The commercialization of intelligent driving cannot be achieved without the promotion of policies and regulations, all over the world. In China, the regulations were first implemented in the field of commercial vehicles, covering vehicles with a length of more than 9 meters, tractors and dangerous goods trucks with a total mass of more than or equal to 12 tons. With the implementation of intelligent driving laws and regulations in China, the domestic intelligent driving industry has made rapid progress in recent years. Local component companies have entered the market and started to emerge on the intelligent driving track.
Domestic suppliers are emerging
According to data from the Highway Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, by the end of 2020, in the field of commercial vehicles where ADAS installation is mandatory by domestic laws and regulations, two of the top three ADAS suppliers in the number of passenger cars inspected are domestic manufacturers, and four of the top seven ADAS suppliers in the market share of tractors are homegrown manufacturers. For a long time, overseas giants such as Continental and Bosch dominated the domestic automotive supply chain, but the wave of intelligent driving has provided opportunities for the rise of domestic suppliers. Compared with passenger vehicles, parts of commercial vehicles have a higher degree of domestic ownership, and Oems have more say in the selection and implementation of intelligent driving solutions. Second, compared with foreign suppliers, domestic suppliers have more advantages in cost-effective, rapid iteration, localized support and service. “We now compete with international vendors in many projects and find that they are worth learning from, but not out of reach. “The advantage of domestic manufacturers is that they can provide more cost-effective products and better services to win the market.” Extreme intelligence market personnel introduced. Jimu Intelligent is the no. 1 domestic supplier in the list of buses released by the Ministry of Transport, and it also ranks among the top six in the truck market.
The trend of localization of intelligent driving track gradually shows
From the political perspective, after the global supply of auto parts and the recent chip shortage under the influence of the epidemic, more and more Oems are turning from large multinational suppliers to local enterprises in the supply chain, on the premise of technology, quality and engineering capabilities. Secondly, from the point of view of cost, due to the decline of sales in China’s automobile industry, auto companies are under heavy pressure to reduce costs. Domestic alternatives with more competitive prices have become the first choice or alternative of many auto companies. Take millimeter wave radar as an example, as an indispensable sensor for intelligent driving landing, the price of millimeter wave radar has been falling in recent years. In 2015 or so, there are almost no domestic programs on the market, the only available millimeter wave radar programs are foreign radar programs such as the mainland, the price of a radar is as high as three or four thousand yuan, now the domestic millimeter wave radar has been shipped in batches, and the cost has reached 100 yuan level, much lower than foreign programs. In addition, service has become an important factor for more and more car companies. The openness and local support of local manufacturers can help Oems accelerate the project and win the first opportunity to seize the market.
Master like Lin, the way to break out of the start-up manufacturers
Local suppliers have their own ways to grab a slice of the booming intelligent driving market. As more and more enterprises such as Baidu switch from L4 to L2 and L3, the gradual route is now proving to be a more appropriate route. Many enterprises choose a two-legged approach. On the one hand, they make money through the implementation of ADAS solutions, and at the same time accumulate data for the update and iteration of AD autonomous driving technology. As one of the earliest enterprises focusing on the field of intelligent driving in China, Jimu Intelligent has been working in the field of intelligent driving for 10 years. At present, the company mainly provides ADAS driving assistance and AD autonomous driving perception and decision-making solutions, among which visual perception algorithm and multi-sensor fusion technology are independently developed. According to statistics, Jimu intelligent has batch provided intelligent driving programs to nearly 20 head OEM, its L2 level intelligent driving program has been mass produced, the company will launch L2+ intelligent driving domain controller with L3 level function in the first half of this year. After choosing the right market strategy, providing competitive programs becomes the basis of the enterprise. As suppliers of auto companies, it is a great challenge for local manufacturers to control costs while ensuring that core components meet auto regulations and performance standards. “It’s really hard, but it’s something we have to overcome,” says Max. The cost of the same solution is lower than that of mature international manufacturers, but we can optimize the solution design to control the cost with more clever design and higher integration.” In general, local manufacturers, especially start-ups, in the intelligent driving industry chain are not as perfect as international manufacturers in system and other aspects, but they have great advantages in cost-effective products and localization. Intelligent driving will change the original value distribution pattern of the automotive industry chain, and the core components will shift from traditional systems to artificial intelligence algorithms and processors. As a development direction of national strategy, China’s technology in the field of intelligent vehicles has come to the forefront in the world. In the face of this once-in-a-century automobile changes, domestic manufacturers are ready to try. Then, it is worth looking forward to the future whether China can overtake China on the curve and become an automobile power, and whether some local manufacturers can successfully break out and become first-class first-class suppliers in the world.