PATEO Car Networking: Chips and operating systems are the focus of competition in the second half of the automotive revolution

The first half of the new four modernizations of automobiles has just ended, and the second half has already begun.

A few years ago, endurance was still the main selling point of many electric vehicle companies, but in the past two years, 500 km endurance has become more and more common, and intelligence has gradually become the core of competition for car companies in the second half. In the past, "four wheels plus a sofa", free hands often required a driver. Now, as the vision of the Internet of Everything extends to the automotive industry, new technologies in areas such as smart cockpits and autonomous driving are pouring out, and the fate of wheels and sofas is expected to become a story chapter that shines in this world.

As the core component of the future intelligent transportation system, the Internet of Vehicles promotes the evolution of automobiles to the direction of networking and intelligence.

Although the domestic Internet of Vehicles started late, as an important new type of infrastructure vigorously developed by industrial policies, it has accelerated with the wave of electrification in recent years. The "China Internet Development Report (2021)" released at the 2021 China Internet Conference pointed out that the construction of China's Vehicle Networking standard system is basically complete, and the Internet of Vehicles has become an innovation driving force for the upgrading of the automotive industry.

The growth rate of Internet of Vehicle users and market scale is remarkable, but as an emerging industry, it still has deficiencies in industrial structure, business model, safety regulations, etc.; on the other hand, due to the cross-cooperation involving multiple industries and fields, the lack of open interactive trading platforms in the industry, the low degree of information sharing, the inertia of thinking and interest demands in different industries, resulting in the difficulty of building a closed industrial chain of the Internet of Vehicles, and its development has been constrained.

As one of the leading enterprises in the domestic Internet of Vehicles, PATEO Has entered the market from the "nascent generation" of the domestic Internet of Vehicles industry and is currently a representative enterprise with excellent core capabilities in the field of intelligent networking in China.

In the 36Kr "WISE 2021 King of the New Economy" series of "Annual Hard-core Enterprises" survey officially released in December, PATEO has become one of the "Annual Hard-core Enterprises" in the field of transportation and travel by virtue of its own capabilities and achievements in comprehensive dimensions such as product innovation, business health, channel & industry status, growth potential & capital performance.

Ying Yilun (also known as Ying Zhenkai), the founder and chairman of The Network of Vehicles that has led the growth of PATEO So far, once rated himself as "a person who loves cars", has enough enthusiasm for technology and automotive intelligence, and firmly believes that intelligence will change the industry form.

In Ying Yilun's view, "the second half of the automobile revolution will be based on high-tech networking, intelligence, and digitization, and chips and operating systems will be the focus of competition as the basis for digitalization." ”

How does he view the "second half" of the new four competitions? What is the business secret of leading enterprises to run out of the circle from the competition? 36Kr and Ying Yilun conducted a conversation, the following is the content of the interview (edited):

36Kr: How do you see the "imaginary space" of the future of the Internet of Vehicles industry? What role does the smart cockpit play in this?

Ying Yilun: I think there is still a lot of room for imagination for the future development of the Internet of Vehicles. Under the general trend of the new four modernizations of automobiles and the digital transformation of the automobile industry, intelligence is becoming a subversive force for the future development of automobiles, promoting the rapid landing of intelligent networking and automatic driving. When the era of autonomous driving arrives, the future interior space will provide owners with an immersive experience and a comprehensive experience of ritual through the vibration, sound, vision, and smell of the vehicle, combined with AR and VR technology.

Smart cars are not only mobile tools for A-B points, but also a new future space, a collection of "Internet of Everything + Mobile Robot + Meta universe". Through better immersion capabilities, all-round interaction capabilities from inside to outside, and user autonomy scenario setting capabilities, it brings a more personalized and intelligent car experience.

In the future, the physical buttons of the car will gradually disappear, some things will be updated, and some will be revolutionary. Under this premise, how can the cockpit be connected with the mobile terminal? At present, PATEO is exploring how to promote product innovation based on user experience, insight and operation, and truly give new vitality to technological innovation.

PATEO's mission is to "lead the ultimate experience of smart cars and reconstruct the lifestyle of mobile space." ”

At present, in the traditional model, research institutes, sales companies and factories are separated, and we hope to make it form a closed loop. Today, we have worked with some leading automotive companies to build joint R&D, marketing, and user operation centers. Through these innovative initiatives, we hope to promote the development of China's intelligent vehicle industry."

