Author丨Mei Xukang
Editor丨Hao Qiuhui
Core ideas
In 2022, the amount of investment and financing and the number of events in each track of China's smart electric vehicle industry will reach 2.68 billion yuan.
The metaverse may improve the in-cabin driving experience and further open up the growth space of the intelligent cockpit;
The intelligent, functional, entertaining and experiential sense of the car will be reflected in the intelligent cockpit.
In a sigh and exclamation, 2023 is coming as promised. Looking back at the development of the automotive industry in 2022, the wave of electrification is hitting the coast, and an exploration of intelligence is also rushing to a climax with great fanfare.
Cars are moving towards the "third living space", and intelligent cockpits have benefited deeply as the core carrier, and achieved large-scale landing before intelligent driving, which is also particularly valued by the capital market.
According to Yiou data, in 2022, the investment and financing amount and the number of events in each track of China's intelligent electric vehicle industry will reach 2.68 billion yuan, slightly higher than the 2.25 billion yuan in the field of intelligent driving.
In 2022, automotive products will focus more on cockpit differentiation competition, cockpits will become a new traffic entrance, and users' demand for cockpit comfort and entertainment will continue to increase.
The intelligent cockpit has become a bridgehead for the transformation of automotive intelligence, and in this automotive intelligence show, all "technology and ruthlessness" are displayed.
01 Cockpit Metaverse: A new gimmick for in-cabin experience
Technologies such as 5G, AR/XR/VR, and artificial intelligence have gradually matured, jointly promoting the popularity of the metaverse year by year. The metaverse may improve the in-cabin driving experience, and may even further open up the growth space of automotive intelligence.
The car cockpit is considered to be an important entrance to the metaverse, and it is inevitable that many car companies want to try it early. Many car companies, including NIO's "NIO", Chery's "OMODA Metaverse", and SAIC's "Z-Universe", have registered metaverse-related trademarks.
In 2022, many car companies have made frequent moves in the metaverse. For example, Jidu released the first car robot concept car ROBO-01 in the "Xi Long" metaverse, making the digital human "Higaga" the first owner of No. 000.
On September 5, 2022, Hongqi held the "Metaverse Festival and New Energy Design Aesthetics Conference", releasing China's FAW Hongqi new energy strategy, super electric intelligent platform and a variety of new energy concept products. In the new energy design aesthetics of the Hongqi brand released by it, the cockpit of "dreamlike and E meta-universe" is committed to creating a "human-car integration" in-car meta-universe.
However, the current car company metaverse is more of a marketing gimmick, and it depends on the further development of VR/AR technology to effectively affect the user experience.
In the immersive automotive cockpit ADiGO PARK metaverse released by GAC Group on December 22, 2022, it covers a number of technical practices such as VR and somatosensory sensation.
The ADiGO PARK metaverse is jointly developed by GAC Group, Chenjing Technology and iQIYI QIYU VR, and its host uses AMD V1000 and W6600 series chips, and the VR headset is jointly developed by GAC Group and iQIYI QIYU VR. The driving motion technology is jointly developed by GAC Group and Chenjing Technology.
In addition, NIO partnered with Nreal to launch the NIO Air AR Glasses, and Apple also has a patent for VR glasses for cars. In Chery's recently released GENE concept car, VR glasses hidden under the steering wheel will be available to passengers in meta mode.
Car companies will join hands with technology companies or content service providers such as metaverse and VR to jointly create intelligent cockpit experiences based on the concept of metaverse, which will become a new model for cooperative innovation of automotive intelligent cockpits.
The innovation of cockpit interaction modes, the large increase in functional applications, and the practice of new technologies and concepts such as the metaverse have jointly contributed to the improvement of the in-car experience.
02Play with the screen: both big and many, and AR HUD
Consumers' demand for intelligent automotive products continues to rise, and sales of smart electric vehicles in China are rising year by year.
Positively affected by the continuous growth of smart electric vehicle sales, the trend of multi-screen, large-screen, intelligent and diversified display technology of on-board display screens is booming.
Instrument, central control, interior mirror, HUD, passenger and rear seat entertainment screen, armrest screen, etc., the number of on-board display screens inside a car can reach more than 10.
As the most important human-computer interaction information display window in the intelligent cockpit, the number and functionality of vehicle screens have changed significantly, and car companies and suppliers are no longer bound by the traditional screen layout, and multi-screen, joint screen and even integrated screen solutions are constantly emerging.
For example, SkyFan applied the triple screen solution for the first time in the SkyFan R7 model. The solution adopts integrated packaging technology, and the total screen size is 43 inches, including 10.25 inches of instrument screen, 15.05 inches of central control screen, and 12.3 inches of co-driver entertainment screen.
