IAUTO
Speed Depth Attitude
Introduction |
2022/01/02
Getting rid of the "big factory" is a strategic choice for the transformation of the supply chain management field, and with the strong intervention of more third-party technology companies and Internet companies, the former advantages of the "big factories" are also diluted by new players.
Reporter 丨 North Shore
Responsible editor 丨 Yang Jing
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Ten years ago, a Facebook engineer wrote an article on the theme "The Full Stack" to get the word "full stack" out of the loop quickly. Later, everyone used "full-stack engineer" to describe a compound talent with a variety of development skills, a professional multi-functional, solid skills, and master the realization ability of various mainstream technical links from front-end to back-end.
In the automotive industry that we are familiar with, we are accustomed to using "full stack" to describe the ability to solve problems in the whole process. Especially in the era of the transformation of the new four modernizations, when it comes to emerging fields such as automatic driving or smart cockpits, "full-stack self-research" means that automakers can master the most core technologies in related fields and have absolute dominance in the field of research and development.
From another point of view, this is the "sovereignty declaration" of car companies for upstream suppliers "big manufacturers", you see, these key technologies we can all do by ourselves, we can not rely on any external forces.
Automakers trying to be self-sufficient in the supply of key components has also become one of the trends in the industrial ecological chain in the new era. Just past the Guangzhou Auto Show, "full-stack self-research" is definitely a hot topic, a number of exhibitors have around the hot spot of automatic driving, the external sacrifice of full-stack self-developed technical ambitions: such as Feifan Automobile's high-end intelligent driving program PP-CEM, and the first public intelligent safety car platform "Shanhai Platform" of Nebu Car.
The increasingly popular "full stack self-development"
In fact, the Guangzhou Auto Show is just a platform for the centralized release of more information on "full-stack self-research", and before that, a number of automakers announced their full-stack self-research strategic ambitions.
Xiaopeng Motors has previously emphasized the technical route of full-stack self-development, and claimed to be the second self-driving car manufacturer outside Tesla to achieve full-stack self-development. In addition, in the "2025 Strategy" released this year, Geely also mentioned the construction of a full-stack self-developed ecosystem in core technology areas such as new energy, automatic driving, intelligent networking and intelligent cockpit.
How to move towards the era of software-defined cars? The three keywords given by Geely are: full-stack self-development, hardware development and ecological development.
Among them, the full-stack self-research includes vehicle-level OS, intelligent cockpit OS, automatic driving OS and nuclear new software algorithms, which are the key to Geely's "one network, three systems" strategy. In order to master the core technology in its own hands, Geely plans to invest a huge budget in the field of full-stack self-development, according to the official statement, the next 5 years will be "thrown" 150 billion yuan.
Since the beginning of the traditional fuel era, automakers are keen to master the dominance of core technologies, but some technologies and core components are still taken the initiative by upstream parts companies. As a result, it is easy for automakers to fall into a passive supply game, whether it is price negotiations or capacity supply, there is a risk of being "kidnapped" by upstream manufacturers.
Such anxiety, Tesla and battery supplier Panasonic's division and integration, is a good example. After the two companies "tore their faces" at each other, Tesla found the importance of getting out of the single supply siege, and gradually opened a new strategy for battery procurement diversification.
The same is true of emerging areas such as autonomous driving and intelligent cockpits, and car companies strive to achieve full-stack self-development, which also means that they use less external forces to solve most of the core technologies themselves, and get rid of the supply control of the "big factories" at the software and hardware levels.
Since last year, Xiaopeng Automobile has regarded full-stack self-research as the foundation for deepening the era of intelligence, and at the same time, the company has also regarded its full-stack self-research capability as one of the technical advantages that distinguish it from competitors in the era of electrification and stand out in a number of new car-making forces.
According to the official statement of Xiaopeng Motors, they have been able to master the core capabilities of visual perception, sensor fusion, decision-making, planning and control, etc., and in the field of automatic driving, they have also become the second car company in the world after Tesla to independently develop based on an open computing platform.
True and false "full stack"
In fact, it is extremely difficult for automakers to truly grasp the hard power of full-stack self-development, or to form a truly mature full-stack technical team. Whether it is a new car-making force like Xiaopeng and NeDa, or a traditional car manufacturer like Geely, they are only "pathfinders" at this stage, and if they want to truly take the road of full-stack self-development, it is not achieved overnight.
The relationship between suppliers and car companies is essentially an upstream and downstream cross-company collaboration, each responsible for the field of expertise, and doing things well in a way that is comfortable for both parties. When automakers play the full-stack self-developed strategy card, it also means that one person needs to carry multiple tasks at the same time, and "contract" the things that two people or even multiple people are responsible for at the same time.
These are actually two sides of the same coin.
The positive feedback on the A-side is obvious. Li Bin once mentioned in an interview that Weilai chose full-stack research and development from the beginning of its business, doing three electrics, doing positive development, making stupid efforts, and investing heavily to accumulate its own system capabilities. Some of the business Weilai also cooperates with other companies, but the core thing is to do it yourself, even if the early stage will be difficult.
