Searching for Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. in Tianyan Search shows that the company has added the section of "R&D, production, sales and service of auto parts and intelligent systems" under the original business of wireless communication equipment and microelectronics products. It shows that Huawei will also set foot in the automobile market after the field of electronic equipment.
However, unlike some car brands that became monks halfway, Huawei did not go to the field of car building, but joined the manufacturing, production and marketing of car systems and autonomous driving software and hardware. To put it bluntly, it is to become a component supplier in the domestic automobile market and provide domestic automobile brands with technical and hardware support that is more in line with the needs of China consumers and the road conditions in China. Of course, the possibility of exporting to joint venture car brands in the future is not ruled out.
Although the main businesses of the automobile market and the mobile phone market are different, they are similar in some survival modes. In the early years, when Nokia and Samsung mobile phones were selling well in the market, domestic mobile phone brands just got better, and mobile phone brands such as Gionee, Huawei and BBK began to exert their strength gradually. Now the mobile phone market in China has been fully developed, and there are basically only two camps left, one is Apple, and the other is the domestic mobile phone camp composed of domestic brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi, while the mobile phones of other brands such as Samsung are being deprived of market share bit by bit by domestic mobile phone brands.
Huawei's continuous maturity and growth in the electronic products industry in recent years has indeed provided a solid foundation for it to enter the automobile market with a series of intelligent technologies such as autonomous driving, car networking and in-vehicle systems. Huawei's self-developed CPU and self-built communication base station give Huawei the capital to enter the automotive automation market.
The period of 2020-2022 is indeed the most crucial two years for communication network and automobile intelligence. First of all, the popularity and comprehensive laying of 5G network not only brings us faster network speed, but also provides fertile ground for automobile intelligence.
On this basis, many domestic brands are stepping up research and development of systems that can realize L3 autopilot technology. At present, active braking, ACC adaptive cruise, traffic sign recognition and other technologies are used in automobile products to form L2-class driving assistance system, which can help drivers perform horizontal and vertical vehicle driving tasks. The L2-level autopilot has more functions as the driver's auxiliary system, and the mature L3-level autopilot can really be handed over to the system for autopilot under simple road conditions (the driver also needs to observe the road conditions and take over the operation if necessary), so L2-level autopilot and L3-level autopilot are basically a watershed in the field of autopilot.
At present, domestic brands are actively developing a complete set of systems to meet L3 autopilot, such as SAIC, Great Wall and Changan. The presence of Huawei will provide better technical support for domestic automobile brands in autonomous driving. At present, Huawei has gradually entered the automobile market through the mode of "Kirin module+HarmonyOS OS+HiCar", plus products such as microcontrollers, 5G chips and mobile phone NFC.
In fact, as early as 20 14, Huawei has cooperated with Dongfeng, Changan and other car companies in the fields of car networking and smart cars. 20 18 also cooperated with Audi, and plans to launch vehicles supporting 5G car networking in 2022. This also provides some help for Huawei's current level and technical requirements in the field of autonomous driving. If Huawei just couldn't get in on the edge of the field of automobile automation a few years ago, now Huawei is going to be serious.
The tentative "attack" in the field of autonomous driving in the early years really gave Huawei a certain foundation. At present, Huawei has obtained the highest level of functional safety certification (ISO? 26262? ASIL？ D), who was also the first person in China to win ASIL? D authenticate the operating system kernel. At this point, Huawei autopilot operating system kernel has become the industry's first commercial OS kernel with both security and security certification. In this field, it will benchmark NVIDIA's Drive? AGX？ Orin platform, EyeQ4 chip of Mobileye acquired by Intel (currently installed on Weilai ES6 and Tucki G3) and other products.
This part is limited to buy buy Jun's speculation on Huawei's business model after entering the automobile market. First of all, Huawei has its own strength and foundation for independent research and development, production and marketing of electronic products. Huawei will definitely make a big fuss about in-vehicle systems and autopilot calculus, but there is still a gap in strength between Huawei and the latter. Just like Bosch in Germany, it provides a set of hardware to meet the needs of autopilot.
First of all, in order to achieve a higher level of auto-driving, various sensors are definitely indispensable, such as traditional cameras, and further, millimeter-wave radars and laser radars that require higher technology and R&D experience.
It is not excluded that Huawei independently develops all kinds of on-board sensors to realize the production and sales of the whole set of autonomous driving systems, but buy buy Jun believes that Huawei is also likely to provide core chips and algorithm support, and all kinds of sensors will be completed through procurement or cooperation with other brands. Moreover, there are indeed such technology companies in China for Huawei to choose from, such as Wosai Technology, Sagitar Juchuang and Livox. , are significant progress in sensor technology research and development in recent years.
Huawei entered the field of autonomous driving. Is this to promote the growth of autonomous driving technology? There are reasons for this, but it is definitely not all. The main reason must be that I have taken a fancy to the future market prospects and profits of autonomous driving technology. In this field where the pattern is not fully formed, Huawei has better demonstrated its advantages. In addition, Huawei, which started with communication systems and microelectronics products, also has sufficient experience support.
However, from the perspective of consumers, we should pay more attention to whether the autopilot system developed by Huawei is more in line with our car demand, such as adaptability to domestic road conditions and system stability. Although Tesla's autonomous driving is equally mature, the R&D and test environment are mostly based on American road conditions, and are also installed on overseas models first. In order to enter the China market, it is necessary to debug and optimize twice according to different road conditions. Huawei's R&D environment is based on the road conditions in China, which can better adapt to the domestic road conditions and use environment.
For some automobile manufacturers who want to cooperate with Huawei, it is not only because of Huawei's "first brother" position in the field of domestic electronic products, but also because the technical cost of buying it is definitely cheaper than buying the technology of foreign manufacturers. If Huawei can really provide an autonomous driving system that is more in line with the actual road conditions in China, with lower procurement cost and good stability, then not only domestic brands, but also many domestic joint venture brands should "find the door".
Huawei's decision to enter the automobile field has undoubtedly provided a powerful and reliable supplier for many domestic automobile brands, but it is only because Huawei's brand awareness is wide enough that it has attracted much attention.
As a matter of fact, many domestic suppliers of automobile products already have the strength of independent research and development, and even export products for joint venture brands. For example, Zebra Zhixing's in-vehicle system has been installed on Citroen Yi Yun, and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. has also reached an agreement with Tesla to provide battery products for domestic Tesla models. Domestic parts suppliers are favored by many car companies, not only because of their high adaptability to the needs of other domestic consumers, but also because of their advantages of good quality and low price. Even if it may not reach the top level of the industry, self-sufficiency is not a problem at all.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.