The conclusion that the second half of the transformation of the automobile industry is intelligent seems to be equally applicable to the world's traditional giant car companies, but the conversion speed of the competitive home field is obviously much faster.
Recently, Mercedes-Benz announced that it will offer the Drive Pilot system (L3 level autonomous driving system) as an optional feature on S-class and EQS models from May 17, and models equipped with this function will be sold in the German market. In addition, Mercedes-Benz announced that for models equipped with Drive Pilot functions, when the driver turns on the advanced driving assistance function, Mercedes-Benz will bear legal responsibility for the operation of the car.
Mercedes-Benz's official announcement is confident, and the luxury car company said that the next step is to strive to obtain certification and sell the self-driving system in the United States by the end of the year.
Mercedes-Benz's old rival BMW is also stepping up the landing process of the L3's automatic driving function. Recently, the BMW Group announced that it will expand its cooperation with Ansys in the United States, and the two sides will jointly develop and develop autonomous driving simulation software, and BMW motor vehicles said that through cooperation with Ansys, BMW will become one of the first car manufacturers to provide L3 level autonomous driving functions to consumers.
In addition to Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Volkswagen Group, the parent company of another BBA brand Audi, also recently announced the latest layout of autonomous driving technology, saying that it will use Qualcomm System-on-Chip (SoC) to achieve assisted driving and up to L4 level of autonomous driving functions.
After concentrating on electrification since last year, multinational car companies have quickly begun to compete in the field of intelligence, quietly opening a competition on autonomous driving technology.
The left hand is electrified, the right hand is intelligent
In fact, in a strict sense, in the new energy transformation of traditional car giants such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, it is not like that of domestic new energy vehicle companies, and has clear boundaries to distinguish between the electrification stage and the intelligent stage.
Since 2021, mercedes-benz, BMW and other traditional car companies have successively announced the 2030 electrification transformation strategy. At that time, driven by the rapid development of Tesla, the head of electric vehicles, and China's new energy market, the electrification of the global automotive industry was already in full swing, and the response of Mercedes-Benz was not rapid.
In the face of the general trend of industrial change, multinational car companies are very determined, but also invested a lot of money and energy, and the already hot auto revolution has made the giants realize that what they have to do now is not only to catch up with electrification, but also to be vigilant that they can no longer become backwards in the smart car market. In a transformation strategy with ambitious goals, car companies have made plans for software technology while laying out the electrification process.
The Volkswagen Group is probably the most obvious of these, with the huge automotive group clearly looking to achieve a quick and comprehensive transformation.
According to Volkswagen's "2030 NEW AUTO Strategy", in the future, the profit and revenue source of its automotive industry will gradually shift from fuel vehicles to pure electric vehicles, and driven by autonomous driving technology, to software and services. By 2030, Volkswagen's software-related sales are expected to reach 1.2 trillion euros.
The layout of Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the field of automatic driving is actually not too late, before the two brands also set up an autonomous driving alliance, but due to the research and development and landing of the automatic driving industry in the past few years, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which can not see hope, announced the suspension of automatic driving-related cooperation in 2020, and the Mercedes-Benz BMW Autonomous Driving Alliance also fell into a standstill.
In addition to the release of the 2030 electrification strategy, Mercedes-Benz and BMW once again raised their confidence in software research and development. In April, Mercedes-Benz invested 200 million euros to set up a new software center, and Chief Operating Officer Markus Schfer said mercedes-Benz was hiring about 3,000 experts around the world, covering functional areas from in-car entertainment to autonomous driving. This move also means that Mercedes-Benz has once again accelerated its efforts in the software field. BMW's layout of the software is also speeding up.
Can multinational giants catch up with the self-driving express?
Although the cake of the autonomous driving market is large, in this industry that does not lack strong people, it is not easy to successfully get a piece.
Whether it is an autonomous driving company or a new force car company, it has been deeply branded with the label of automatic driving since its birth, and it has also stood on the industry's high ground. Earlier, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an interview that Tesla will achieve full self-driving this year, that is, the level of L5 autonomous driving technology. Despite the criticism of this radical rhetoric, Tesla, a technological leader in the autopilot industry, has a strength that cannot be underestimated.
In the new domestic car-making force group, the competition for automatic driving has entered a white-hot stage, and in this group, the best thing to do at present may be Xiaopeng Motors. According to the report of Tianfeng Securities, Xiaopeng Automobile is currently the only Chinese enterprise that can achieve full-stack self-developed high-grade assisted driving mass production, and it is expected to continue to lead the industry rivals in the future OTA and iteration process.
In addition to Xiaopeng Automobile, early new forces such as Weilai Automobile and Ideal Automobile have also accumulated a lot of research and development experience in autonomous driving and created their own advantages.
Compared with the leading car companies in the autonomous driving industry, whether it is Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Volkswagen, there seems to be some distance. After all, the two paths of self-development strength and cooperation are clearly distinguished, the former is star-studded, and the latter is controversial. From the many partners of Mercedes-Benz in this field, the self-research strength still seems to be not strong enough.
Today, the self-driving industry has shouted the slogan on the eve of entering commercialization. In April, self-driving companies such as Baidu and Xiaoma Zhixing successively obtained Robotaxi business licenses. The mass production time of L4 level autonomous driving models under new forces such as Zhiji and Jidu has also been announced.
The competition in the autonomous driving market has become more and more fierce, multinational car companies are obviously aware of this, and the giants naturally have the confidence to face challenges, after all, the financial strength of multinational giants is considerable enough.
It should be noted that in addition to accelerating autonomous driving, several multinational giant car companies are still in the early stages of electrification transformation, and this larger-scale change requires no less energy.
Despite the challenges, the fast-moving train of autonomous driving is not to be missed. In the face of the wind outlet, whether the Mercedes-Benz that are rising up and chasing can stir up the industry pattern, the industry is waiting and seeing.