While Internet companies such as Letv Automobile, Baidu and Google have been testing the waters of autonomous driving technology and speeding up their layout in the field of intelligent cars, auto parts giants including Bosch, Continental and Delphi have also begun to expand in this field.
Yanfeng Automotive Trim Systems Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yanfeng Automotive Interiors), one of the world's largest automotive interior suppliers, recently unveiled its 2016 innovation demonstration concept car, ID 16, at its Shanghai headquarters. It is understood that ID16 mainly focuses on "China's high-end consumer market", "urban SUV" and "autonomous driving", which are the three major industry layout areas.
Luo Yonghan, CEO of Yanfeng Automotive Interiors, told National Business Daily that it still takes time for autonomous driving to be truly commercialized, but the trend is accelerating in the smart car industry. In this context, traditional parts companies also began to speed up the pace, looking forward to the layout to seize the technical commanding heights.
From this point of view, at the moment when the automobile industry is facing great changes, the technology battle between OEMs, parts suppliers and Internet companies has begun in the face of the intelligent automobile industry, a market with a scale of more than one trillion yuan.
Components giants accelerate their layouts
"The development momentum of autonomous driving and intelligent interconnection is very rapid. In the future, Yanfeng auto interior will accelerate the research and development in the field of automotive interior forward-looking technology such as intelligent accessories." Luo Yonghan to "daily economic news" reporter said, as a focus on the interior parts enterprises, yanfeng car interior also the profound insight into the change of market hot spots, "we will be based on the existing automotive trim technology, by implanting touch and feedback, adaptive and new display multiple technologies, realizes the automotive trim and the perfect fusion of electronics, become people - car - the main carrier of the network interactive Internet."
In the background of Internet giants' aggressive entry into the automobile industry, traditional parts giants are not to be outdone and have accelerated their layout in the field of Internet of Vehicles and intelligent vehicles.
Bosch, which focuses on electrification, automation and connectivity in its automotive technology research and development, has conducted road trials of autonomous driving technology on highways as early as 2013, and the related driver assistance system was mass-produced in 2014. Bosch has said it has the core technologies and systems integration necessary to fully enter the market.
Last March, Delphi, one of the world's largest manufacturers of automotive wiring harness systems, launched a self-driving journey across both coasts of the United States. Significantly, to further its push into active safety and autonomous driving, Delphi last year bought Hellmann Telecom, a provider of cable harness management solutions, and Ottomatika, a software company. It also made strategic investments in two automotive software Technology companies, Quanergy and Tule Technology.
Also boosting its technology prowess is Continental, a German transport manufacturer, which is buying to buy. Last year, Continental bought Elektrobit Automotive, a Finnish software company, for €600m, further boosting its autonomous driving capabilities. Continental also bought the automotive unit of Siemens VDO and the automotive electronics unit of Motorola.
"Steering wheel" competition is increasingly fierce
While Internet companies accelerate the layout of Internet of Vehicles, self-driving and other technologies, domestic and foreign vehicle companies have also begun to vigorously expand this field.
At this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota and other vehicle companies all demonstrated their intelligent interconnection technologies by releasing concept cars. BMW showed off its i8 Spyder concept sports car with the latest human-computer interaction technology; Mercedes showed off two driverless cars, the E200 and E300, which it says could hit the market as soon as the next two years. Toyota is starting with maps, and says it will make its maps down to 5cm accuracy, which will completely surpass Google maps.
At the same time, more than a dozen domestic auto manufacturers, including BAIC, GAC, SAIC, Changan and BYD, have also said that they have invested heavily in the field of autonomous vehicles and connected vehicles technology, and carried out cutting-edge technology research and development. Take Chang 'an as an example. In the next five years, Chang 'an will spend 4 billion yuan on research and development of forward-looking technologies such as driverless vehicles. In April, a self-driving car modified by Changan Ruicheng will travel from Chongqing to Beijing for the auto show.
In response, the industry analysis, in the car intelligent trend intensified, parts giant, Internet companies, automobile companies layout under the condition of this area, the "wheel" battle will increasingly fierce, and who first occupied the commanding heights in the battle, who are likely to dominate the future automobile industry development initiative.