Reporter | Li Wenbo
Edit | Wang Yipeng
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In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, what is the core competitiveness of an automobile company?
The answer is: the ability to construct ecology.
In the smart car ecosystem, the in-car entertainment system is the easiest and closest to the user's contact point. Screen sizes are getting bigger and bigger, and in-car entertainment systems are becoming more and more complex.
The first shot of the in-car entertainment system revolution was fired by Tesla. Elon Musk took the in-car Internet browsing experience to a new level, and at the same time, he also conveniently shoved AAA game masterpieces such as "The Witcher 3" into the screen.
The positive effect of in-car entertainment for Tesla has made various car companies red-eyed, especially Tesla's three Chinese believers - Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, have launched self-developed in-vehicle systems to try to catch this era express.
Cars are evolving from simple mechanical mobility tools to highly intelligent terminals with self-learning capabilities. These new changes have directly spawned a new set of software service ecological logic, and it is not surprising that the in-car entertainment system is the lowest cost of transformation in the entire ecosystem, and it is not surprising that it has become a new battlefield for automobile companies.
Driving to play "The Witcher 3" is also playing for life
On January 22, 2020, Elon Musk, as CEO of Tesla, launched a proposal on a new picture of car life on social platforms: Do you want to play The Witcher 3 on your own car?
Musk's proposal attracted tsunami-level attention and discussion, and finally in nearly 800,000 valid votes, 85.4% of netizens expressed high concentration of expectations for the matter of "playing games in the car".
A week later, Musk implemented the netizens' ardent expectations for car games on the 2021 Model S/X.
In the introduction of the new car, Tesla chose to pass through the conventional latitudes such as power performance, autonomous driving, intelligence level and interior material, leaving the maximum space for the game.
"We've equipped the new car with a processor with 100,000 floating-point operations per second," Musk said, "running The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt stress-free, comparable to the latest console on the market!" ”
AMD CEO Su Zifeng confirmed Musk's statement, "The central control of the new Model S/X uses a chip combination of AMD's embedded APU + RDNA2 discrete graphics card. When driving AAA games, RDNA2 has a unique hash rate of up to 10TFLOPS, comparable to Sony PS5 consoles. ”
Behind Tesla's tireless efforts to enhance the on-board "playing machine" experience is the result of the continuous surge of blood in Musk's body.
Musk, a "middle-aged addict", said publicly at the 2019 E3 Expo: "Part of my success is due to my interest in technology products such as video games." If it wasn't for the game, I wouldn't have started programming. ”
As the founder of SpaceX and the founder of Tesla, Musk tried to sow the seeds of love for games to every Tesla owner. He even has a strong desire that the game will no longer be a concoction for the owner to pass the long charging time, but a companion that covers the entire driving time.
In December 2020, Vince Patton, the new owner of tesla Model 3, discovered that after an OTA remote update, drivers could play games through the car screen or use the network while driving, and 2/3 of the screen would be occupied by the game screen.
Before this OTA, the screen in the Tesla car could only run the game while the vehicle was stationary. However, after the update, when the vehicle starts the game while it is on the move, the touch screen will prompt "Playing the game while the car is running is only suitable for passengers" and ask the player to click the button to confirm that they are passengers.
Under the logic of this set of "self-examination and self-correction" program, the driver can easily bypass the system settings, press the "Passenger Play" confirmation button, and then play the proud eagle or spider card while driving.
"It's going to kill people, it's absolutely crazy." Vince Barton said.
Tesla's approach to in-car gaming has infuriated the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has worked for years to ban drivers from using distracting entertainment features while the vehicle is in motion.
But Musk doesn't buy it, believing that as self-driving technology matures, in-car entertainment functions become more and more important.
Musk's defense paled with a fatal accident over self-driving: a former Navy SEAL Model S sedan collided with a truck as Autopilot turned on. He was supposed to be driving intently, but he was watching videos from a portable device.
NHTSA immediately announced an investigation into Tesla's in-car gaming capabilities, and preliminary assessments show that tesla Model 3, Model S, Model X and Model Y produced between 2017 and 2022 are all involved, with a maximum of 580,000 units.
This time, in the face of NHTSA's heavy blow, Musk did not choose to be tough head-on, but through another OTA, canceled the game function in the vehicle's driving. However, NHTSA said after the investigation that the feature was only temporarily locked, not completely eliminated.
For most car drivers, playing games in the car is a fresh experience. For car companies, this novelty holds a new business opportunity that has never been seen before.
Sing K, swipe videos and return WeChat
The new business opportunity in the eyes of automobile companies is to fully take over the occupants' in-car attention by reconstructing the virgin land of in-car entertainment systems.
