Nowadays, as the primary entrance of automobile intelligence, the future development direction of intelligent cockpit is more or the dual role of user demand and scientific and technological progress, and the future must be more intelligent and close to human nature. The product can not only bring users an intelligent driving security and pleasure, but also become a platform for enterprises and users to interact.
At the same time, the main engine factory has also changed from the original product + technology as the center, and gradually shifted around the user experience and operation as the center of the process, especially the development of automotive networking, the car has become an intelligent terminal in life, the future it is an important factor in connecting people and cars, travel scenarios.
Image source: Huayang GM
Automotive development focuses on the cockpit
The early automobile was a pure mechanical product, it evolved from the horse-drawn carriage, and people at that time only felt that it was a representative tool, which was mainly composed of 4 parts: engine, transmission system, chassis, and body.
In the middle of the last century, the car had the prototype of the current cockpit. In the early days, the cockpit only displayed basic driving information, mainly including mechanical instrument panels and on-board radios, walkie-talkies and other equipment, and the operation of these devices was basically in the form of physical buttons. The information that can be provided is only basic information such as vehicle speed, engine speed, water temperature, and oil volume.
With the development of science and technology, the car cockpit has entered the era of cockpit + electronic equipment. Car cockpits began to be equipped with LCD screens, and on-board Bluetooth, navigation, media playback and other equipment were added to the car. The real smart cockpit has been on the rise since 2015. Large-sized central control screens began to become standard, such as some Tesla models, which combined the central control screen with the dashboard. Some models have begun to use HUD displays, streaming media rearview mirrors and a series of auto parts such as electronic attempts.
In recent years, Xiaopeng's car rest mode among the new forces, Weilai's head-up display, and ideal automotive intelligent voice service have emerged in an endless stream. "Interaction" has become a new selling point for the cockpit. Intelligent cockpit interaction includes two parts of interaction outside the cabin and inside the cabin, outside the cabin involves the interaction of vehicle pedestrians, the interaction of vehicles and the interaction of the car environment, and the interaction in the cabin mainly includes multi-modal interaction based on the "five senses", involving the interaction of hardware mechanisms in the cabin such as seats and doors, and the interaction centered on the "screen".
Yuanfeng Technology + SA8155 Intelligent Cockpit; Image source: Yuanfeng Technology
According to the "2022 Intelligent Cockpit Industry Report" of the Gaz Automotive Research Institute, the proportion of consumers who believe that it is important is 88%: assisted driving (L2) accounts for 88%; intelligent networking accounts for 87%; and automatic driving accounts for 80%. The proportion of consumers willing to pay: assisted driving (L2) accounts for 10% to 35%; intelligent networking accounts for 10% to 40%; automatic driving accounts for 15% to 30%. Consumers are willing to pay for each function: assisted driving (L2) 2200-4100 (yuan); intelligent networking 1700-2800 (yuan); autonomous driving 3800-4900 (yuan).
It can be seen from the data that consumers generally recognize the value of assisted driving, intelligent networking and automatic driving related functions, and have a higher willingness to pay for intelligent network functions.
New format Yu new supply chain
Because the intelligent cockpit is an interdisciplinary and diversified product, its industrial and service ecology is more complex. So it's not just traditional OEMs and suppliers competing for smart cockpits. Today, many new car-making forces and technology companies are also invested in the development of intelligent cockpits.
According to the "2021 Intelligent Cockpit Industry Report" of the Gaz Automotive Research Institute, the penetration rate of smart cockpits will increase rapidly around 2020, with the expansion of the screen hardware and chip market. In 2017, the market size of the mainland smart cockpit was about 25.8 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 26% by 2020, and the overall market size will reach 80 billion yuan in 2025 and exceed 100 billion yuan in 2030.
In this context, OEMs will cooperate with algorithm and chip companies, and traditional forces and emerging forces will work together to build intelligence; and will also work with Internet companies to create an ecology and develop various life scenarios based on digitalization.
At the OEM end, Feng Chao, deputy director of the Intelligent Software Center of Dongfeng Motor Technology Center, believes that the current state management of data security is becoming increasingly strict, which has some contradictions with the idea of providing users with personalized services. The national regulations involve the parameters of safety, energy saving, environmental protection and anti-theft, and should be declared to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, so the declaration will have great adjustments to the basic performance of the vehicle, and the main engine factory needs to think about what range can provide users with appropriate needs. This has also become some of the difficulties that Dongfeng Motor actually encounters in the process of developing OTAs, including software upgrade iterations, and also requires continuous discussion and thinking in the industry.
