OEMs, which have a deep understanding of autonomous driving technology, the market and the entire industry, are grabbing the right to speak in car manufacturing.
Author | Tetsu Ta
Edit | Wen Liang
Recently, Ideal Auto CEO Li Xiang announced at the 8th Electric Vehicle 100 People Conference that he will open source the self-developed AEB algorithm for the J3 chip equipped with ideal ONE. This incident caused Horizon CEO Yu Kai to respond: "This is a very well-patterned act of kindness, and Horizon will actively participate." ”
OEMs that are willing to share their self-developed technology are more than ideal cars. Musk has said that tesla's self-driving technology and all patents are not limited to Tesla cars, and if other OEMs are interested, they can be provided for a fee.
Concepts such as open cooperation and mutual benefit and win-win results seem to have become more prevalent in the automotive industry in recent years, and new forms of combinations have emerged among players in the industry. But the above phenomenon may be just a few ice floes on the surface of the water, which may not be the case in the real automotive industry.
A technology supplier who has served the main engine factory for many years told the new intelligent driving that compared with the past few years, the main engine factory is paying more and more attention to the leading identity in the process of automobile manufacturing, and the control of external supply technology is more stringent.
This may be a recorded turning point in the automotive industry's history, where we try to understand the more authentic relationship between OEMs and supply chains through the appearance of cooperation.
Another possibility of opening up
Maintaining a technological lead and leaving competitors behind is one of the unchanging laws of the business environment, while Tesla and Ideal Automobile disclose related technologies in the cruel competition.
Musk once said in a reply that the development of FSD took Tesla more than 5 years, and few companies can do this. It would be cool if other OEMs were equipped with FSDs, but given the high development costs, Tesla will pay to open up its self-driving technology and patents.
He explains: "When innovation is so fast, patents become useless. What really matters is the speed of innovation. ”
Li Xiang called for passenger cars to be equipped with AEB functions as standard at the recent electric vehicle 100-person meeting, and then there were rumors that ideal cars would open source AEB algorithms.
Relying solely on open source autonomous driving algorithms or code, how much improvement effect does the autonomous driving technology of OEMs have?
Shen Junqiang, CTO of Fortetech, told New Intelligent Driving that the popularity of autonomous driving algorithms or code open source as a technology can allow more users to have a basic understanding. However, although the open source code can provide about 80% of the functionality and performance, the real completion of systematic mass production requires 80% of the research and development time of the entire R&D process to invest 20% of the undisclosed code.
Even if Tesla opens all the technologies and patents to the outside world, it may not be suitable for the product technology of other OEMs, and it cannot be used out of the box.
In the eyes of industry insiders Lin Luo, whether it is an ideal car or Tesla, they claim that the essence of technological openness is actually to serve their own interests.
Tesla opened FSDs to the outside world in order to help FSDs iterate more quickly by collecting road data with a wider range and more complex environments through a larger number of production vehicles. In addition, Tesla can upgrade the autopilot system in the form of OTA and charge users a certain fee, if other brands use FSD, in addition to the licensing fee, may also need to pay Tesla FSD update upgrade fee.
Ideal Car's call for passenger cars to come standard with AEB features, and possibly open-source the algorithm, may be intended to get its AEB into more brand models.
From the perspective of technology suppliers, AEB is a less difficult and technologically mature driving assistance function, and now it has been installed in almost every commercial vehicle on the mainland with the mandatory requirements of the regulations, and its cost is also relatively cheap. Therefore, Lin Luo believes that there is no need for the ideal car to develop its own AEB.
However, Ideal Car still invests a number of manpower to develop AEB that cannot generate more profits for it. In January this year, Ideal Auto's self-developed AEB function ranked first among more than 100 models tested by The Car Emperor.
It is worth noting that there is currently no mandatory requirement for passenger cars to have AEB functions, although the AEB market share of domestic suppliers such as Frettair, Matrix Partners Hengrun, Minieye and other domestic suppliers has increased in recent years, but most of the AEB of domestic passenger cars is provided by foreign Tier 1. Under the trend of frequent global trade frictions, the mainland passenger car AEB may have a situation of foreign technology supply.
Lin Luo judged that in the context of increasing global trade frictions, Li wants to call for passenger cars to be equipped with AEB functions as standard, and may hope that domestic auto brands will adopt domestic self-developed AEB functions, while the domestic OEMs' self-developed AEB functions - ideal AEB will have the opportunity to be applied by more automotive brands.
The above may be the deeper meaning of the surface under which the main engine manufacturer advocates openness.
The right to speak shifts to the main engine factory
If we look at the broader time dimension, the control of technology and parts by the main engine factory is more stringent and in-depth than ever.
A person who has worked with OEMs for many years can clearly feel that OEMs have a deep understanding of autonomous driving technology, the market and the entire industry.
Therefore, when OEMs design driver assistance functions for new models, most of them repeatedly select suitable technology suppliers, and finally define the functions according to their own unique needs, and cooperate with the technology suppliers to complete the work. A few years before the rise of new car-making forces such as Tesla, OEMs mostly cooperated with familiar suppliers to accept more versatile products.
Shen Junqiang introduced that at present, after a small number of OEMs have a certain understanding of automatic driving, they will independently develop subsystems, and then look for technology suppliers to cooperate and improve to develop automatic driving systems with brand characteristics.