In-vehicle entertainment system, full name In-Vehicle Infotainment, referred to as IVI, is an on-board integrated information processing system based on a vehicle bus system and Internet services using a dedicated vehicle central processor. IVI is not directly involved in vehicle driving control decisions such as steering, acceleration and deceleration, so it does not have an impact on vehicle driving performance and safety.
In-car entertainment systems first appeared in 1922. At that time, the American automaker Chevrolet was equipped with the world's first car radio from Westinghouse on the new car. In 1928, the Calvin brothers began mass production of integrated car radios, which they named "Motorola".
The low-cost, simple and durable "Motorola" quickly became a must-have item on the procurement lists of major automotive companies, and in-vehicle systems began to shift from a single wireless communication to multi-dimensional entertainment. Imagine what a pleasant life experience it was to listen to the hippest American country music of the time and fly along Route 66.
Later, with the rapid development of tablets, the Internet and communication technology, the in-car entertainment system began to become more abundant, and the daily entertainment behavior scene was also transplanted into the car: from the radio to the U disk music player, to The Bluetooth music playback, mapping the mobile phone APP to the car, such as Apple Carplay and Baidu Carlife.
The car entertainment system has evolved to today, singing karaoke in the car, watching short videos, ordering takeaways, replying to WeChat, email Microblogs, current affairs news, weather forecasts, and even using flush to speculate in stocks, are no longer fresh.
Ai Media Consulting data shows that in each travel scenario, the proportion of users who obtain content in the form of audio on the vehicle end is the highest, reaching 68.8%. Ai Media Consulting analysts believe that travel is a typical companion scenario, and audio is the most important way to obtain content, and the substitution is low.
Compared with mobile terminals, the proportion of users over 25 years old on the online music car terminal is higher, accounting for more than 90%. Users with a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan accounted for 20.2%. Ai Media Consulting analysts believe that the online music vehicle user group belongs to the car group, and the users are more mature, the income level is higher, and the consumption power is stronger.
In 2018, in-vehicle KTV was named one of the least reliable automotive technologies of the year. But that year, it was also the Chinese intelligent electric vehicle company Xiaopeng who added the Sing Bar car machine version to the on-board system of its first mass-produced model, the G3, and the traditional "Karaoke" became "Caraoke". The owner only needs to connect the Bluetooth microphone, click the sing bar APP, and enter the mobile K room anytime and anywhere.
In this regard, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, believes that the K song system on the car is a useful attempt at intelligent entertainment, which is the core competitiveness of Xiaopeng Motors.
In January this year, Xiaopeng Automobile expanded the in-car audio application through OTA, and launched three audio applications in the application mall, Migu Love Singing, LOOK Live Broadcast, HiFi Music, plus the previously existing Kugou Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Sing Bar, Himalaya, etc., Xiaopeng P7 gathered 15 audio applications, becoming the "most singing" electric vehicle. According to Xiaopeng Motors, in the whole of 2020, the annual utilization rate of Xiaopeng P7 music was 99.4%.
The other two new Forces of Chinese car manufacturing, Weilai and Ideal, have also followed xiaopeng's footsteps to launch the on-board KTV function, winning the applause of the owner at the same time, directly selling the supporting microphone to the out of stock.
On January 29 last year, Ideal Auto launched 500 wireless microphones priced at 356 yuan on the official store, which sold out in 25 minutes. On February 1, 1800 units were replenished and sold short in ten minutes. After Weilai added the national K song in the 3.0 system update, the microphone with intelligent american sound effect algorithm and priced at 399 yuan was also robbed.
The ideal owner said that "the K song in the car is a very practical function, both private and not disturbing." ”
The game's innate sense of high interaction makes it the most direct means of seizing control of the attention in the car, but due to safety regulations, it is difficult for the game to occupy the screen in the car for a long time and with high participation like the K song. This is also the reason why Ideal and WEIlai only launch K songs and do not rush to join the game.
In the context of the automobile company, the large screen in the car is the "fourth screen" after the computer, mobile phone, and TELEVISION, especially the Z era of the Z era who emphasizes the avant-garde personality of the consumer concept, the essential attributes of the car as a means of transportation are infinitely diluted, and the additional attributes of intelligent terminals, emotional carriers, and entertainment toys are greatly strengthened.
Compared with the love of middle-aged consumers for "bucket cars" when they buy cars, a large number of young people choose to abandon the old and old traditional cars and vote for the new car-making forces that understand the trend better.
According to the "2020 China New Energy Vehicle Industry Chain and User Portrait Analysis" report from Ai Media Consulting, among China's new energy vehicle users, the proportion of people aged 26 to 35 is the highest, and the monthly income is more than 5,000 yuan.
