In the past two days, Huawei's affairs have been particularly lively.
According to Manager Magazine, Volkswagen is in talks with Huawei to buy the self-driving division, while the report quoted sources as saying that Huawei's negotiations with Volkswagen have been going on for months and that the deal could be worth billions of euros.
A stone startled a thousand waves, and some melon-eating masses made up their minds to guess that "Huawei can't hold back", "Huawei gave up automatic driving" and other voices came out.
However, in response to the above news, Volkswagen and Huawei both said that they would not comment.
Confusing "acquisitions"
In fact, the "scandal" between Volkswagen and Huawei's autonomous driving department has long been rumored.
In October last year, it was reported that Huawei planned to form a joint venture with global auto giant Volkswagen Group to develop autonomous driving technology. Funded by the Volkswagen Group and becoming the controlling party of the joint venture, Huawei mainly provides technical IP, including software technologies such as automatic driving and Huawei's chip IP.
In December 2021, Caijing reported that the cooperation between Huawei and Volkswagen on the autonomous driving business was about to be finalized. Huawei will transfer some of its autonomous driving business capabilities to Volkswagen, including some teams including Su Zhen.
On January 11 this year, Volkswagen China CEO Feng Sihan publicly stated that Volkswagen and Huawei did have relevant discussions on the joint venture company for autonomous driving, but there is no confirmable news.
Therefore, now that "Volkswagen has acquired Huawei's entire autonomous driving business", it seems that there is nothing wrong with it.
But if we go back to the original source of the news, the truth about the "acquisition" may not be what we see.
It is understood that the "Volkswagen acquisition of Huawei's autonomous driving business" news comes from a reuters Chinese report, the original text is: "According to Manager Magazin reported on Thursday, German Volkswagen is in talks with China's Huawei company to acquire Huawei's autonomous driving division for billions of euros." Manager Magazine quoted insider sources as saying that the group's top brass had been negotiating the deal for months, which also involved a technical system that Volkswagen was not good at. ”
From the original text of the reuters Chinese version, there is no problem that "Volkswagen spent tens of billions to acquire Huawei's autonomous driving business". However, the original article of Manager Magazin may not have meant that.
The original article of manager Magazin mentions, "Volkswagen erw gt die bernahme einer auf autonomes Fahren spezialisierten Einheit des chinesischen Techkonzerns Huawei." ”
What this means is that Volkswagen is considering acquiring a business unit specializing in autonomous driving from Chinese technology company Huawei.
The point is that it is a relatively independent team in Huawei's autonomous driving business, and it does not mean that it is Huawei's entire autonomous driving business. It may be just an independent R&D team in Germany, or it may be just a small branch of Huawei's self-driving business. This is also evidenced by another sentence in the original text.
Manager Magazin also mentions, "Die Huawei-Tochter besch ftige 700 Mitarbeiter, darunter seien rund 50 Spezialisten." ”
This sentence refers to the target of the negotiated acquisition, that is, huawei's autonomous driving business unit, with a total of 700 employees, of which 50 are experts.
According to huawei's previously announced news, in 2021, Huawei's automotive BU R&D team will exceed 5,000 people, of which more than 2,000 will be autonomous driving teams. Then 50 of the 700 employees, compared with the autonomous driving research and development team of Huawei AutoMOTIVE BU, is about one-third of the scale, which is far from the same.
Therefore, from these two points, Volkswagen's acquisition of Huawei's autonomous driving business is "exaggerated", and the credibility is higher that "Volkswagen will buy a team of Huawei's autonomous driving business".
In addition, according to the available information, Volkswagen's acquisition is most likely the ADS team belonging to huawei's car BU, and the former leader of the team is Su Zhen.
However, in terms of the ambiguous reply of Huawei and Volkswagen's "no comment", there is no more information about the acquisition.
A "win-win" situation
The author believes that in fact, whether Volkswagen acquires the Huawei ADS team or the two sides establish a joint venture, it is a win-win choice for both parties.