Another high-end brand of SAIC, Zhiji, the front row of the Zhiji L7 cockpit to be launched in 2022 is equipped with 3 screens, of which the 26.3-inch "instrument central control" integrated screen and the 12.3-inch co-driver entertainment screen support independent lifting and lowering.
At the same time, under the in-depth development of automotive intelligence, HUD, as a system that can improve driver safety and convenient interaction, is increasingly valued by car companies and related industry chain suppliers, and HUD is accelerating mass production.
Yiou Think Tank expects the market size of HUD to reach 9.05 billion yuan in 2022. Among them, the market size of W HUD increased to 5.97 billion yuan, and the market size of AR HUD increased significantly, reaching 2.91 billion yuan.
In the context of the rapid development of automotive human-computer interaction system, AR HUD has a strong sense of technology, strong human-computer interaction, strong driving safety and other attribute characteristics will be continuously amplified, and with the gradual development of autonomous driving technology, AR HUD will gradually replace W HUD in the next few years and become the main force of industrial development.
As AR HUDs enter the mass production stage, each car company has created AR HUDs with different characteristics according to their own advantages, such as SkyFan and Huawei equipped the world's first mass-produced visually enhanced AR HUD head-up system on the SkyFan R7 to create a smarter, more efficient and safer travel mode.
Large screen, multi-screen + AR HUD have become a major development trend of vehicle display interaction.
03 Diversified functions: computer, mobile phone car
With the upgrade of automotive intelligence, the object of cockpit service is no longer only focused on the driver, but also includes the co-driver and rear passengers.
In addition to the needs of navigation, safety warning, etc., a variety of human-computer interaction and entertainment experiences have become more and more prominent, and cockpit applications have gradually extended to more scenarios such as office, life and entertainment.
On December 14, 2022, Tesla released the "Holiday Update", and the Steam game platform was officially launched, suitable for the new Model S and Model X produced in the past two years, and owners can get a large number of games from it by installing the client.
As early as February 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla is currently working to introduce the game library on the Steam platform into its vehicles, which will finally be realized by the end of the year. This means that Tesla uses PC-level processors in the car.
For playing games in the car, most car companies in the intelligent era are very interested.
In February 2022, GAC AION launched the "Cross-Dimensional Dream E-sports Pod" game set for AION S Plus, and the ideal L9 released in June integrates corresponding game functions in its rear entertainment screen, and also supports linking to Nintendo Switch.
The fact that the car can become a mobile game room also means that it has more other possibilities, such as the application of the metaverse.
In addition to bringing console games to the car, the line between cars and mobile phones is becoming increasingly blurred. There is huge room for imagination in smart cars + smartphones, and the cross-border integration of mobile phone ecology and automobiles will further accelerate in 2022.
Huawei, which claims that they "do not build cars", as well as mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO, as well as Apple, which is eyeing the other side of the ocean, have shown strong interest in the automotive industry and made practical actions.
Car companies have also begun to "counterattack" the mobile phone circle.
On July 4, 2022, Geely announced the formal acquisition of Meizu Mobile and held a separate controlling stake of 79.09% of Meizu Technology in accordance with the agreement. At the opening ceremony of the Songshan Lake NIO Center in Dongguan, NIO CEO Li Bin revealed that NIO mobile phones will be listed in 2023.
Li Shufu, founder of Geely, once said that the better development of mobile phones can bring better development of car machines; The better development of the vehicle machine can promote the continuous improvement of the level of intelligent cockpit, which can help the competitiveness of intelligent electric vehicles continue to improve.
The rapid development of automotive functionality and entertainment is reflected in the intelligent cockpit. Diversified functions such as HUD, DMS, and rear-seat entertainment will become a new battlefield for cockpit intelligence, which also means that the battle for the underlying computing power platform is more intense.
04 Cockpit "core" opportunity: the next battlefield
The upgrade of cockpit function experience must be inseparable from the support of hardware, and the chip is undoubtedly one of the lowest and most important hardware. Computing power is the foundation of intelligence, and chips are the foundation of intelligence in the automotive industry.
In the context of "software-defined vehicles", intelligent cockpits have become the next battlefield for global chip manufacturers.
High-computing power SoC chips are becoming a rigid demand for a new generation of smart cars. With the entry of consumer electronics chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and the rise of domestic automotive chip manufacturers, the competition pattern of the cockpit chip market is also quietly changing.
If the hottest intelligent cockpit chip in 2022 is absolutely inseparable from Qualcomm 8155.
The ideal L9, which debuted in June 2022, is equipped with the dual Qualcomm 8155 platform. On July 11, 2022, at the Zeekr Evolution Day event, An Conghui, CEO of Zeekr Automobile, announced that all users of Zeekr 001 will upgrade the new intelligent cockpit equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 computing platform for free, which has aroused heated discussions among users.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip was released in January 2019, with its strong performance parameters, it has become the standard equipment of many car cockpits such as Ideal L9, Great Wall WEY Latte, GAC Aion LX, Geely Xingyue L, Zhiji L7 and so on.