Tencent Marketing Insights's "Next Generation China New Energy Vehicle Consumer Insight Research Report" lists the five core differences between the next four main types of new energy vehicle consumer groups and existing car owners, namely, preference for the range of 200,000 to 400,000 yuan, preference for joint ventures and imports, increasing emphasis on comfort, high-tech and intelligence, information sources focusing on social media and professional media, and the demand for commercial vehicles.
The combination of new energy vehicles and young people has built a base plate for the sales of in-car entertainment systems.
But the money of the in-car entertainment system, traditional car manufacturers do not want to give up to new cars, they also want to earn.
In 2020, German high-end car manufacturer BMW announced at the first technology day to introduce an online short video application - watermelon video to the iDrive 7.0 in-vehicle system to solve the pain points of car owners in waiting for red lights, waiting for people, traffic jams and other fragmented time.
Unlike the idea of a one-time release function of the new car-making forces, BMW puts the safety of the owner first: first, the video time is strictly controlled within 90 seconds; secondly, when the speed exceeds 5 km / h, the video content will not be visible.
IHS Consulting predicts that sales of original infotainment systems in China will reach 43.5 billion yuan in 2020. According to Report Linker data, the size of China's in-vehicle infotainment system market in 2019 was 42.1 billion yuan, with a penetration rate of about 69%. It is expected that the penetration rate will reach 95% in 2026, and the market size will reach 61.2 billion yuan.
Fact.MR, an international market research institute, pointed out that between 2017 and 2026, the compound annual growth rate of the in-vehicle infotainment system market will reach 6.4%. By the end of 2020, sales of in-vehicle infotainment systems will reach 260 million units.
The huge profits from attracting occupants' attention have made automotive companies enjoy the development and upgrading of in-car entertainment systems. In the future, the way for young people to call friends and attract companions will no longer be to drive black together, but to sing a song together in the car and create happiness exponentially.
But in addition to happiness, there are always people who will "untimely" ask: can Sing K in the car, play Wizard 3, and reply to WeChat is really powerful, but why should I do this in the car?
User data is valuable
Car companies will not answer the question of "why sing K in the car, play wizard 3, and return to WeChat", they just want to grab data from the user's behavior habits, gather sand into a tower, and finally completely occupy the entire life scene of the user at the end of the car.
Ding Dayu, chief engineer of continental's Vehicle Networking Division, once elaborated on the importance of in-car entertainment systems:
First, smart cars are profoundly changing the architecture of traditional cars. In traditional cars, hardware costs account for 85%, and software and content account for 15%. Today, content and software account for 60 percent, and hardware is down to 40 percent.
Secondly, smart cars will change cars from travel tools to IoT nodes, and the traditional car ecology cannot adapt to changes in the automotive industry. The new in-car entertainment system is a priority.
In making each moving car a mobile data generator, Zhiji Automobile's approach is quite ingenious.
Zhiji Automobile will take the equity income of 4.9% of the founding round of investment as the endorsement, issue 300 million "rough stones", map the asset income and dividends corresponding to the equity, and establish a user rights platform CSOP (Customer Share Option Plan), so that every Zhiji car owner can obtain corresponding rights and interests by contributing his own data.
Specifically, there are two ways to obtain "rough": the first is cultivation mining, where users participate in co-creation activities organized by Zhiji official organizations, or complete interactive tasks on the APP, win points "crystals", use a certain number of "crystals" to extract "Zhiji mine boxes", and win "rough" or "rough fragments".
The second is the mining of the program, where the car buyer obtains the "rough stone" based on the authorized "vehicle and driving behavior data" generated by the daily car. From the moment the owner starts driving the vehicle, he turns on the "lilock mining" mode.
From these two ways, Zhiji Automobile established a complete "data grow-out" rough mining link.
"CSOP has a huge appreciation space." Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, said, "If there is no mechanism for underlying reconstruction, it is not worthy of the general trend of this intelligent era." ”
The in-car entertainment system is an important cut in the collection of data, the easiest to reach the user's grasp, and the core lifeblood that the car company wants to firmly grasp from beginning to end.
Since the advent of the first car radio in 1924, the era of in-car entertainment systems has been opened for nearly a hundred years. The intelligent electric vehicle that gets rid of the shackles of the engine and the gearbox has made a full endorsement for the in-car entertainment system to turn the world upside down again,
The in-car entertainment system will complete the transition from the shallow level of "entertainment" to gradually evolve into a high-level artificial intelligence that is more intelligent and more user-friendly, and can interact with people in both directions, and the space in the car will evolve into a "smart cockpit" in the true sense.
Put on YOUR VR glasses, take your hands off the wheel, and watch an immersive skit with your family, the vehicle automatically arrives at the pre-booked Michelin restaurant and then automatically looks for a parking space. This may no longer be a future scene in a science fiction movie, but a car routine in your life.