Tesla and Huawei use software to redefine cars?

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"Software will account for 90%of the future car innovation." When the software technology is in the future of the automotive industry, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Dis said so, it shows that software technology is in the minds of this world -renowned car company CEO's mind The weight.

In fact, whether it is the front -end central control large screen, or the intelligent software that can be moved at any time on the touch screen, or other intelligent facilities, the car becomes more "fashionable" under the blessing of software technology. Essence Obviously, with the development of the "New Four Four" cars, the "intelligent" wave represented by intelligent driving, intelligent networking, and smart cockpit has become more and more common in people's lives.

Software redefine the car

Although the automotive industry has undergone a century of changes, the long -term dynamic form has been developed by traditional oil energy+internal combustion engines. In other words, whether it is the combustion technology or the upgrade of the transmission level, it is only on the level of the internal combustion engine. In essence, it is still the hero with displacement and power. However, the emergence of electric vehicles suddenly broke the value evaluation system of the hero withdrawal of heroes in the past century, and began to form a new value evaluation model.

First of all, software technology represented by intelligence has completely changed the design of automotive product design under pure hardware technology. For example, in terms of power, the power system with battery and electric drivers as the core replaces the traditional automotive power system; new car parts represented by electronic control components (ECU) and domain controller The internal structure greatly simplifies the types of components of the car.

In addition, based on the changes brought about by intelligence and electrification, the threshold for manufacturing of the car is greatly reduced. Unlike the past, the vehicle companies in the downstream must master core technologies such as engines, chassis and gearboxes; and in the new energy industry chain, the research and development of core components is gradually separated from car companies. Objects, electrical control and motors, at the same time, some intelligent hardware and auxiliary driving chips can also be developed with some Internet technology companies to develop. The threshold for entry in the automotive industry is greatly reduced compared with the previous. The reason is.

Secondly, the highly integrated software and screen technology have increasingly showing the prototype of the intelligent terminal, and users can also enjoy intelligent services in the airport scene. Different from traditional car planes, today's smart cars have used large front -end screens, all replacing complex speed instruments and related instruments to achieve "one screen independent control". Users can use the vehicle system to achieve remote OTA upgrades. Various mobile phone software Easy to get on the car also greatly broaden the entertainment and service functions of the car itself.

For example, in the past, the vehicle system only had various intelligent navigation software and music software, and under the large screen of the vehicle central control, not only intelligent navigation, music software, but also to download meteorological software, takeaway software, travel software, etc. In short, the software downloaded on the phone in the past can now come back on the car again.

Finally, the application of intelligent technology and software technology has greatly accelerated the evolution and iteration of automotive products. To upgrade traditional car products, it is necessary to transform or replace the upgraded products, and most of them can only start from the hardware level to solve the high cost of resetting; enter the era of smart cars, software begins to act on the upgrade of automobile upgrades to the upgrade of automobiles. For example, the OTA upgrade of the car is completed with the help of software code and algorithm; in addition, hardware such as the shortage of chips, can also make up for the change of the universal chip algorithm, no need to disassemble the car, so the car upgrade The cost is greatly reduced.

In general, software and intelligent applications have brought revolutionary changes to cars in both depth and breadth.

Tesla starts from definition rules

As the "leader" of the world's intelligent automobile field -Tesla, whether it uses technical concepts such as intelligent driving, smart cockpit and smart networking into the practice of cars, or it in terms of business models and manufacturing methods, etc. The comprehensive expansion has fundamentally redefined the rules of the automotive industry.

First, Tesla redefines the rules of machine -based production smart cars. As we all know, the traditional car era created the "assembly line" and the cheap car Ford, which was seen as a representative of the American automotive industry; in the era of smart cars, Tesla was undoubtedly a "outstanding representative" that promoted the large -scale production of smart cars. Essence

Before 2018, Tesla had been annoyed for "backward delivery", and its concentration reflected the contradiction between "constant accumulation" "car orders" and "continuous delay" "delivery cycle". However, as Tesla's GA 4 (total assembly line) developed internally, Tesla's car delivery volume began to multiply, and its output also changed from a monthly output to a weekly output. "Began to relieve, and Tesla's" capacity climbing "was finally solved perfectly.

Behind this fast -mass production and delivery car, it is inseparable from its creative use of a "agile development" car mass production process to improve the success of the production line. It is reported that the GA 4 created by Tesla uses the most advanced AI technology and machine automation technology, which allows the entire production line to achieve automatic learning and continuous evolution. At one time, the characteristics of this "flexible production" enable it to continuously simplify the iteration of the production line of automobile production, and the integrated steps of component production have also greatly reduced. For example, the assembly steps of Model 3 have fallen from the previous 198 to 43. In addition, the high intelligence of the assembly production line provides a basis for the number of parts of "deleting complexity and simplification". According to the Model 3 data delivered by Tesla in 2017, it only has more than 10,000 components, which is one -third of the Model S delivered in 2012, which is almost equivalent to the third of the traditional car parts. one.

These "initiatives" pursuing extreme production efficiency and capabilities have won great competitive advantages for Tesla. According to the financial report released by Tesla in the first quarter of 2022, Tesla's gross profit margin has reached 32.9%, which has been crushed BBA, and has reached twice the mainstream car companies such as Volkswagen and Toyota. Such achievements were almost unimaginable a few years ago, but Tesla successfully achieved this through continuous improvement of the quality of components and deleting excess components.

