Technology Frontier: Interactive Technology in Smart Cockpits

Technology Frontier: Interactive Technology for Smart Cockpits

The development history of car cockpits

The cockpit is an important part of the car, and its functions are gradually increasing as the car develops. The early automobile was a purely mechanical product. It was derived from the horse-drawn carriage. At that time, people understood it as a means of transportation.

In the early 20th century, cars mainly consisted of 4 parts: engine, transmission system, suspension system + wheels, and body. In 1897, Bosch produced a magnetic generator ignition device for automobiles. With this as a starting point, cars officially begin the process of car electronics and cockpit comfort.

Subsequently, between 1915 and 1940, Bosch successively launched mass-produced products such as starter motors, vehicle speakers, diesel injection systems, and vehicle radios, and continued to improve the control functions of vehicle electrical appliances in the cockpit.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, car cockpits began to take shape today. Early cockpit information only served the driver and displayed basic driving information. It mainly includes mechanical instrument panels, car radios, walkie-talkies and other equipment. The operations of these devices are basically in the form of physical buttons. The only information that can be provided is basic information such as vehicle speed, engine speed, water temperature, and fuel level.

With the development of automotive electronic technology, car cockpits have entered the era of cockpit + electronic equipment. Small-sized central control LCD screens have begun to be added to car cockpits. Car navigation, Bluetooth, and media playback equipment have been added to the car. At this stage, the convenient functions of the cockpit mainly rely on "moving" electronic devices into the car. The integration between functions is not reasonable and the experience is not smooth enough. With the continuous evolution of automobile intelligence, the cockpit is also developing from electronic to intelligent.

2000-2015 is the electronic era. With the development of automotive electronic technology, cockpit products have entered the electronic era. The devices are still mainly mechanical instruments, but a few small-sized central control LCD displays have begun to be used. In addition, navigation systems, audio and video systems have also been added. and other functions to provide drivers with more information.

The smart cockpit mentioned today can be said to have started in 2015. The large-size central control LCD screen took the lead in replacing the traditional central control. The full LCD instrument began to gradually replace the traditional instrument. The integrated design of the central control screen and the instrument panel It has begun to appear, and a few models have added HUD head-up displays, streaming media rearview mirrors, etc. The human-computer interaction methods are diversified and the level of intelligence has been significantly improved. In the future, as high-level autonomous driving is gradually applied and the performance of chips and algorithms increases, cockpit products will be further upgraded, and technologies such as one-core multiple screens, multi-screen integration, and three-dimensional virtual presentation will become more popular.

Definition and composition of smart cockpit There are two main mainstream views in the industry regarding the concept or definition of smart cockpit. The first view defines smart cockpit as an intelligent service system that can proactively understand and understand user needs and meet user needs: starting from the needs of end consumers and application scenarios, passengers not only do not need to worry about driving and traveling, but can also Get a comfortable experience in the cockpit. Second, the smart cockpit is defined as an intelligent mobile space. At this time, the car will completely bid farewell to its role as just a travel tool. The goal is to achieve intelligent interaction between the cockpit and people, cars, and roads. Compared with the current cockpit, this This form of smart cockpit will be more intelligent and humane, and the industry regards it as a new product category that combines cars and rooms.

Smart cockpit has become one of the core value carriers of intelligent connected cars and has become a core area for differentiated competition among major automobile manufacturers. At present, the smart cockpit mainly consists of hardware (instrument panel, central control navigation, HUD, streaming media rearview mirror, intelligent air conditioning control and other systems), software (operating system, virtual layer, middleware, application software), human-computer interaction (voice It consists of three major logical parts: recognition, face recognition, touch recognition, gesture recognition, iris recognition, and biometric recognition. The underlying technology of software and hardware is applied to various intelligent components according to the different needs of the product. Different intelligent components are integrated in the cockpit to form a complete solution, which is embodied in the complete vehicle, and the complete vehicle is then sold to car owners; at the same time, Infrastructure participates in the entire process, providing services such as data transmission, computing and storage for each link.