36Kr: What do you think are the main constraints on the current Internet of Vehicles industry? How should businesses respond?

Ying Yilun: We believe that the biggest task and challenge now is how to truly form a localization operating system and achieve real localization and independent control of parts. We are now based on the localization of operating systems and localization chips for related application practices, while gradually replacing some supply channels with domestic suppliers based on iterative thinking.

First of all, although the Internet of Vehicles has passed 12 years of development, but it is still just starting, from entertainment to new energy, networking, automatic driving development trend, the promotion of technical routes, systems, hardware, software, standards and regulations must be gradually improved.

Secondly, the independent controllability of core technology is the top priority of the development of the Internet of Vehicles industry, and it is currently facing the challenges of chips and operating systems. Insufficient investment in basic scientific research related to early chip manufacturing, lack of accumulation of vehicle regulations and other issues led to 90% of China's automotive chip imports, most of the key system chips are foreign monopolies, and the risk of import channels has a fatal impact on the automobile industry and the national economy. On the key IoV chips, PATEO has formed a special chip team to gradually complete the localization of the core chips of the Internet of Vehicles. Mainstream operating systems are open source operating systems, the system scale is large, technical barriers are high, maintenance costs are large, the manufacturer SDK kernel only pays attention to the chip driver, the general function quality of the kernel is difficult to ensure that the open source kernel needs deep optimization and improvement of key requirements (such as startup speed); and lack of effective information security means. For domestic operating systems, we are also actively cooperating and making related technical layouts.

In addition, under the supply chain crisis of the epidemic, we are cooperating with some domestic suppliers. For example, the screen has been completely replaced by localization, and other parts are greatly increasing domestic suppliers. PATEO continues to build an advanced supply chain management model, based on the quality management, delivery management, cost management of the whole process of operation system to ensure the high quality of products, rapid supply and low-cost competitive advantages, the establishment of planning, procurement, manufacturing, quality, technology, logistics as the core business of the flat production organization, efficient and flexible to ensure the market demand for goods.

36Kr: How do you see the relationship between the Internet of Vehicles and the entire automotive industry? In order to build a mature business model, what levels of business has Been built by Botai Car Networking?

Ying Yilun: We believe that the automotive industry is divided into five levels: traditional automobiles, new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, internet of vehicles, and business models from bottom to top. Automobile intelligence is divided into two parts: human-related intelligence is the Internet of Vehicles; and autonomous driving is related to roads, cars, or future road networks. From the perspective of the Internet of Vehicles, the upper can go to the business model, and the lower can go to automatic driving. The development of the entire Internet of Vehicles must run through a mature business model, and the industrial scale will increase by dozens of times compared with the existing space.

The development process of the Internet of Vehicles in China is about ten years, and the Internet of Vehicles industry has experienced five stages in the security car networking, post-installation car networking, mobile phone internet car networking, vertical Internet company car networking and the current new era. At present, from the technical architecture of the Internet of Vehicles, the Internet of Vehicles can be divided into autonomous vehicle networking, security vehicle networking, in-car car networking, automotive electronic vehicle networking, software vehicle networking, cloud car networking, commercial service vehicle networking.

Based on years of technology accumulation and product delivery experience, we have established a core technology platform such as operating system, intelligent voice, hardware, high-precision map and cloud platform, and have reached relevant cooperation with mainstream car companies, covering cockpit hardware software business, cockpit software + system integration business, intelligent car machine and T-Box business, Internet of Vehicles TSP platform business, software To C application development and other services.

36Kr: How do you see the relationship between the cockpit domain, the autonomous driving domain, and the vehicle control domain? From the perspective of industry competition, how should the head car networking enterprises lay out their technical strategies?

Ying Yilun: Now we are talking about three-domain integration, so we are wondering whether it is possible to combine the cockpit domain with the automatic driving domain, the automatic driving domain with the vehicle control domain, the cockpit domain with the body domain, and at the same time put some L2 capabilities in the software algorithm. In the future of the cockpit, its extension logic is not only the car screen, microphone, etc., but also the lights and glass may be intelligent in the future. So we are more hoping to integrate the cockpit domain and the body domain, of course, we do not do the body domain, but will cooperate with leading companies.

