carMCUThe field has long been dominated by overseas oligarchs. How can domestic automotive chips break through? From the horizon to black sesame seeds, how does one assess the current development stage and trend of domestic in-vehicle chips?AICan the chip become a breakthrough point? Some automaker supply chain manufacturers have stated that they are currently experimenting with partnerships with Horizon Robotics and Black Sesame, but Qualcomm and NVIDIA remain their preferred choices. What is your view on the issue of domestic automotive chip substitution? Do they have an advantage in terms of technology and price?
Frost & SullivanFrost & SullivanThe executive director of Frost & Sullivan's Greater China region, Mr. Xiang Wei, was interviewed by South China Morning Post to discuss the current development status of domestic in-vehicle chips.
Nanhua Morning Post
Q
carMCUThe field has long been dominated by overseas oligarchs. How can domestic automotive chips break through?
Relying on their first-mover advantage, overseas leaders have formed technical accumulation and obtained long-term reliability certifications, capturing mostMCUMarket share. In the short term, to break through the predicament, domestic automotive chip manufacturers need to seize the opportunity for domestic substitution and actively enter the supply chain of vehicle manufacturers. At the same time, domestic manufacturers should also strengthen close cooperation with customers in the form of an ecosystem to accelerate the improvement of their influence in automotive-grade technology, products, or solutions. Establishing a product ecosystem can not only help domestic manufacturers quickly respond to customer needs and usage feedback, form differentiated products and solutions, increase customer loyalty, but also help improve domestic manufacturers' capabilities in high-end automotive-grade applications, achieving long-term development for the industry as a whole. Chip design and production line technology need to advance simultaneously, and manufacturers also need to cooperate deeply with foundries and packaging and testing processes to accelerate the introduction of new technologies and products to meet high-end application needs.
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From the horizon to black sesame seeds, what is your view on the current development stage and trend of domestic in-vehicle chips?AICan the chip become a breakthrough point?
With the further development of automotive intelligence, chips in related fields such as autonomous driving and intelligent cockpits are experiencing rapid development. Market giants at home and abroad have flocked to this sector, concentrating on high-end chips. Currently, at the chip level, the shortage of chips by automakers has led to a surge in business for many domestic chip companies. There are numerous players in the automotive chip market, with complex chip architectures. Chips in the fields of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits are developing towards greater computing power.
AIThe chip is known asAIAccelerators or computing cards, specifically designed for accelerationAIModules for a large number of compute tasks in applications. In traditionalMCUIn the case where intelligent driving requirements are difficult to meet,AIThe importance of chips is becoming increasingly prominent. At this stage, they are used for automotive decision-making controlAIChips take data, computing power, and algorithms as their three major elements. In the complex vehicle operation environment, in-vehicle chips also pay great attention to the utilization rate of computing power. Due toAIThe algorithm requires a large amount of data exchange with memory, so currently, memory and bandwidth are important factors restricting the utilization rate of computing power and will also be the focus for major manufacturers to advance and break through. Currently, intelligent driving has been elevated to the national policy level and is key to the transformation and upgrading of China's automotive industry. Technological iteration and strong support from policy aspects will assist in the development of automobiles.AIChips have become a hot topic in the new energy vehicle market.
Q
Some automaker supply chain manufacturers have stated that they are currently experimenting with partnerships with Horizon Robotics and Black Sesame, but Qualcomm and NVIDIA remain their top choices. What's your opinion on the issue of domestic automotive chip substitution? Do they have an advantage in terms of technology and price?
Computing power determines the intelligence level of autonomous vehicles. For domestic in-vehicle chips to compete with traditional chip manufacturers that have made breakthroughs in automotive-grade certification, they need to demonstrate their company's uniqueness and advantages in computing power, application technology, and cost-effectiveness.
Firstly, enhancing effective computing power will become the core competitiveness of in-vehicle chips. To support future autonomous vehicles inOTAThe continuous rise in computing power demand brought about by software and algorithm upgrades will become a focus, supporting the vast number of computing power applications.
Secondly, domestic automotive chip companies are gradually deepening their technical expertise, forming a complete set of self-developed technologies.IP addressIn addition to the HPC application toolchain, we exclusively develop algorithm solutions for domestic and international automakers, providing more detailed technical support. Compared to traditional chip manufacturers, domestic automotive chip companies possess more software tools, making customer operations more convenient and offering customized technical advantages.
Finally, domestic automotive chips offer extremely high cost-effectiveness among automotive-grade chips of the same level and quality. Additionally, the product deployment speed and team investment are a notch above traditional chip manufacturers. In the early stages of the market, more reasonable prices, faster deployment speed, and deeper investment have ensured the product and business model planning of domestic automotive chip manufacturers, facilitating resource aggregation and accelerating domestic substitution.
*This interview was published in South China Morning Post, with the reporter beingTracy QuOriginal title: "The The boom in smart vehicles is driving Chinese automakers and third-party manufacturers such as Black Sesame to ramp up auto chip output >> (Click "Read Full Article" at the end of the text to read the complete report).
