SAIC's car went to sea "evolutionary theory" 丨BWest Finance X Amazon Cloud Technology

On October 27, 2001, a freighter set sail from the port of Tianjin and sailed for Syria. The freighter carried the first passenger cars exported overseas by China, when there were only 10. Twenty years later, China exported 950,000 vehicles in the first half of 2021, up 70 percent from the same period in 2019.

More importantly, today, the sea of China's automobile industry is no longer as simple as simple exports, but also includes overseas factory construction, overseas investment, overseas self-built sales channels and service systems - the influence of China's automobile industry in the global market has gradually emerged.

SAIC's overseas business has pushed Chinese cars to a new stage. As "software-defined cars" become the technical consensus of the global automotive industry, intelligent networked systems are becoming more and more important in consumer car purchase decisions. When a car company talks about going global, it not only sells hardware, but also brings software services to markets around the world.

SAIC motor is a pioneer in this regard. In 2018, it established a company called SAIC Overseas Travel, which is responsible for the intelligent networking services of all saic own brand products in overseas markets, including intelligent in-vehicle systems, user-side apps, and system online updates (OTAs). This move has helped SAIC open up the situation in overseas markets.

"MG ASTOR for 2021 is sold out. Bookings for 2022 are open. ”

At 21:20 on October 21, 2021, a poster with the above content was urgently posted on the official website and social accounts of SAIC India. At this time, just 20 minutes after SAIC MG's ASTOR model opened for pre-order in India, but 5,000 pre-sale places have been sold out, and SAIC India has to temporarily close the pre-sale channel. You know, in 2019, the SAIC MG brand officially entered the Indian market, and in just two years, ASTOR has become its second explosive model.

A car sells well, of course, depends on a full range of product strength, but one of the significant reasons for the success of SAIC MG in India is the intelligent networked on-board system on the car. Behind the hot sales of complete vehicles, how SAIC has developed a software system that meets the needs of the local market can better reflect the new trend of China's automobile industry going overseas.

Market insights behind middle-aged men

The independent operation of the intelligent network connection business as a subsidiary like SAIC is not a routine operation of automobile companies. Generally speaking, the work of intelligent network connection will be responsible for several departments that are not subordinate to each other in the car company, such as the technical engineering department is responsible for the development of the car machine, the information department is responsible for the TSP background development, and most of the mobile phone Apps are responsible for the marketing department. Coordinating the work of these departments may also have a separate network project management team, which basically determines the technical package of these systems according to the established product definition of each model, and hands it over to multiple suppliers in their own departments to develop and deliver.

However, SAIC motor deliberately set up a subsidiary to independently take charge of the intelligent network connection business in overseas markets. Behind this arrangement is the insight into the needs of the overseas automotive market.

Lu Min, assistant general manager of SAIC Overseas Travel, was impressed by what he saw when he first arrived in India. During the six months of being stationed in India, he and his colleagues would go to the local 4S store when they had nothing to do, and it turned out that when many customers came to see the car, they would be accompanied by a middle-aged man of forty or fifty years old, who at first thought that this was the elder of the family to provide a reference for car purchase. But it turned out that they were drivers — and in India, where labor costs are relatively low, it's common for middle-class families to hire full-time drivers.

This phenomenon is not new for car companies that have long cultivated the Indian market, but SAIC Overseas Travel has unearthed a special user demand from this phenomenon - car owners actually want to know where drivers drive their cars except for commuting time. So SAIC Overseas Travel has developed a special feature on its mobile app in India that allows owners to know where their car is in real time, view the car's driving trajectory, and other detailed driving data. This function is based on the cloud-tube-end integrated technology platform of overseas travel, which is not technically difficult, but it suddenly hits the potential audience. "Some consumers are very direct in saying, "On the car alone, maybe I have other options, but the function of your app is too good." Lu Min told CBN magazine.

Similar cases have occurred not only in India, but also in key overseas markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia. SAIC is aware of two important facts: first, SAIC itself and even china's auto industry have led the world in software user experience; second, consumers around the world have a strong demand for the software experience of automobiles, so the above advantages can be fully imported into overseas markets. This also means that as long as you find the differentiated pain points of different markets and react quickly, you can open up the situation and quickly win the market in the competition with established car companies. SAIC's senior management also regards intelligent networking technology as an important strategy for overseas business.