As a result, we will focus on several aspects of technology research and development, and the intelligent cockpit platform will focus on a cockpit platform with higher end, stronger computing power and richer integration capabilities. Botai Internet of Vehicles will choose to cooperate with leading partners, using international and domestic platform chips with higher computing power, hardware will choose more high-end products, and cockpit capabilities will be integrated such as 360 surround view, AVM algorithm, automatic parking AVP capabilities and visual perception algorithms DMS, OMS, including AR-HUD, intelligent headlights, etc. At the same time, the intelligent cockpit platform will integrate the capabilities of the vehicle control domain and the automatic driving domain to jointly improve the user's car experience.

Everyone knows that voice is the place where soldiers must fight today. The logic we want to talk about is that if the car itself can talk, it will communicate with you more, it can chat with you, be your bodyguard, can also become an information collector, and even as a smart assistant, notify you to move the car. These features will soon be born on the latest generation of a brand, and it will be the first smart car that can truly achieve interactive communication inside and outside the car.

36Kr: The Internet of Vehicles has the dual attributes of both the car and the Internet, based on this, how do you think the Internet of Vehicles enterprises should create their own "circle of friends"?

Ying Yilun: Car networking enterprises cooperate with car companies, can perform their respective duties and strengths, and obtain the best results with the fastest speed. I believe that we should work with more technology companies, Internet companies, and automobile companies to jointly promote the intelligence and digitization of Chinese automobiles with an open attitude, jointly create intelligent mobile spaces, and provide a smart lifestyle for society. At present, most of the mainstream Car Networking team is 700 to 2000 people, which is already a very large Car Networking company, but it is difficult to meet the current needs of technology development.

So far, the in-depth cooperative relations we have established with major domestic customers include strategic cooperation, investment in joint ventures, and joint construction of R&D centers. Including the joint establishment of Tianquan Intelligent Laboratory with FAW Intelligent Network Development Institute, the joint establishment of Dongfeng Innovation and Design Center with Dongfeng, the strategic cooperation with SAIC-GM-Wuling, the strategic cooperation with T3 Technology-CHINA AUTOMOBILE Chuangzhi, and the participation in the mixed reform of FAW New Energy's high-end brands.

In addition, the Internet of Vehicles enterprises should create an innovative and open business cooperation model with partners. We have become the industry's only combination of hard and soft cloud + ecology of the third-party car networking service provider, with the mainstream automotive groups to establish investment and mutual participation in the depth of the cooperative relationship, strategic investors include OEM section of Dongfeng Motor Group and China FAW, auto parts section of FAW Fusheng, Internet of things ecology of Xiaomi Group, Haier Capital, industry associations & authoritative institutions of the section of china electric vehicle 100 people, autonomous driving road network bridge section of shanghai tunnel share Jianyuan fund, and other important investors such as Jianxin Trust.

36Kr: In solving the problems of data ownership, use rights, and operation rights involved in the data open model, how do you think we should link up with "expert" enterprises in the Internet industry?

Ying Yilun: First of all, clarify the importance of the problem. Clarifying the data ownership, use rights and operation rights involved in the Internet of Vehicles will make it possible to explore a new market space. The focus is to solve the data sharing rules, data application rules and data supervision rules of the Internet of Vehicles, and the ultimate goal is to make the massive data generated by the car end, roadside and platform generate value.

We believe that the core of smart cities and intelligent transportation is not 5G and autonomous driving technology, but whether the ecology of the city and the data of the city can be truly connected. When the data is opened, the next generation of the Internet of Vehicles will become a new infrastructure for the digital transformation of the automotive industry and the new business of mobile. Our core is how to combine the hardware, software, cloud and data capabilities of the Internet of Vehicles with artificial intelligence and paid services to drive car sales forward. In the digital transformation of automobiles, only with the ability to link the data of the entire city can we grow a richer and more three-dimensional business model with a higher rate of return. In addition to the innovation and iteration of the hardware and software level of the Internet of Vehicles, it also comprehensively connects the data of the car and the entire smart city, and mines the data, so that the car becomes an entrance and platform, and shapes the car mobile space and mobile business model with new value.