Why Smart Cockpit is Important Smart Cockpit can provide users with a sense of accomplishment in personalized experience. From the perspective of Maslow's pyramid of needs, the current development of automobiles has already been able to meet basic safety needs. Although traditional automobile manufacturers have been making efforts to create users' brand and identity recognition, intelligent car cockpits can meet users' needs for respect at a higher level. From the very beginning, consumers demand physical needs such as safety and comfort of functional cars, hoping that more intimate social relationships can be extended from mobile phones to the cockpit. By using cars as tools, users’ ultimate needs and self-realization can be realized in social, entertainment and other occasions. The intelligence of the car cockpit can bring the most easily perceptible intelligent experience to drivers and passengers.

It still takes time to solve the high threshold of autonomous driving technology, and car companies are still unable to use it as a core selling point. Smart cockpits have become the best entry point to achieve product differentiation. Although autonomous driving is very advanced in computing power, algorithms, sensors, vehicle-road collaboration and other technologies, in fact, the technical indicators of most smart cars in autonomous driving are still at the L2/L2+ level, and it is not yet possible to complete the leap from L2 to L3 . Smart cockpits are technically easier to implement than smart driving, and the regulatory pressure on implementation is much lower than that of autonomous driving. Smart cockpits often contain multiple screen displays, adding an intuitive sense of technology that is easier for users to perceive. Therefore, it is a key layout area for car companies in seeking differentiation and brand development.

Smart cockpit’s 100 billion market segment

The smart cockpit market has huge space and many subdivided tracks. The smart cockpit is the key human-machine interface in the path of automobiles becoming intelligent and connected. In the future, it will become an intelligent mobile space for advanced driving experience that meets the personalized needs of users. According to IHSMarkit, the global smart cockpit penetration rate is about 50%, and there is still a lot of room for growth. With the development of automobile intelligence, the functions of smart cockpits will also become more diverse, driving subdivisions including hardware PCBs, vehicle displays, domain controllers, cockpit chips, and optics and acoustics for human-car interaction functions. The road develops rapidly.

PCB: Basic automotive components, high-end PCB applications drive value increase

PCB is an important support for electronic components, and PCB is used in many parts of automobiles. PCB (printed circuit board) is an important electronic component. As a support for electronic components, it can help realize electrical connections between electronic components. Its quality directly affects the performance and life of the electronic machine. PCB has rich application scenarios in various fields of automobiles, such as control systems, audio and video systems, GPS modules, etc. In the future, as the degree of automotive electronics continues to increase, the demand for automotive PCB applications will continue to increase.

The proportion of HDI applications is growing, and the value of PCB bicycles continues to increase.

According to type, the main types of automotive PCB include five categories: flexible PCB board (ie FPC), rigid PCB board (ie RPCB), soft-hard board, HDI board and LEDPCB. Due to different materials and characteristics, various types of PCBs have different application scenarios. Among them, automotive HDI, radio frequency boards (rigid PCBs) and flexible boards are highly related to automotive intelligence, so the application proportion will continue to grow. . According to data from the Zhanxin AI Industry Think Tank, as of July 2019, the value of a single PCB for low-end, mid-range and high-end automobiles was US$30-40, US$50-70 and US$100-150 respectively. It is expected that as the penetration rate of new energy vehicles increases in the future, the market demand for high-end automotive PCBs will also continue to grow, which is expected to increase the value of bicycle PCBs. According to VerifiedMarketResearch data, the automotive PCB market size is expected to increase from US$7.97 billion in 2023 to US$12.32 billion in 2030 from 2023 to 2030, with a CAGR of approximately 5.35%.

Overseas PCB manufacturers occupy the top three shares, and domestic manufacturers have broad room for substitution. According to data from Zuosi Auto Research, the top three manufacturers in the automotive PCB market share in 2020 are all overseas manufacturers, and the overall industry concentration is low. CMK, which has the largest share, occupies 8.2% of the market share. The market share of mainland enterprise Jingwang Electronics is about 3.3%, and the market share of other mainland enterprises is less than 3%. At present, relevant targets in A-shares, such as Jingwang Electronics, Shanghai Electric Co., Ltd., Eton Electronics, and Shiyun Circuit, are actively expanding their automotive PCB business.