There will be huge room for profit growth in autonomous driving and electric vehicle components

　　Since 2016, the overseas autonomous driving industry has entered a period of explosive investment and financing, and the enthusiasm for overseas investment and financing has not diminished in 2019. In terms of the number of financing events, the number of financing events in the overseas autonomous driving industry in 2019 has steadily increased, with a total of 46 financing events throughout the year. In terms of the amount of financing, the total amount of financing in the industry in 2019 was 4.93 billion yuan. Behind the expansion of domestic and foreign financing scales is the ambition of many countries to share the "big cake" of autonomous driving.

　　Currently, 10 states in the United States have become the landing sites for autonomous driving projects, with California and Arizona being the most concentrated. According to incomplete statistics, more than 60 companies in the United States have obtained autonomous driving road test licenses, and at least 15 companies have deployed autonomous driving, involving unmanned trucks, unmanned online taxis, unmanned minibuses and other types, most of which are in the trial operation or initial commercialization stage.

　　In March 2020, Waymo launched its fifth-generation autonomous driving system. By upgrading the functions of key components such as cameras and lidar, the new system enables the car to perceive the surrounding conditions as early as possible under different times, terrains, weather conditions, and other conditions, thereby maximizing the safety of autonomous driving.

　　With the support and guidance of the government, major Japanese automakers have stepped up their research and development efforts in the field of autonomous driving. In January this year, Toyota Motor Corporation announced that it would build a smart city centered on connected cars and self-driving pure electric vehicles in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, with all products and services connected through the Internet. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2021. In addition, Japanese IT giant SoftBank has cooperated with Toyota Motor to jointly invest in a company dedicated to providing new travel services, and autonomous driving travel services will become an important part of the cooperation.

　　From the domestic situation, in February this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and 11 other departments jointly issued the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation and Development Strategy", proposing the vision of building a strong country in intelligent vehicles. In March, GAC New Energy released the first deliverable model Aion LX equipped with high-precision maps and L3 autonomous driving; Huawei has cooperated with operators to carry out key smart network construction pilot projects in Inner Mongolia, Henan Province, and Guangdong Province, and announced the deployment and development plan of autonomous driving network products in October last year.

　　Some analysts believe that the integration of resources by leading telecommunications equipment manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE and extensive cooperation with operators and customers will accelerate the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning with vehicle communications, and also inject new vitality into the development of the domestic autonomous driving industry.

　　The main reason for the rising popularity of autonomous driving is the breakthrough of core technologies and the initial formation and rapid development of the autonomous driving industry ecosystem. In fact, safety has always been the "gold" standard for the commercialization of autonomous driving, and it is also the main bottleneck and challenge for the application of autonomous driving.

　　According to Boston Consulting Group, by 2035, autonomous driving and electric vehicle parts, new energy vehicle sales, data and intelligent networking will generate more than $20 billion in incremental profits. It is worth noting that with the rapid upgrading of technologies such as smart cars and autonomous driving, on-demand travel will become a lower-cost mode of travel, with a profit margin of more than $76 billion.

　　In addition, as new energy vehicles upgrade from L3 to L5, the market for intelligent assisted driving systems will see a big explosion. The demand for sensors in each vehicle will increase rapidly, with a compound growth rate of nearly 20% in the next five years, and the market space is expected to reach 8 billion yuan.

　　Ultimately, the core of autonomous driving technology is to achieve true full unmanned operation. "True full unmanned operation" means that it is truly independent of drivers, safety officers, or any form of direct human intervention from a technical perspective. Only such unmanned driving technology may have real significance and value. To achieve true autonomous driving, industry insiders need to continue to work hard.