However, the realization of this goal requires in-depth cooperation between car companies and Botai Car Networking. Our vision is to lead the ultimate experience of smart cars, reconstruct the lifestyle of mobile space, explore the space and business model of the car, and more importantly, the entire industry must be open, and only open cooperation can everyone do better. The image, voice and other information obtained by smart cars need to be desensitized before processing, and we call for the introduction of policies that can not bind innovation, but also ensure national security.

36Kr: What do you think is the focus of competition in the future of automotive intelligent networking? From a global market perspective, what advantages does China have? Among these advantages, what are the corresponding preparations that PATEO has achieved (or is still planning)?

Ying Yilun: The second half of the automotive revolution will be based on high-tech networking, intelligence, and digitization, and chips and operating systems will be the focus of competition as the basis for digitalization. With the advantages of 5G technology, China is currently in an international leading position in the communication technology standards related to the Internet of Vehicles, and has a certain first-mover advantage in core product research and development, and in related automatic driving technology, it is generally synchronized with the international level.

We have always believed that core technologies need to be controlled autonomously. This is also why PATEO has always attached great importance to R&D investment. After more than ten years of deep cultivation in the field of intelligent networking, we have developed into an industry-leading vehicle networking enterprise with rich resources for serving automotive customers in China's local capital structure and business scale. Based on years of technical accumulation and product delivery experience, it already has core technology platforms such as operating system, intelligent voice, hardware, high-precision map and cloud platform, has a full set of hard and soft cloud qualifications for the Internet of Vehicles, and has a full set of end-to-end R&D capabilities to provide customers with a full set of product solutions.

In addition, in the face of the disruptive form that may appear in smart cars after 2025, we will build the next generation of wireless new energy intelligent vehicles based on communication technology in advance. Based on PATEO's understanding of the industrial chain, the intelligent auto parts industry ecology is laid out to achieve rapid industrial landing. At present, PATEO has established in-depth cooperative relations with major domestic partners, including strategic cooperation, investment joint ventures, co-construction cooperation, wholly-owned acquisitions and other forms. For example, PATEO and FAW Fusheng have reached cooperation on smart cockpit related businesses, including hardware, software, sales channels, etc.; PATEO and Keboda have established a joint venture based on the smart headlight business.

36Kr: In terms of smart cockpits, do you think there are still disruptive technologies?

Ying Yilun: In fact, a lot of what we look at today is still in the logic of automatic driving, cockpit and vehicle new energy, but in fact, the car is likely to have a lot of subversive changes. Car interaction is a very critical aspect. Let me give you a few examples, in fact, today's cars are more like an Internet café played as a child, it is connected by a lot of wiring harnesses and many interfaces. In the past, the structure of the space shuttle was more complicated, but SpaceX did it very concisely, so can the car also be?

So we're talking about next-generation communications technologies with some good ICT companies. If it can land in two to three years, the interior of the car will be like today's Apple computer, with only one interface, unlike the previous generation of PCs, the back of the host is full of interfaces. We can imagine that in the future, many physical buttons in the car will disappear, such as when the new car is released, there will be a brand cooperation gift box, which has a lot of plug-and-play products like IoT, without power supply, you can paste it in any position of the car at any time, and the design can be very beautiful. For example, holding a mobile phone in the car, like the automatic pairing of Bluetooth headsets, a card will come out, and all the entertainment systems in the car, including cloud input, navigation, air conditioning, etc., will automatically pop up. If you turn the phone slightly upwards, the rear lights, seat massage, ventilation, including rear air conditioning, seat lying down, and so on, will pop up in a clever way. Move the phone out and you'll see some of the devices on all the doors, including child locks and door locks.

What logic am I trying to say? In fact, in the new generation of interaction, is it the screen and voice that are the final interactions? not necessarily.

36Kr: Seeing that you previously revealed that PATEO is also considering the vision of laying out the meta-universe, what do you think the potential "format" provided by the meta-universe can provide for the commercial vision of the Internet of Vehicles?

Ying Yilun: Everyone is talking about the metacosm now, and we at PATEO are also thinking. We imagine that in the future, people will drive cars on the streets of the city, through the windshield can see a digital twin city, the city timeline of history, culture, business, emotion and other rich media information superimposed on the real geographical location, the car will far exceed the basic functional attributes that carry people from point A to point B, become the window of the museum, the guide of tourism and exploration, life, emotion, social platform, leading people to shuttle between virtual and reality.