Under the continuous fermentation of the epidemic, self-driving has become a popular way of travel. In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, people pay more attention to power performance; in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, in addition to endurance, the intelligent configuration and functional experience of the car cockpit have increasingly become important factors affecting consumers' car purchase.
Therefore, the intelligent cockpit has gradually developed into an important battlefield for brand differentiation competition. Whether the car is easy to use and how to use it depends on a high-performance application processor.
Last year, Jidu Automobile announced that its first mass-produced model will be equipped with Qualcomm SA8295P chips (the 4th generation Snapdragon cockpit supreme platform, hereinafter referred to as the 8295 chips). This is the world's first 5nm smart cockpit chip, which has been widely discussed for a while. Baidu's car-making achievements have not yet been unveiled, and its configuration has been "preemptive".
Is the more advanced process SoC "required"?
However, considering that the automotive industry has not yet entered the era of fully autonomous driving, the design of the whole vehicle is still biased towards the driver experience, and it has not yet fully focused on immersive content. Based on this consideration, the main hot models on the market generally use cockpit chips with mature process technology, and the newly released models such as WEILAI ET7, Xiaopeng G9 and Jihu Alpha S new HI version use 7nm process SoC chips.
As the process nodes continue to shrink, the more transistors are integrated per unit area of the chip, the more computing power and processing speed will increase simultaneously. According to reports, compared with the previous generation platform, the 4th generation Snapdragon cockpit platform has achieved enhancements in graphics, multimedia, computer vision and AI and other functions. Judging from the information that has been disclosed, Qualcomm's 4th-generation cockpit chip will be installed in 2023.
In an interview with Autolab, Nakul Duggal, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm's automotive division, said qualcomm saw that the automotive industry saw an increasing demand for advanced process technologies and new technologies. This is one reason why Qualcomm has introduced more advanced cockpit chips.
According to Nakul Duggal, automakers are beginning to realize that future technology trends are difficult to predict. The best solution for them is to leave room for redundancy through advanced processes to ensure that the vehicle has enough computing space for OTA upgrades over its full lifecycle.
In addition, this is also in line with Qualcomm's product strategy. Although some people believe that the current development of autonomous driving technology is less than expected, the market activity is relatively weak. But Qualcomm's strategy is to use the advanced process of 5nm, while developing smart cockpit chips as well as autonomous driving chips.
Nakul Duggal said autonomous driving and driver assistance will be the focus of Qualcomm's automotive business in the coming years. This year, models equipped with Qualcomm's 5nm autonomous driving products will be commercialized. Ultra Cruise, GM's next-generation "hands-free" driver assistance system, will also use Qualcomm's 5nm Snapdragon Ride autonomous driving platform to achieve a higher level of autonomous driving capabilities.
How many years will the smart cockpit market mature?
When it comes to Qualcomm, people know more about its remarkable achievements in the field of smartphone application processors. But in fact, Qualcomm is also an industry veteran in the automotive field. Qualcomm initially entered the passenger car market with in-vehicle networking technology; in 2013, it expanded its automotive business layout to the field of information and audio-visual; and in 2016, its related products were commercially used for the first time on Audi and Honda mass production models.
Image credit: Traffic Technology Today
In recent years, in-vehicle infotainment systems have become the fastest growing subsector for smart cockpit penetration. At the same time, based on advanced application processors, the car cockpit has entered a rapid stage of intelligent development, and its differentiated experience has been continuously improved.
Some data predict that the smart cockpit market space will reach the level of 100 billion yuan in 2025, and as for when the market will mature and saturate, the industry has different views. If you refer to the development trend of the smartphone market, after more than a decade of changes and near saturation, smart cars may also usher in the highest growth in the next decade.
In fiscal 2021, Qualcomm Automotive's automotive business revenue was $975 million. At the 2021 Investor Conference, Qualcomm released a similar view that "qualcomm automotive business annual revenue is expected to grow to $3.5 billion in the next 5 years and $8 billion in the next 10 years", as a way to express optimism that the automotive-related business will show strong growth in the next decade.
In this regard, Nakul specifically analyzed the growth momentum from three levels. First, the need for car connectivity functions. Globally, automakers have deployed or are deploying networking features such as 5G, Wi-Fi and V2X; second, automakers pay great attention to the differentiated experience of vehicles and machines, including technological innovations such as cockpit display systems, infotainment systems, HUDs, etc.; on this basis, car companies are further extending their design focus to safety applications, such as driver assistance systems and autonomous driving capabilities that will be achieved in the future.
As of now, more than 25 major automakers around the world have adopted the Snapdragon cockpit platform. The total value of Qualcomm's automotive business orders has also exceeded $13 billion.
The smart cockpit market competition is far more brutal than the smartphone AP?
Whether it is from Qualcomm's current automotive business revenue or the popularity of automotive intelligence, the smart cockpit market is still in its early stage of growth.
In the face of emerging market demands, smart cockpit systems are becoming increasingly complex. A clear trend is that car companies are increasingly looking to integrate more functions into a master SoC.
Xiaopeng P5 smart cockpit
When talking about the future development trend of smart cockpit SoCs, Nakul said that he is optimistic about the cross-domain computing model. Simply put, the underlying SoC, when designed, will not only be used for advanced driver assistance systems, but also support the implementation of the functions of the various sections of the intelligent cockpit.
According to this idea, the number of main control chips on the future car is expected to be less and less. For car companies, it will be a cost-reducing and efficiency-increasing solution; but from the perspective of chip factories, the more functions integrated into the chip, the more complex the design, and the higher the requirements for enterprises.
Therefore, Nakul believes that the field of smart cockpit chips is a highly hierarchical market, and the higher the complexity of the SoC, the higher the barrier to entry. "In the field of higher-end smartphone chips, Qualcomm will have 3 or 4 more important market competitors in the market, and the more advanced smart cockpit chip market may have fewer competitors."
High-end smart cockpit chips require dedicated interfaces, secure application processors, customized software, and the ability to support diverse ecosystems. The richer the functions to be realized by the vehicle, the higher the complexity of the chip. In contrast, the low-end cockpit chip field has a large number of players, which means that the market competition is more brutal.
Write at the end
The smart car market is full of smoke, but new opportunities are born all the time. In the face of opportunities, Internet companies, technology companies, etc. have come down to build cars, and car companies have also begun to try to establish their own chip design departments. Regardless of the success or failure of the result, the development of the intelligent automobile industry will accelerate forward.