In other words, the former OEMs only needed to clarify the functional definition to the supplier and wait for the supplier to find a product that met its needs. Now, OEMs may be more critical of the strength of suppliers and suppliers' products, and the cooperation between the two sides is more inclined to joint development rather than a simple buying and selling relationship.
There are exceptions, of course. Huawei's "Huawei inside" model has been responded to by some OEMs, but there are only three domestic OEMs that are willing to cooperate with Huawei in depth, and the plan has not added new partners a year after the announcement, which shows that the domestic OEMs as a whole are more repulsive to this model.
In addition to controlling autonomous driving technology, OEMs are also looking deep into the supply chain. Among them, the battery is one of the components that the main engine factory is most concerned about.
In the past few years, FAW, Changan and BYD, Weilai and NINGDE Times, Great Wall Motor and Fosun Hi-Tech have established joint ventures around batteries to share supply chain resources.
In addition to the establishment of joint ventures, some companies are even deeply involved in the control of mineral resources. For example, in 2019, Great Wall Motors has invested more than 1 billion yuan in power batteries, successfully built a variety of laboratories, subscribed to the shares of raw material companies, and controlled power battery manufacturing companies.
This phenomenon is not unique in China, and a number of foreign OEMs have also taken similar actions.
In 2019, Ford motor discussed with suppliers of raw materials, processed materials and even mining resources, and did not rule out the possibility of tightening controls in the future.
Three years later, in March 2022, Ford announced that it had adjusted its original plans. Its CEO Jim Farley announced at the conference that it would control the supply chain, including the mines that produce battery materials.
In addition, OEMs such as Volkswagen, General Motors, and Mercedes-Benz produce parts such as motors and batteries through cooperation or acquisitions.
The increasing voice of OEMs in automobile production and manufacturing has made the software and hardware to be integrated decoupled.
Mobileye once advocated the implementation of "algorithm + chip" solutions, but now the number of domestic OEMs it cooperates with is no longer than before. In the new situation, Mobileye separates the algorithm from the chip to meet the needs of some OEMs who only use chips.
On the other hand, Horizon has also recently launched a new cooperation model, which will open up BPU authorization, SOC-level chips and operating systems to some OEMs, helping OEMs develop or self-developed autonomous driving software and hardware systems. According to reports, the development of the whole vehicle in this mode will achieve a high degree of coordination from the chip to the operating system, and then to the software and hardware system of automatic driving, which will greatly improve the iteration speed.
However, even if the participation of OEMs in the development of automobile manufacturing is getting stronger and stronger, it cannot cover the entire chain from raw material production to product manufacturing, and most of the links are still inseparable from the help of suppliers.
The reason for the pattern change
The cooperation between OEMs and suppliers, and even the change in the mode of cooperation, is related to Tesla's promotion of products to the world.
The success of the Tesla model has allowed OEMs to see another possibility for cars: simpler and intelligent car handling, deep involvement in the development and manufacture of automotive software and hardware, skipping Tier 1 and facing Tier 2.
The imitation of new domestic car-making forces and the recognition of their products by users have made the main engine factories also join. The emergence of homogeneous products in batches will lead to visual fatigue of consumers, and creating differentiated products is one of the keys for OEMs to seize the attention of potential consumers and differentiate brands.
Nowadays, consumers emphasize personalization and intelligence, which forces OEMs to abandon cookie-cutter product features and more to cater to the preferences of target users when designing cars. For example, WM Motors emphasizes autonomous parking, and Tesla emphasizes automatic driving.
Therefore, OEMs need to have a deep understanding of technology, market and industry in order to create a characteristic product.
However, in recent years, a variety of factors have been mixed, resulting in a significant increase in the cost of chips and power batteries, and the manufacturing cost of electric vehicles has also increased accordingly, and even greatly affected the production of electric vehicles by OEMs. Recently, due to the instability of the external environment, the supply chain has been broken, and the automobile manufacturing plants of many OEMs around the world have been forced to stop work.
In this case, the solution of some OEMs is to try to go deep into the production and manufacture of raw materials, and even the mining link to ensure stable production of products at a lower cost.
Ford motor vehicles has explained that it has noticed that the mass production of electric vehicles has pushed up the price of mineral resources, and it communicates with raw material suppliers for the purpose of controlling production costs. It is worth noting that Ford Motor has tracked the entire production process of raw materials from mines and smelters to battery factories.
Mercedes-Benz has also said that it is buying raw materials directly from miners to reduce production costs.
In short, the market chases a unique driving experience and a relatively uncontrollable market environment in which the cost of the vehicle is relatively uncontrollable, driving the main engine factory to try to get a stronger voice in cooperation.
Write at the end
In the past, the vertical chain between the OEMs and the suppliers was flattened into a mesh structure, and Tier 2 could be directly connected to the OEMs and worked closely together. In addition, there is also a division of labor and cooperation between OEMs, reaching technical cooperation or forming a technical alliance.
Although the cooperation model of all parties has gradually changed, some OEMs still maintain themselves.
Xavier Mosquet, senior consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, said many manufacturers are still more willing to buy EV technology to avoid the cost and complexity of in-house manufacturing. But Mosquet will take years to determine which approach will succeed and decide whether to make a change.
Like a stone thrown into the water of a lake, the lake will eventually return to calm after ripples from small to large ripples. After continuous exploration and verification, the automotive industry will also mature again.
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