Advance like a startup

However, it is easier said than done, and to achieve this goal, it is not simply to copy the domestic system and translate the language and text, but it is necessary to make the on-board system truly meet the needs of the local market.

However, SAIC's overseas business is distributed around the world, dozens of individual markets of different sizes are very different, if you do customized development for each market, cost and efficiency are not cost-effective, how to find a balance in this process is also very important.

In this case, the independently operated SAIC Overseas Travel Company highlights its importance. Its members come from inside and outside SAIC, and many are senior experts who have been engaged in intelligent networking for more than ten years. At the same time, the company's management structure is very flat, and the management will even participate in the development of front-line technology. Compared with one department in a car company, independent companies can respond more efficiently to complex needs.

With the support of SAIC Motor, SAIC Overseas Travel can eliminate the complicated processes of many large enterprises, introduce new development equipment and technologies at a faster speed, and quickly iterate and produce rapid results. A team that focuses on intelligent networking can also prioritize with a more professional perspective, eliminating unnecessary waste of time.

At present, SAIC Motor's overseas travel team is only more than 100 people, and the annual throughput of various needs is about 2,000. The same team size, if it is a department within the car company, may not even achieve this half of the efficiency. At present, SAIC Overseas Travel has achieved breakeven.

"In recent years, SAIC motor has become more and more supportive of its innovative enterprises, and in such a soil, overseas travel companies can develop." Lu Min said.

In addition to improving efficiency, SAIC Overseas Travel has more room for innovation. For example, the aforementioned pre-sale of 5,000 MG ASTORs in 20 minutes, its most distinctive configuration, is the voice robot above the center console. This product suddenly established the image of the car in the minds of consumers. The configuration of this combination of software and hardware is independently developed by SAIC Overseas Travel.

Amazon Cloud Technology is a strong backing

The flexible mechanism and innovative atmosphere have enabled SAIC Overseas Travel to grow rapidly within 3 years of its establishment. Of course, SAIC's strategic intention to open up overseas markets through intelligent networking technology has been initially realized, and it also relies on close cooperation with partners. Amazon Cloud Technology is one of the representatives.

At present, the intelligent network connection system of SAIC's overseas business adopts the overall solution of Amazon Cloud Technology. As the car becomes more and more of an intelligent terminal, always-on, real-time updates have become the standard for a new generation of smart cars. Behind this, solid and reliable cloud services are an important support base. The first thing to solve the problem of market dispersion and extensive coverage of SAIC Overseas Travel is to rely on the infrastructure covered by Amazon Cloud Technology to achieve efficient interconnection of vehicles around the world, and then through its one-stop data service, the vehicle collection data can flow freely and integrate in the cloud, and release the value of data through intelligent analysis tools to achieve driving behavior analysis, remote status check, remote control, vehicle remote positioning service, etc.

Of course, in addition to leading technology, the response speed and efficiency of Amazon Cloud Technology's technical support team are also important factors. "This is especially important for automotive products, a video site may tolerate 10 minutes of downtime, but a moving car is absolutely not." Lu Min said, "This requires that the failure rate of cloud services should be low and low, even if there is a problem in extreme cases, it must be able to respond in a timely manner, and Amazon Cloud Technology is very good in this regard." ”

For SAIC's overseas business, which has a global business and is becoming more and more extensive, a reliable and well-established global partner can greatly improve efficiency, which is also reflected in the cooperation with Amazon's other business systems, such as in MG ASTOR's voice robot project, Amazon's voice interaction technology Alexa is also involved in cooperation, and can seamlessly connect with the intelligent network system built on the cloud. It is worth mentioning that in this project, in addition to the cooperation between SAIC and Amazon, there are also many companies' technology integration, which is not common nowadays, and eventually forms a win-win situation.

SAIC is also exploring more possibilities with Amazon. This includes more integration with Amazon's voice interaction technology Alexa, such as connecting in-vehicle systems, mobile apps and Amazon's smart home. These discussions have even been at the forefront of the entire industry.

With the advent of the era of Internet of Everything, the development of China's automobile industry in the intelligent network has allowed cars to go to sea from the earliest sales of a hardware to provide a complete set of software and hardware interconnection services, which also helps Chinese cars to take the lead in the competition in the global market. But to truly turn this picture into reality, we need to work with a more open mind with technologically advanced, broad-based, and responsive global partners. In this regard, the cooperation between Amazon Cloud Technology and SAIC Overseas Travel provides a perfect reference model.