OTAs empower users to operate a new model; Image source: Dongfeng Motor Technology Center
On the software vendor side, Lin Bin, senior technical consultant at Qt China, said Qt's vision is to adapt to a variety of solution architectures to create a complete and unified user experience. Qt adapts to multiple operating systems on the dashboard, and Qt can also be perfectly adapted to developing applications on Android. Similarly, Qt also provides a Qt for MCUs module that runs the Qt UI directly on a low-end microcontroller, based on which to create a Console interface. More critically, all platforms can use the same language uniformly, and the code can be written directly on each platform, which helps developers create a complete and unified user experience cockpit.
QT creates a unified user experience cockpit; Image source: Qt for Android Automotive
On the chip supplier side, EGATON Technology and Core Qing Technology signed strategic cooperation agreements with the industry's leading auto parts ecological partners Desay SV, Neusoft Group and Beidou Zhilian. All parties will create a leading high-end digital cockpit platform around the Dragon Eagle One intelligent cockpit chip (hereinafter referred to as "Dragon Eagle One") and the ECARX Automotive Service Core Universal Operating System-level Software Framework (hereinafter referred to as "EAS Core") to build an advanced cockpit industry ecology. This strategic cooperation will effectively promote the integration and efficiency improvement of upstream and downstream technologies in the industrial chain, help ecological partners and car companies to create more advantageous intelligent cockpit functions and products, and boost the rapid development, iteration and breakthrough of China's automotive intelligent industry.
7nm intelligent cockpit chip Dragon Eagle One; Image source: Yijiatong Technology
Not only are there multi-party competitions, vertical and horizontal, but also identity switching, because it is a new track, many companies not only provide core cockpit software and hardware content as suppliers, but also build cars as OEMs. For example, Huawei and Baidu have gradually switched from the initial status of intelligent and electrified core component suppliers to new forces to build cars. Mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple and Xiaomi are frequently rumored to build cars. More real estate developers such as Evergrande planned the automotive industry, and recently Wang Shi, founder of Vanke Group, is also rumored to step into the automotive industry, at which time the automotive industry chain will be more complicated.
Unity, a cross-platform development engine company, is also involved in car building and won the Software Category Award for a New Supply Chain in October last year for its human-machine interaction (HMI) solution for intelligent and connected vehicles. Even Epic Games revealed plans to open a new office in Detroit, using the Unreal Engine it developed to work more closely with car companies. The particularity of smart cars, there will be more possibilities in the future, can be associated with more enterprises.
Bring together "wisdom" to seek common development
To this day, the development of the intelligent cockpit is still concentrated in the interactive interface and human-computer interaction. In the future, the intelligent cockpit system will continue to show the trend from dispersion to concentration, from independence to integration, the complexity of cockpit software will be further improved, and the cost of software will rise rapidly; the on-board display collection 3D and AR technology will be more bright; multi-mode interaction and active interaction are also the main directions of human-computer interaction in the future. This will also show a cross-border extension for the entire industrial chain, and the boundary between OEMs and suppliers will continue to be broken; there will be more in-depth cooperation between the four major forces; the differentiation of user needs and competition will also show differentiation.
Behind the hundred flowers of the intelligent cockpit market may also be a dark tide, laws and policies, supply chain models, etc. need to be perfected and meticulous, the so-called ascent can look far, and small trend thinking should stand higher than the outlet. Based on this, we see the need to develop cockpit hardware and software capabilities and the opportunity for automotive electronics Tier1 to usher in a rotation of bookmakers.
Gaz Auto has always stood at the forefront of the development of the industry, and the "Golden Series Award" initiated by Gaz aims to "discover good companies and promote good technologies", and revolves around the theme of "Top 100 New Supply Chains of Chinese Automobiles". Focus on automatic driving, intelligent cockpit, software, chips, powertrain electrification, thermal management, body and chassis technology, interior and exterior, environmental protection and lightweight and new materials and service providers ten major sub-sectors, the selection of outstanding enterprises and advanced technology solutions, to the industry inside and outside the industry to show these excellent enterprises and industry leaders, and jointly promote the development and progress of the industry.
The fourth Golden Series Award - 2022 China's top 100 automotive new supply chain is in the declaration data stage, can be registered through the declaration portal, or through the following QR code scanning code registration, the declaration deadline is August 31, welcome to consult the declaration. Synchronizing the first batch of smart cockpit selection is about to launch online voting, so stay tuned!