Text | China Automotive News reporter Wang Pu
Breaking boundaries, embracing and integrating into change with the mentality and pattern of "making openness more open" is becoming an inevitable choice for more and more participants in the automotive industry chain and ecosystem.
At the 2022 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum a month ago, Yu Kai, founder and chief scientist of the local automotive intelligent chip technology company Horizon, announced that it will further open the BPU IP authorization and support some vehicle companies to develop their own chips. It is foreseeable that in such an open model, the development of the whole vehicle will achieve a high degree of coordination of software and hardware systems from chips to operating systems to autonomous driving, and the iteration speed will be significantly improved.
Behind the "generosity" of horizons, what kind of chess game is played? On April 19, Tan Jiehui, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of China Energy Automobile Communication Group, visited Horizon and exchanged views with the top management of Horizon. In the discussion, Yu Kai frankly said: Horizon's goal is to create a new national tide of automotive intelligent chip hard technology.
▲Tan Jiehui, secretary of the party committee, chairman and editor-in-chief of China Energy Automobile Communication Group, participated in the exchange discussion
Large-scale loading of local smart chips is the trend of the times
On April 21, Horizon once again announced the latest cooperation trends with car companies. The partner is BYD, according to the plan of both sides, some of BYD's models will be equipped with Horizon Journey 5 autopilot chips, and BYD models equipped with Horizon Journey 5 will be listed as early as mid-2023. According to the data, as of now, the shipment of Horizon Journey chip has exceeded 1 million pieces, and more than 20 car companies have signed front-loading mass production projects, more than 50 models have been fixed-loaded, and more than 100 ecological partners have also been awarded.
▲Horizon Journey 5 chip
It is worth noting that from Changan UNI-T, Chery Ant, Zhiji Automobile to GAC AION Y, Lantu, Ideal ONE, Great Wall Haval, SAIC Roewe 、...... At present, Horizon's chips are all equipped on more and more independent brand cars. "At present, All of Horizon's automotive smart chip customers are independent brand car companies. In the future, the large-scale loading of local smart chips will be the trend of the times. Yu Kai said.
When intelligent electric vehicles are unstoppable to become the mainstream and focus of the future development of the automobile industry, the deep binding of the two industries of automobiles and smart chips has become the norm. A phenomenon worthy of attention is that in the field of smart chips, including NVIDIA, Mobileye, Qualcomm and other global leading smart chip companies, they have invariably put the most advanced intelligent driving chips on China's own brand cars to complete the first mass production. "No one will doubt that on the transformation track of electrification and intelligence, China is accelerating with the trend of global leadership. From the industry to the market, China has become the core and source of innovation with the highest degree of activity of smart electric vehicles in the world, where global car companies and first-class technology companies gather to compete and cooperate; here, the most advanced electric vehicle technology and the most advanced autonomous driving chips achieve efficient mass production and application. At the same time, the strong demand for smart electric vehicles at the consumer end has also created a good market atmosphere for the accelerated innovation and commercial landing of new technologies. Yu Kai said.
▲The Horizon team had friendly exchanges with the team of China Energy Automobile Communication Group
So, why do local smart chip companies compete? In this regard, Yu Kai judged that from a global perspective, whether it is a multinational head chip technology supply company represented by Nvidia and Qualcomm, or a local intelligent chip company such as Horizon, entering the automotive field is a "novice", so for the technology research and development and innovation of smart car chips, China's local chip companies are not lagging behind. Not only that, for local smart chip companies, it also has a unique home advantage, in China's open market, in the competition with multinational chip companies, including horizons, local chip companies, closer to the vehicle enterprises, closer to the industrial chain, closer to the active market and end consumers. "Of course, this does not mean that China's local smart chip companies are completely victorious, and in the face of opportunities, we are still facing pressure and challenges." The window period of local smart chip companies is very short, my personal judgment is about 3 years, in this window period, local smart chip companies to consolidate technical competitiveness is the key. Yu Kai said.
