【Core intelligent driving】Car chip technology plays the protagonist, what signals does CES 2022 release?

In 1967, the first CES kicked off in New York, and more than 100 companies participated in the exhibition: consumer electronics such as radios and black-and-white televisions became a microcosm of CES in the 60s. After more than 50 years of blooming, from radio to video equipment to personal electronic devices in the digital age to various new technologies and new products of game entertainment and audio in the Internet era, CES has become the most prestigious and representative consumer electronics show in the world.

A few years ago, driverless cars debuted at CES, and the world has attracted attention. At this year's CES, the cutting-edge technology of the automotive industry can be described as a transformation and has played a leading role. But unlike the previous tone, product-based CES has been snatched up by "chips" this year. Chip giants have released new products and announced further cooperation with OEMs.

Mobileye, Intel's autonomous driving arm, launches a new EyeQ family of products, including advanced autonomous driving applications for ADAS and L4 levels. Mobileye also announced a partnership with Geely's electric vehicle brand, Extreme Kr, to create an L4-level consumer-grade smart electric vehicle, scheduled to launch in 2024, equipped with six EyeQ 5 chips and using Mobileye map data. Ford and Volkswagen will also begin to use some of Mobileye's map data products.

NVIDIA revealed that domestic car companies such as Xiaopeng, Weilai, and SAIC's Zhiji and Ideal will all use NVIDIA's DRIVE automatic driving platform. In Tier1, The Desai Group will also adopt the platform.

Qualcomm showcased the Snapdragon digital chassis solution at CES, which consists of a complete set of open and scalable cloud connectivity platforms that support the upgrade of next-generation vehicles throughout their lifecycle. At the same time, Qualcomm announced the opening of an engineering software office in Berlin, focusing on supporting European automotive customers with the latest Snapdragon digital chassis advanced technology, and has reached cooperation with companies such as Honda, Volvo, Renault and Alpine Alpine, and Honda's upcoming models, Volvo's upcoming pure electric SUV and Polestar 3 all use the 3rd generation Snapdragon cockpit platform.

NXP has launched two new automotive radar processors for autonomous driving at L2 to L5 levels, which are currently being adopted by 20 OEMs. Sony announced the establishment of Sony Mobility, a company focused on mobility, and also released the first SUV concept car, which is equipped with 40 sensors, including lidar and ultrasonic radar.

CES has always had the significance of a vane, and after the leading enterprises in the chip industry have gathered to launch new products related to intelligent driving, we can clearly feel the great attraction of the new "four modernizations" of automobiles for the chip industry.

In the current software-defined car, the proportion of chips in the cost of the vehicle continues to rise, in the past pay attention to the mechanical structure of the car, after the intelligence, the attributes of the manufacturing part are gradually weakened, replaced by more and more complex, intelligent functions, behind which is also the continuous increase in demand for automotive chips.

As a consumer product, the purchasing power and replacement frequency of the car cannot be compared with the mobile phone, but whether it is a smart cockpit based on digital audio and video or an autonomous driving technology representing the cutting-edge application of artificial intelligence, it undoubtedly needs a chip, or even a chip with super computing power performance to support. Therefore, the importance of chips to cars is self-evident, and it is precisely because of this that the lack of cores that began last year made the automotive industry feel as if it was experiencing a cold winter.

Nowadays, consumers can buy not only a car, but also a mobile computer, the car can give consumers an experience far more than a transportation tool so simple, with the continuous popularity of 5G networks, OTA as the mainstream way of car software upgrades, so that consumers can continue to experience more and newer functions as long as they sit in the car, which is impossible to achieve in the previous traditional car.

Similarly, automakers are selling more than just a car, not just cars, and the software-backed digital services behind them are tearing open another giant mouth, just like Apple, which has been selling products for many years, has begun to focus on digital services, and for the auto industry, everything has just begun.

From this point of view, the development of the automobile industry may be taking a similar path to mobile phones.

CICC's outlook for 2022 mentioned that the trend of double carbon is deepening, and the boom in the electric vehicle industry chain and new energy in 2022 may spread to related fields such as power grids and auto parts. CICC believes that China's auto parts industry may be walking out of a similar path in China's mobile phone industry chain after 2010. The advantages of China's manufacturing industry based on the large domestic demand market are stepping out of the road of industrial upgrading, and gradually from the previous "three lows and one weak" characteristics are moving towards the characteristics of "three highs and one strong".

The diversification of the automobile industry and the huge scale of demand for chips are destined to bring a lot of space to the industrial chain, and the lack of cores has made car companies begin to re-examine their supply chains, and the original century-old solidified system of the automobile industry is gradually transforming into a new format. Although the general automobile supply system will not become unrecognizable, the upward integration trend is obvious, the connection between automakers and the bottom parts suppliers will become closer, and China's auto chip manufacturers will also have more opportunities to break into the supply chain of car companies.

The manufacturing process is still a high wall of "cross-border" car manufacturing, and it is also the biggest difference from the development process of mobile phones, and the automobile industry will undoubtedly draw a new blueprint, but no matter what, the journey of automotive electronics has been on the road.

(Proofreading/Sharon)