Second, the business model of the car was redefined. As we all know, the business model of traditional cars is mainly based on the establishment of cars and car parts. Model, this is undoubtedly a big startup. Relying on this model, Tesla does not need to buy the car more expensive or earn money. For example, Tesla released the FSD autonomous driving optional package. The single person is priced at $ 10,000 per year. Flowing in funds is not allowed by companies that generally rely on cars to achieve revenue and profit.

In short, whether it is the optimization of the business model or the innovation of the production method, Tesla has found its own position in the new track of smart cars, and rely on the leading advantages to become the definer of the industry rules (open source code, integration, one in one, Both the method of chemical casting have become the source of external imitation) and leaders.

Huawei focuses on system reshaping

As mentioned earlier, Tesla defines smart cars through the "building" method, while Huawei uses its powerful ICT technology to "migrate" to the core software system in smart cars and hardware related to the software system. In the system, to break the original architecture of traditional cars.

In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, auto software companies, automotive semiconductor companies, and vehicle manufacturers, in order to reduce the complexity of the vehicle software, a alliance organization called AutoSAR was set up. Bosch, Mainland, BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Peugeot Citroen, Toyota and Volkswagen in BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Peugeot Citroen, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Partners such as Great Wall, FAW, SAIC, Pricewater Software, Jingwei Hengrun also participated in it.

As ISO 26262 automotive electronic functional security international standards have been established, more and more car companies using AutoSAR have basically become the default electrical architecture. But after Tesla's rise, they began to launch their new electronic and electrical architecture. Although Huawei, who was studying, obtained the ISO 26262 certification, Huawei used the electrical architecture as an AUTOSAR. The architecture, which once again demonstrates Huawei's determination to be a leader in the car system.

It is reported that compared to the EE architecture used by traditional cars, Huawei's CC architecture divides the entire vehicle into three major parts, namely smart driving, smart cockpit and vehicle control respectively. They are designed as an ecosystem, which constitutes the core capabilities of Huawei as an incremental parts supplier, that is, hardware involving computing and communication, and software that serves the vehicle system.

In terms of hardware, Huawei has built smart hardware platforms such as "chip+cockpit module+screen+AR-HUD" as the core to cooperate with its software to enhance the vehicle's intelligentization. For example, Huawei's MDC platform MDC platform MDC platform created by the Shengteng 310 chip, and then released a series of chip products such as Shengteng 610, 910, 320; in addition to the domain controller, Huawei is still in laser radar, laser radar, and laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser radar, laser, There are extensive layouts on smart hardware such as car cameras. At present, its hybrid solid lidar has achieved mass production. It is expected that the subsequent launch of a full solid -state lidar is expected to achieve mass production in 2024.

In terms of software, Huawei focuses on core software technologies such as "OS+Cloud Computing+Big Data" to promote the overall solution of its smart car. For example, Huawei's HICAR system and the IoT operating system Hongmeng System around the Internet of Internet of IoT system; around the smart electric module, Huawei launched the Driveone multi -combined electric driver system, the HICHARGER DC fast charging module, and the TMS thermal management system; Intelligent car cloud services, Huawei launched open and full stack smart car cloud services based on its strong cloud services, big data, and Internet of Vehicle. It is not difficult to see that Huawei, who is "not building a car", has already created a closed loop of ecological service of "sensor-chip-chip-operating system-algorithm and development application-cloud service" The car service ecology.

New opportunities and new challenges in the new situation

With the maturity of automotive intelligence technology and the improvement of the industrial application ecosystem, the process of deep infiltration of software into the car is accelerating, and it has gradually evolved into a core ability of car companies. In terms of giants, it is undoubtedly a huge opportunity. But at the same time, the deep integration of software and cars has also brought a series of new challenges.

On the one hand, the "getting on the car" of software technology and various intelligent services allows cars to be further enlarged as a "terminal" that is completely different from mobile phones. Car companies and suppliers participating in them will benefit from it.

For example, the traditional Internet music software market has slowed down due to the saturation of the smartphone market. However, with the widespread use of connected vehicles and large screens of automotive central control, software such as Netease Cloud Music and QQ Music have begun to embrace The "new terminal market" opportunity of smart cars; in addition, the application of intelligent parking services, intelligent auxiliary driving, and remote operations of the Internet of Vehicle has also substantially enhanced the value of the car itself. In this regard, BYD founder Wang Chuanfu once said that the field of smart automobiles will give birth to the next Tencent, and the prospect of the smart automobile industry will be seen.

On the other hand, with the deep penetration of software technology, the Internet technology attributes of the automotive industry are getting heavier, technological security challenges and massive R & D investment, and are re -restricting and challenges to the operating model and behavior model of automobile companies.

With the large number of technologies such as big data and cloud computing, the amount of code of the car has begun to double the index level, and the number of high -end cars has even reached 1 billion lines. Or the system bug will bring a lot of hidden dangers to the normal operation of the car. Previously, a well -known car company in the industry had a system failure that caused a car brake failure and causing accidents to explain the problem.

In addition, the increasing and higher technological attributes of automobiles have made technology research and development investment increasingly large. In order to balance the technical investment and output of the car, more and more car companies will become more and more united to build "whether there is any interoperability." The alliance system to respond to challenges. In the long run, this trend will intensify with the deepening of automobile intelligence.

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