Open source, openness, collaboration
Increase innovation efficiency in "borderless"
Or cooperate with vehicle companies, or open and empower vehicle enterprises, Horizon is decorated in different ways with different roles and positioning of automotive intelligent chip companies in the industrial chain. But there is only one core: to improve the efficiency of innovation in open source, openness and collaboration, and to support and empower the intelligent transformation of the automotive industry.
"In the field of autonomous driving, the scale and speed of mass production loading is the only criterion for testing the efficiency of innovation. For Horizon, the efficient landing of technological innovation and commercialization is the core advantage. Yu Kai said confidently.
In August 2019, Horizon released China's first vehicle-grade Journey 2 chip, and 10 months later, in June 2020, it achieved front-loading mass production on the Changan UNI T model; in September 2020, Horizon released a new generation of Journey 3 chip, which was installed on the 2021 Ideal ONE after 8 months. Facts have proved that from chip research and development to mass production and loading, horizon speed is getting faster and faster, more and more efficient.
▲During the visit, the person in charge of Horizon gave a technical explanation of the product
Following Journey 2 and Journey 3, Horizon launched the third generation of vehicle-grade chips, Journey 5, in July 2021. Journey 5 has also become the only vehicle intelligent computing platform chip in China that can be obtained and supports rapid mass production; Horizon has also become the only provider in the industry that can cover all-scenario vehicle intelligent chip solutions from L2 to L4. At present, the car companies that have reached the intention of mass production of the first mass production of the Journey 5 chip with Horizon include SAIC Motor, Great Wall Motor, Jiangqi Group, Changan Automobile, BYD, Nezha Automobile, Lantu Automobile and other car group groups and new forces of head car manufacturing.
It is worth noting that Horizon and the "old partner" Ideal Car have also reached a pre-research cooperation based on Journey 5 to accelerate the popularization of high-level autonomous driving functions. More critically, in the in-depth cooperation between Horizon and the ideal car, horizon fully supports the ideal car to achieve full-stack self-research capabilities. It is understood that the 2021 ideal ONE is based on the horizon journey 3 chip to do self-research, the ideal ONE delivered in June 2021 has been equipped with some of the self-research results including the basic ADAS and basic AEB functions, in december 2021 delivered in the model has expanded the NOA navigation assistance driving and complete AEB function, under the empowerment of horizon, the ideal car self-research ability and efficiency improvement by leaps and bounds. With its cooperation with Horizon, Ideal Auto has also become the third car brand to have noA and AEB full-stack self-development capabilities after Tesla and Xiaopeng Motors.
Opening up is the general trend of industrial development. Horizon promises to further open up, open BPU IP authorization to automakers, provide software kits, chip reference designs and technical support, help some car companies develop their own chips, improve the efficiency of innovation and research and development, and will launch TogetherOS, an open source real-time operating system combined with The Journey 5 chip, and jointly build an in-vehicle OS ecosystem with partners. This means that in the near future, the software and hardware collaboration and open source and open innovation ecology developed by intelligent car technology will be sublimated to a new realm. "Horizon hopes to create an open source and open innovation ecosystem, realized in 'no boundaries', 'you have me, I have you', mutual influence, mutual evolution." With intelligent chips and operating systems as the digital base of smart cars, we will travel with industry partners and be open and win-win. Yu Kai said.
In fact, what the reporter is most interested in is to create a new national tide of smart chip hard technology, where is the bottom line of the horizon?
▲The two teams took a group photo to commemorate the occasion
"Horizon is no slower than the 'international players' in the track of the autopilot chip, and we are more willing to compete with real technical strength in the same stage." Yu Kai said, "Horizon focuses more on brand building, rather than blindly taking the cost-effective route, we hope to create a new national tide of China's hard technology, to achieve the synergy of Chinese brand technology strength and brand value, it is certain that Horizon has such technical confidence." ”
When talking about whether the smart chips of Chinese brands are expected to be equipped with more and more foreign brand cars in the future, Yu Kai revealed that this is the future plan of Horizon. "Horizon's smart chips must be geared towards global auto brands." He said.
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Produced by | China Energy News (ID:cnenergy)
Trainee Editor | Li Zemin
Editor-in-charge | Yan Zhiqiang