For Huawei, due to multiple rounds of U.S. sanctions, Huawei has now shifted its main focus from the mobile phone business to the automobile business. However, Huawei has repeatedly emphasized not to build cars, but to focus on ICT technology, becoming a supplier of automotive incremental components for intelligent networking, helping car companies to "build" cars and build "good cars". According to Huawei's vision, there are two business models for participating in the automotive business:
1. Huawei, as a parts/technology supplier, sells parts and technical solutions to vehicle companies as a traditional Tier 1/2, i.e., a first- and second-tier supplier;
2. Huawei Inside, applying Huawei's full-stack intelligent car solutions to products, jointly defining and jointly developing with partners to create a brand.
Among them, the Huawei Inside model, which is rumored to be Chen Hong's "handing over the soul to Huawei" model, has chosen such a path in China, such a path as BEIC Polar Fox, Avita and GAC, as well as an overseas car company that is temporarily kept secret. However, from the overall situation of domestic partners at present, whether it is data support or ecological profitability, Huawei seems to be difficult to obtain in a short period of time.
Therefore, if Volkswagen can successfully acquire one of Huawei's independent autonomous driving teams, it will undoubtedly bring another model for the development of Huawei's autonomous driving business - from technical cooperation and parts output to the output of technical teams.
In this way, Huawei can get more high-quality partners on the one hand, and give full play to its technical advantages, on the other hand, it can also let other car companies grasp their "soul" without worrying about being stuck in the core technology.
As for Volkswagen, its automotive software technology has reached the point of thirst.
As the head of Volkswagen, Herbert Diess made no secret of his admiration for Tesla. Behind it is his judgment on the future of car companies, "What really changes the game is software and autonomous driving technology." ”
So Diess, on the one hand, carried out drastic reforms within the Volkswagen Group and established a software subsidiary Cariad; on the other hand, Volkswagen Cariad also reached a partnership with Bosch, an international auto parts supplier, and the two sides issued a joint statement announcing that they would cooperate in the development of autonomous driving software.
At the same time, Volkswagen co-invested in Argo, a self-driving startup with Ford in the United States, and in 2018, it also invested in FDTech, a high-tech company specializing in driverless research in Germany. Similarly, for the Chinese market, Volkswagen also needs to find a partner who understands localization better.
Obviously, Huawei is the best partner, and Volkswagen has a long history of cooperation with Huawei in autonomous driving.
On July 10, 2018, Audi and Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation in Berlin, which involves in-depth cooperation in the field of intelligent and connected vehicles to promote the development of autonomous driving and digital services. In October of the same year, Huawei and Audi officially announced further cooperation plans in the field of intelligent and connected vehicles, and demonstrated their technologies through the latest Audi Q7.
What's more interesting is that CARIAD will also have a team in Shanghai that focuses on autonomous driving research and development, and most of Huawei's autonomous driving department talents are also concentrated in Shanghai.
Earlier, Volkswagen China CEO Feng Sihan also made it clear in an interview with the media, "In China, we must cooperate with strong local Chinese companies." For example, we have also worked closely with a sensor technology company in China, which may be used in future autonomous driving technology. Huawei is a very strong Chinese technology company, and we will always maintain communication with Huawei. ”
Therefore, the cooperation between Volkswagen and Huawei can be said to be a "match made in heaven".
Write at the end:
Coinciding with the unprecedented changes in a century, the transformation of the automotive industry is on the verge of erupting, and major auto brands are also actively preparing for the "war", competing to seize the commanding heights of technology, bottom, application and the value of the whole supply chain, especially in the field of autonomous driving.
Compared with the new forces of car manufacturing, traditional car companies have obvious shortcomings in the field of automatic driving, and it is difficult for them to emulate the self-sufficiency of new forces such as Tesla. Therefore, traditional car companies are increasingly inclined to cooperate with autonomous driving technology companies to make up for their shortcomings in automatic driving.
Therefore, in the near future, we will see more and more traditional car companies and autonomous driving companies deeply tied. As giants of their respective industries, Volkswagen and Huawei, this time is to give everyone a sample.