware interconnection cases in entertainment scenarios:

01. Dongfeng Mengshi equipped with drone system: Mengshi 917, which will be launched in August 2023, is equipped with a vehicle-mounted drone system. The system consists of the Puzhou S400 vehicle-mounted drone and the vehicle-mounted control system , focusing on the safe and intelligent outdoor scene of vehicle-machine integration. Its roof expansion platform can be used as a drone landing pad. In addition to the normal accompanying and circling functions, the drone also has a road monitoring function, which can survey road terrain, slope, angle and other environmental information, and support synchronous intelligent path planning.

02. Avita Customized Car Karaoke Microphone: Avita launched a car-mounted wireless Karaoke microphone (dual microphones) customized for smart cockpits, with a built-in DSP processing chip that can beautify the human voice, optimize the reverberation curve, and support linkage with the screen, audio, and ambient light in the cockpit.

In the smart home scenario, car companies are promoting the implementation of the "full ecosystem of people, cars and homes". Users can remotely control and manage smart home devices (including air conditioners, water heaters, lights, security systems, etc.) through mobile phones, cars and other devices.

Hardware interconnection cases in smart home scenarios:

01. Wenjie realizes car-home linkage with various smart home terminals: Wenjie integrates the capabilities of various terminals in smart home scenarios based on HarmonyOS, including smart screens, smart air conditioners, sweeping robots , home surveillance cameras and other products. In addition, Wenjie also supports pre-setting "warm home" and "safe leaving home" scenes. For example, car owners can turn on the air conditioner, lights, TV, and music at home with one click on their way home from work.

02. GAC's "Green Smart Car Home" solution realizes two-way interaction between car and home: GAC Group's Green Smart Car Home supports the interconnection of more than 1,000 home appliance brands and 4,000+ devices. It allows car owners to remotely control smart home appliances through voice, touch screen, etc. in the car; at the same time, it will also realize remote wake-up and control of vehicle functions at home.

How to expand the automotive ecosystem

In the process of expanding the ecological domain, car companies give priority to mobile phones as the entry point for ecological domain expansion. Through the deep interconnection between mobile phones and car computers, computing power sharing, seamless data connection, hardware sharing and other functions are realized, bringing users a more convenient and intelligent travel experience. At the same time, the massive user habit data and ecological system of mobile phones are migrated to the car. On this basis, car companies gradually expand the interconnection with terminal products such as cameras, drones, and tablets to build a more complete intelligent ecological system. This expansion process not only provides users with richer functions and services, but also enhances the competitiveness of car companies in the field of intelligent ecology.

By sorting out the cooperation models between car companies and mobile phone/technology manufacturers, we can summarize and classify them into the following models: car companies' self-development, car companies and technology companies' cooperative research and development, car companies' acquisition of mobile phone manufacturers, mobile phone manufacturers' cross-border (cooperative) car manufacturing, and car companies and mobile phone/technology manufacturers' cooperation. From the perspective of cooperation models, some car companies tend to connect the underlying operating systems of mobile phones and car machines, and promote the realization of the Internet of Everything based on a unified platform; while other car companies focus on improving their own car machine systems, while seeking cooperation with other manufacturers to meet some of the needs of car machine interconnection.

Source: Zoss Automotive Research "2024 Automotive Ecosystem and In-Vehicle Hardware Expansion Research Report"

In addition, it is worth noting that aftermarket in-vehicle hardware products are also an indispensable part of building a complete automotive ecosystem. When comparing the in-vehicle hardware products in the car company application mall, we found that Huawei and Xiaomi, as the leading smartphone manufacturers, have a large user base and mature e-commerce platforms (such as Huawei Mall and Xiaomi Mall). These platforms not only provide sales of core products such as mobile phones, but also cover products in multiple fields such as smart homes, smart wearables, accessories, etc. Therefore, for Xiaomi and Huawei Hongmeng Zhixing car owners, they can completely purchase the required in-vehicle hardware products through these existing e-commerce platforms without relying on the car company application mall.