The "cake" of the smart car market is tempting for most technology giants.
A few days ago, according to the information of the enterprise investigation, Vivo Mobile Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "vivo") disclosed a patent information called "automatic driving method, on-board device, mobile device and on-board electronic equipment".
At present, automakers and mobile phone giants are setting off a wave of cross-border cross-border, vivo's action can not help but attract the attention of the industry, and the discussion on whether to lay out car-making projects has also reappeared.
In the middle of last year, the news about vivo entering the market to build cars was spread like wildfire, according to relevant reports, people familiar with the matter said that OPPO, vivo and small genius three companies will join hands to build cars, led by Duan Yongping, who is known as the "godfather" of Chinese business. At that time, the automotive-related talent recruitment information on OPPO's official website also added some credibility to this news.
However, oppo and vivo have denied this. OPPO insiders said that the statement was "unreliable", while Vivo denied this statement, saying that the three companies have no equity relationship and will not jointly build cars, and Vivo will focus on the main business of smart phones.
Although the official denied the news about the joint construction of the three companies, whether from the perspective of OPPO or vivo, there have been low-key actions in the automotive field since then.
OPPO has already applied for the "OCAR" trademark, and the number of patents related to automatic driving is as high as dozens, and for the investment of automotive supply chain companies, OPPO has also silently invested in more than a dozen, including automotive chip companies. In the eyes of the industry, OPPO's road to car building seems to be only one official announcement.
Compared with OPPO, Vivo's action is obviously more low-key. The mobile phone manufacturer's attempts are more reflected in the field of car networking, which is also a less difficult entry point for mobile phone manufacturers.
In the field of intelligent vehicles, vivo has a layout since 2019 and has established cooperation with Baidu, Great Wall and other enterprises. At the developer conference at the end of 2020, vivo released the Internet of Vehicles brand - Jovi InCar, announcing that the brand aims to work with car manufacturers, car networking service providers, and application developers to build a unified open ecology inside and outside the car.
At the 2021 Vivo Developer Conference, Jovi InCar upgraded version 2.0. According to vivo, Jovi InCar2.0 supports multi-screen linkage, car home interconnection 2.0, smart car key and other functions, and has cooperated with 80+ car brands. Two months ago, vivo, oppo and xiaomi led the smart car open alliance ICCOA, which was jointly participated by Changan Automobile, Geely Holdings, SAIC Motor, Yuanfeng Technology, Zhongke Chuangda, and China Automobile Academy Intelligent Networking.
The layout of mobile phone brands in the field of internet of vehicles is not only vivo, the launch of car networking products may be only the strategy of mobile phone manufacturers to some extent, which is different from the car manufacturing in the strict sense.
But the development of autonomous driving technology may be a step further for mobile phone manufacturers to get involved in the field of car manufacturing. In addition, Vivo's patent of "vehicle reservation method and device" published in July last year is also reminiscent.
Last November, it was reported that OPPO, realme and OnePlus were working on launching electric vehicles in India, with launches expected at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. With the support of OPPO's frequent actions, this news is considered to have a high degree of credibility by the industry. Vivo was also revealed shortly after filing a new trademark application for Class 12 in India. It is reported that the Class 12 trademark includes all kinds of electric vehicles, such as electric vehicles, battery motorcycles, driverless cars, bicycles, aircraft and drones. However, the above information has not been officially confirmed.
With a few patent information, it is not possible to make a conclusion about Vivo's large-scale entry into the car market at present, but it can be concluded that Vivo is making more explorations of the smart car market.