In 2022, the computing power competition is still going on, chip companies are still deeply engaged in core technologies, but unlike foreign giants such as Qualcomm in the past, Chinese chip companies begin to exert their potential, and automotive chips gradually move towards the road of domestic substitution, so as to radiate the underlying operating system and upper-layer software applications on the basis of high-computing power chips, build a software ecology, and create differentiated competition.
On December 10, 2021, Geely's Xinqing Technology officially released the name Dragon Eagle No. 1, which is benchmarked against 8155 and is also the first domestic automotive-grade 7nm intelligent cockpit chip. In 2022, the Loonghawk No. 1 chip has successively completed testing and verification on mass production models.
The competition for intelligent cockpit chips is intensifying, and the traditional cockpit market chip pattern is about to be broken. With the increasing number of competitors, in addition to foreign chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Intel, domestic chip companies such as Jifa Technology, Xinchi Technology, Rockchip, Horizon, Xinqing Technology, etc. are targeting the intelligent cockpit chip market.
Domestic chip power is rising, but chip research and development on time, capital and other strict requirements, core enterprises want to create the underlying chip industry differentiation, it is also very difficult.
Overall, there is still a certain gap between domestic chip companies and foreign old chip companies, but under the development needs of independent industrial chains, domestic chip companies have broad space for strength.
05 Cabin and driver integration: Intelligent driving domain and cockpit domain integration
Under the trend of intelligence, the traditional distributed electronic and electrical architecture began to transform into a domain centralized architecture, and a large number of ECUs with the same function were integrated and handed over to the domain controller for unified management and scheduling, resulting in the birth of five functional domains: cockpit domain, intelligent driving domain, power domain, chassis domain and body domain.
With the centralized upgrade of the vehicle E/E architecture, cross-domain integration between the five functional domains has begun to be attempted, and based on the dual consideration of technology development and user needs, intelligent cockpit domain controllers have become the mainstream solution of current car companies, cutting from the cockpit domain to cross-domain integration, and has also become the preferred solution for the development of car enterprises. The intelligent driving domain and the cockpit domain are expected to take the lead in integrating to form an integrated cockpit domain controller.
Intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit are the two core functional areas of automotive intelligent transformation.
In terms of user experience, the human-computer interaction and immersive experience in the intelligent cockpit are deeply combined and linked with various functions of intelligent driving, which can directly improve the user's sense of security and comfort, and enhance the user experience of the intelligent car.
Therefore, as intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits become more mature, more and more industry players have joined the exploration queue of intelligent driving and intelligent cabin integration solutions.
Zhou Song, President of Valeo China, said in an interview with Yiou Automobile: "The final trend of multi-domain integration is very clear, but there are different roadmaps for how to do it. ”
For example, SAIC Zero Beam explores the integration of cockpit and intelligent driving functions based on multiple SoC chips, Chuangda builds cockpit and parking fusion solutions based on Qualcomm SA8295, and Jidu Auto develops cabin and driving integration solutions based on two application layers: intelligent driving redundancy scheme and 3D human-machine co-driving map.
At present, intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit have not yet reached the best state of integration from the hardware level or software level, cross-domain integration software and hardware design is more difficult, there are also higher requirements for safety and stability, and the integration process involves complex engineering and cross-departmental collaboration, and there are many practical problems to be solved urgently.
Cross-domain integration means high R&D costs in the early stage, in the long run, the integration development process has a long way to go, intelligent driving intelligent cabin integration as a transitional form of central computing platform development, will completely break the traditional automobile supply system, how to better operate users and realize value monetization is the core challenge of automotive enterprises.
06 Conclusion
The intelligent cockpit involves the integration of many software and hardware, so suppliers will constantly switch identities based on different product types offered, resulting in a continuous expansion of product boundaries. The opportunities for exchanges and collisions between industries are increasing, and traditional suppliers and Internet technology companies will build an ecosystem around car companies and integrate competition.
The current user experience and application of intelligent cockpit are greatly limited, and consumers rarely use cockpit functions due to their focus on driving during driving. In the stage where fully autonomous driving has not yet been reached, it is difficult to free the driver's attention and the intelligent cockpit is difficult to produce disruptive changes. It is possible that more in-cabin experiences can only be enjoyed by passengers.
Under the trend of convergence of hardware such as chips, car companies need to create differentiated competition in terms of software and interactive experience, combined with model product positioning and user needs.
Cars are ultimately for people, and whether the attributes of cars are moving machines or entertainment spaces, the market has different views in different time periods.
In 2023, for intelligent cockpit-related enterprises, it will be a time to lay the foundation and seize the opportunity, avoid internal friction, and build a healthy competition situation.