Cao Bin, general manager of Neusoft Ruichi, deeply analyzed the underlying logic of "software-defined automobile"

What is the essence of the so-called subversive revolution of new cars? How should software-defined cars be understood? Is the automotive software ecosystem a forest or a prairie? How hard is it to upgrade OTAs and the like across time and multiple models? How do you build a software architecture that can detach from a specific vehicle model? Recently, Cao Bin, general manager of Neusoft Ruichi Automotive Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., deeply analyzed the underlying logic of "software-defined automobile" and "software ecology" in the program "Zhao Fuquan Research Institute", and shared his unique views on the industry.

Image source: Neusoft Ruichi

How to understand "software-defined cars"?

With the new round of scientific and technological revolution, especially the rapid development of digital technology, "software-defined automobile" has become a path that has to be chosen after the development of the automobile industry has reached a certain stage and the product functions have been complex to a certain extent. As Cao Bin said before when talking about related topics, the trend of "software-defined cars" is gradually developing into an inevitable, "like an underwater iceberg, before it was a mountain tip, and now the whole form has been presented in front of everyone." ”

The main language of "software-defined car" is car companies: "software-defined car" refers to the means of determining the main functions and performance of the car, such as changing the drivability of the car by adjusting the relevant software. In this sense, the subject of "software-defined car" is not software, let alone a software company, but always a car company.

Software-defined cars represent two evolutionary directions: one is hardware, that is, how hardware will play a role in the car in the future. The second is software, since the whole vehicle can not rely on hardware to build differentiated automotive products, software naturally plays a greater role. When various hardware assemblies and modules are standardized, a higher level of vehicle intelligence can be achieved through the software running in the central controller, similar to the effect of multiple APPS running on mobile phones.

There are three layers of automotive software: the base layer, the middle layer, and the upper layer application. First, the basic layer software should be connected and interacted with hardware such as chips; second, the middleware will become more and more mature, and combined with the corresponding management tools and adaptation services to eventually form a set of widely used standardized software; third, focus on building upper-level applications and carry out targeted development.

Software needs "sunlight, soil and water": if software is compared to a sapling, sunlight is its application, the more widely used, the more robust the sapling, which is the external driving force for software growth. Soil and water are the organization and development team of the enterprise, the technical Know-how, etc., which is the internal driving force for the growth of software.

Hardware standardization: the inevitable result of the development of the automotive industry

In the era of "software-defined cars", only through the definition and call of standardized hardware by software can the differences between automotive products be realized, and at the same time, the decoupling of software and hardware can fully highlight the value of "software-defined cars". To this end, the entire industry should reach a consensus as soon as possible, work together in the direction of soft and hard decoupling, and strive to form a clearer and finer industrial division of labor.

Soft and hard decoupling is an inevitable trend: the purpose of software and hardware decoupling is to allow suppliers' software and hardware development work to synchronize with the vehicle development work of car companies. Car companies need suppliers to provide standardized hardware decoupled from software, and then based on their own understanding of the car, through software combination and mobilization of different hardware to create unique products.

Hardware standardization helps car companies OTA upgrade: In order to reduce the complexity of OTA upgrades, enterprises must strive to achieve hardware standardization, including the definition of chip characteristics in domain controllers; at the same time, we must build a future-oriented, sustainable hardware architecture platform, so as to provide a basic guarantee for the iterative upgrade of software.

Based on industry consensus, promote ecological construction

As "software-defined vehicles" enter the deep waters, the automotive technology ecosystem will have more participants and innovators, and the division of labor in the industry will become clearer and more intertwined. Only when industry partners collaborate to innovate and jointly build an industrial ecology that integrates soft and hard, can the intelligent networked automobile industry go wider, faster, and farther.

Mobile phone developer ecology is like grassland, car developer ecology is like forest: car developer ecology is a relatively organized ecology composed of enterprises, like a cluster of forests. In contrast, the mobile phone developer ecosystem is like a grassland, with large and small software and a huge number of participants. Therefore, the competition in the forest is more intense than that in the grassland, and it is easier to form a certain order.

Create a "software first" development model: that is, on the vehicle architecture platform, first use software to build a car, the key hardware components of the car have been completely abstracted, becoming an interface that can be called by software; second, based on this, to develop software to control vehicle behavior patterns and key functions; finally, these software and hardware are adapted and debugged in parallel, so as to form different product functions and performance.

Software suppliers will become the "companion" partners of car companies: help car companies build core software teams, design software architectures, jointly explore long-term development plans, jointly promote the decoupling of software and hardware across models and components, build a new software development system for abstract hardware, and form a long-term and stable cooperation model.

At present, in the wave of rapid development of intelligent networked vehicles, Neusoft Ruichi is carrying out intensive layout around software and ecology.

Based on the self-developed basic software platform product NeuSAR and related development tools, NeuSAR and related development tools, Neusoft Ruichi launched the Xingbo integrated domain controller and the universal domain controller to help OEMs achieve rapid development of prototypes, reduce R&D costs and improve the efficiency of functional development. At the same time, neusoft Ruichi's self-developed vehicle-cloud collaborative service platform provides OEMs with full-stack SDV solutions, continues to build a service ecology that integrates vehicles and clouds, comprehensively upgrades technology-driven services, promotes the intelligent ability of the whole vehicle, and improves the driving experience of users.

It can be seen that from technology to ecology, Neusoft Ruichi is carrying out intensive layout around "software", which will undoubtedly further accelerate the practical implementation of the concept of "software-defined vehicles" and help the automobile industry build a new ecology for the development of intelligent vehicles.