Volkswagen has been in talks with Huawei for the past few months to buy Huawei's autonomous driving division, so will Volkswagen succeed?
Let me first say my judgment and conclusion, that Huawei will not let Volkswagen buy its own autonomous driving division, but the two sides will cooperate more closely. What is my theoretical basis for this conclusion? There are mainly the following aspects.
First of all, the autonomous driving technology of Chinese brands is ahead of foreign countries
Chinese car brands are certainly ahead of foreign companies in terms of the degree of advanced self-driving technology on China's roads. This is mainly analyzed from three dimensions, the first 5G communication, the second is a high-precision map, and the third is the actual road test.
We all know that the most powerful 5G communication technology in China now is Huawei, so in addition to Huawei, there are actually some other companies in China that have some 5G technology. In the future, China will definitely use self-developed 5G communication technology instead of foreign technology, so Chinese companies have great advantages in 5G communication. 5G communication is the most basic technology for autonomous driving in the future.
The second aspect is high-precision maps, in this regard, Chinese companies, such as AutoNavi and Baidu are relatively leading, and some foreign companies simply do not have the way to obtain China's high-precision maps, because some of the high-precision maps are involved in state secrets, can not be easily disclosed with foreign companies, so in this regard, Chinese companies must have a leading advantage over foreign companies.
The third is the actual road test, the real realization of autonomous driving technology, the premise is to go through continuous road testing, whose road test time is longer, then whose technology will become more and more mature. Moreover, many local cities in China are different, such as the road conditions in Beijing, the road conditions in Shanghai, and the road conditions in Chongqing are completely different, so the actual road tests should be carried out in different cities. Now China has issued licenses to many companies that can conduct road tests, including Baidu, which we are familiar with. Therefore, in this regard, Chinese enterprises have a first-mover advantage.
So the conclusion is that in terms of self-driving car technology, Chinese brands are definitely better than foreign brands. Because foreign car brands, whether it is 5G communication, or high-definition maps, or actual road tests, are far inferior to Chinese brands. Not to mention that there is no car brand that can have these three technical advantages at the same time.
So as far as Volkswagen is concerned, it is very anxious at the moment. Volkswagen also knows that autonomous driving is a development direction in the future, and it has a lot of money in its own hands, so the easiest way to do it in the Chinese market is to buy a company with these technical strengths and then serve itself.
In the second aspect, why does Huawei not let volkswagen easily acquire it?
Huawei, as we all know, has been sanctioned by foreign countries in the field of chips, so now it has to seek new breakthroughs. Among them, an important technological breakthrough found by Huawei is the automotive field. On the one hand, because the Chinese auto market is large enough, China is now the world's largest auto market. It is also the world's largest new energy vehicle market.
On the other hand, it is because Huawei itself has 5G technology, as well as Huawei's own maps. In addition, as a Chinese company to carry out actual road tests in the local area, there are also many conveniences, so I just said that the three aspects of determining whether the automatic driving technology is leading or not, in fact, Huawei is relatively leading, it has innate conditions.
The third party is the current car chip, not as advanced as mobile phone chip technology, and most of the high-end chips of smart phones are now 5 nanometers. Most of the chips on the car system are 14 nanometers, and if it is 7 nanometers, it is very advanced. So Huawei is now sanctioned for high-end mobile phone chips, but the car chip has not yet been sanctioned, so from Huawei's point of view, he definitely wants to put automatic driving technology himself and do the first in the industry. Then through technology to cooperate with all the car manufacturers. to jointly promote the development of autonomous driving technology, rather than serving a car brand.
So no matter how rich Volkswagen is, no matter how high the acquisition price of Volkswagen is, Huawei will not easily sell the autonomous driving department.
And if we look at it from a higher perspective, Huawei does not let Volkswagen buy itself, in fact, it is also to protect our high-end technology in China from being leaked. After all, our 5G communication technology is still a state secret involved in China's high-precision maps. I think it is necessary to prevent foreign infiltration.
So the best state is that Huawei has these technologies itself, and then in the future, through cooperation with automakers. Put these technologies on the car and give the car the ability to drive.