He also specifically mentioned the American technology company Apple, why do mobile phone companies around the world make less money than Apple? This is thanks to Apple's integrated design, especially the company's strong iOS underlying processing power, which allows Apple to lay the core advantages at the technical level.
On the other hand, although everyone is emphasizing their "full stack" strength, strictly speaking, the scope of "full stack" is wide and the boundaries are relatively blurred; and "self-research" as the foundation of research and development, if it is vertically "covered" by a company, it is difficult to do deep and thorough.
For example, Apple, even if it has mastered the lowest and most core technology, it still relies on other vendors at the software application level.
Because of this, although many auto manufacturers shout the slogan of "full-stack self-research" in the field of publicity, they still have to "do something and do nothing" when they return to the level of reality. Great Wall Motors, which first played the banner of "full-stack self-development", is a typical example.
Great Wall Motor is the first domestic self-brand automobile manufacturer to announce full-stack self-development, according to the plan, the company plans to automatic driving, intelligent cockpit and intelligent services under the coffee intelligent technology brand, and adhere to independent research and development in the fields of automatic driving perception, computing and decision-making algorithms. Nevertheless, the company's top management also stressed that in the field of intelligent driving, full-stack self-development should exclude chips and operating systems.
The full-stack self-research of the new business sector, even manufacturers such as Great Wall and Geely who have been deeply involved in the industry for many years are more difficult, and it is even more difficult for new players such as Ne Da and Xiao Peng, at least in the short term.
Outside the big factory, there is a "third party"
Some time ago, ZF and Microsoft expanded their in-depth cooperation in digital transformation, and the two companies announced that they would jointly build a ZF Cloud that integrates data and integration platforms, and ultimately, all of ZF's production and operations, including Microsoft's cloud business, will benefit from it.
At first glance, this is a very common industry news in the era of the new four modernizations of automobiles. But if we dig deeper, we can glimpse more industry trends and how the relationship between technology companies, component suppliers and automakers is changing.
Previously, component giants like ZF had played the role of "big factories" in the automotive supply chain, but now they are beginning to realize that they should not be simply defined as providers of hardware and physical components, and there are many more opportunities to work with technology companies to develop software businesses. In the new era of "software-defined cars," they have every opportunity to stand on their own and offer automakers new businesses and services unlike any previous ones.
It also marks the emergence of a new power structure in the automotive industry – tech giants play a very important role in the entire industry chain, and even occupy a third seat. Previously, only automakers and suppliers in the entire industry chain were the absolute protagonists, and they firmly occupied the only two seats, playing games with each other and supporting each other.
These third types of companies play a very important role in getting automakers out of the "big factory" spell. As ZF and Microsoft have joined forces, parts suppliers are turning the olive branch of cooperation to technology companies, helping them build core capabilities that are independent of automakers, such as autonomous driving.
Essentially, this expands the possibilities for product innovation. This latest trend also shows that joining forces with technology companies can give parts suppliers a new competitive advantage and reshuffle their cards under the new trend.
This has also spawned another change, where the traditional boundaries between automakers and component suppliers are beginning to blur. The more collaborators and vertically integrated participants there are across the value chain, the more difficult it is to define one actor explicitly as a supplier or technology company or OEM.
ZF has invested heavily in its self-driving business in recent months, and Martin Fischer, a member of the company's management board, said that as suppliers increasingly turn to software-driven technology, as traditional component manufacturers, cooperation with other technology partners will become increasingly important – "software-defined cars" is an opportunity, but it is clear that neither party can do it alone.
Robert Bosch, the world's number one component giant, also said this year that it would work with Microsoft to develop an automotive software platform; not long ago, Continental also signed an agreement with Horizon Robotics, a Chinese intelligence company, to use the company's artificial intelligence technology in its driver assistance systems.
Automakers have followed the same path.
Volkswagen has partnered with Microsoft to provide cloud computing support for intelligent networking and autonomous driving; Ford has partnered with Google to use its cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems; and BMW and Toyota have also formed partnerships with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to promote plans for the development of connected, autonomous driving, and sharing.
It can be seen that in the rapid transformation of the new four modernizations, what has reshaped the entire supply chain is not only the change of battery and drive mode, but also the new pattern of vertical and horizontal and competitive cooperation in the software field. More and more industry players have realized the importance of opening up their minds and embracing change.
In the long years of the development of the automobile industry, almost all automobile manufacturers want to hold the dominance of core technology in their hands, and in the new era of the transformation of the new four modernizations, the left hand grasps the "soul" and the right hand holds the "body", which has become the car-making ambition of more and more players.
Getting rid of the "big factory" and relying less on the "big factory" has become a strategic choice for the transformation of the supply chain management field, and with the strong intervention of more third-party technology companies and Internet companies, the former advantages of the upstream "big factory" are also diluted by new players. This is the end of the last era and the beginning of a new one.
This article is excerpted from the cover story of the November and December issues of Automobile Commune magazine
| north shore |
A sommelier who doesn't love cars is not a good editor.