Performance continued to decline, seeking diversified development, Canon entered the automotive industry

After Sony, another camera giant announced its entry into the automotive industry.

Recently, a number of media reported that the open source autonomous driving company Tier IV and Canon signed a memorandum of cooperation, the two sides will jointly develop L4 level autonomous driving technology, and will produce special in-vehicle cameras for Tier IV. In addition, Canon will also be involved in the development of a driving monitoring system (DMS), which can use cameras to monitor driver behavior in real time, and realize a variety of auxiliary driving functions such as fatigue driving reminders.

Continuous decline in performance, seeking transformation

Judging from the current market situation, the popularity of automatic driving is getting higher and higher, and many cities have introduced relevant policies, which has also made many companies enter this field. Moreover, as a world-renowned camera manufacturer, Canon is not to blame for entering the automotive field by providing cameras and sensors for autonomous driving solutions.

In terms of technology, in December last year, Canon announced the development of a new sensor SPAD (single photon avalanche diode) that can also shoot color images in high quality in dark environments. The image sensor has a light receiving element of 3.2 megapixels and will be mass-produced at the Kawasaki Plant from the second half of 2022 and will be equipped with security monitoring for Canon production. At the same time, in terms of cross-border, Canon has also had many cases over the years. Since 2013, Canon has frequently entered different fields in order to find new ways out. That year, Canon acquired the Dutch company Ossey and expanded its commercial printing business; in 2014, Canon acquired the video management software company Maishitong; in 2015, it acquired the surveillance camera manufacturer Axis; and in 2016, it acquired Toshiba Medical Equipment Company to enter the medical device industry.

In addition, the decline in core business development is also a major factor in Canon's entry into the automotive industry. According to the financial report, Canon's net sales have declined for three consecutive years, from 4 trillion yen in 2017 to 3.2 trillion yen in 2020, and operating profit has also experienced two consecutive years of decline, from 342.5 billion yen in 2018 to 110.5 billion yen in 2020. In terms of camera shipments, it also fell from 115.524 million units in 2011 to less than 9 million units in 2020.

In the case of declining profits, on January 12, Canon Zhuhai Co., Ltd. issued an announcement that due to the sharp shrinkage of the global camera market and the impact of the epidemic, the company's operations are facing unprecedented difficulties / the headquarters is adjusting the overall operating structure of the group and decided to terminate the company's production. In this context, Canon's search for diversified development channels is also paving the way for the future. Industry insiders said that traditional enterprises should play their due role in this wave of intelligent and technological new transportation system, rather than as a hardware supplier, but also to participate in the research and development of the entire market. This transformation of Canon is a good thing. In this cooperation with autonomous driving companies, Canon can combine its own vision system and the entire technology operation, and the effect is definitely 1 plus 1 is greater than 2.

The possibility of car building is not excluded

Although Canon's entry into the automotive field is not direct car manufacturing, it does not rule out the possibility of future car manufacturing.

According to the information signed, Canon is jointly developing autonomous driving technology with the autonomous driving company Tier IV. According to public information, Tier IV was founded in December 2015 as a start-up from Japan focused on autonomous driving technology, and is also a member of the HON Group MIH Electric Vehicle Alliance, which is the parent company of Foxconn.

Foxconn released the MIH electric modular platform at the end of 2020. According to the official, the platform will provide car companies with key electric vehicle parts production services, suitable for all brands and models. Moreover, the MIH platform can also provide three cooperation models, including oem of the vehicle, provision of chassis and appearance, and sale of platform technology to car companies. In order to give full play to the advantages of the MIH platform, Foxconn established the MIH Alliance. It is understood that the current MIH alliance members have reached 1982, distributed in 48 countries and regions around the world. Among them, NINGDE times, BYD Electronics, etc. are all miH members.

Although Foxconn released three new cars in October 2021, Liu Yangwei, chairman of Hon Hai Precision, said: "Foxconn will not build its own electric vehicle brand, it hopes to become the Android of the electric vehicle industry, open source and open. Therefore, some insiders have analyzed that canon and Tier IV can enhance their own technology research and development to enter the automotive field. Foxconn can provide platform technology, if Canon wants to build its own car in the future, it can fully cooperate with Foxconn in depth, use their platform, and build its own car brand.

As carbon neutrality and carbon peaking become a topic of increasing concern in the world, the trend of automobile electrification will become mainstream, which has also led to increasing competition in the automobile market, but it is undeniable that there are still many dividends in the automobile market. In the industry's view, Canon's entry into the automotive industry can even be described as a "dimensionality reduction blow" to some extent, after all, Canon has a strong optical strength, which has a very important role in promoting the assisted driving system based on visual perception. If you can gain a firm foothold in the autonomous driving industry, it will also be of great help to Canon's subsequent layout.

An analyst from a technology company said: "Although the development of new energy vehicles has entered the fast lane, there are still huge business opportunities in some key technology areas, especially in automatic driving. Therefore, Canon cut into the automotive field, can use its own accumulated advantages in cameras, and can evolve to the next generation through practical applications. ”

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping