With the increasingly fierce competition of high-level intelligent drivers, the industry pattern and the rules of the game are quietly changing.
Whoever can not be left behind in the technological competition and can quickly achieve a breakthrough in mass production will be able to occupy the market advantage.
In this context, gathering the advantage resources of the industry has become particularly important, it is obviously difficult to fight alone, and ecological competition has become a new main theme.
Some time ago, Tencent deepened strategic cooperation with Bosch China, which not only attracted widespread attention inside and outside the industry, but also became an example of the industry’s increasing emphasis on building ecology and forming joint forces to meet the increasingly fierce competition in the automobile market.
Figure source: Bosch intelligent driving control, strong cooperation, the general trend, Bosch and Tencent cooperation for a long time.
Since signing the first Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation in September 2020, Bosch and Tencent teams have jointly launched a series of intelligent and innovative applications to the market.
This year, with the OTA of ES, Bosch ushered in a new turning point in the field of high-end intelligent driving.
The support and service of Tencent also played an important role when Bosch China was able to mass-produce high-level intelligent driving solutions so quickly.
According to Wu Yongqiao, president of Bosch Intelligent driving and Control Division in China, Bosch screened among a number of well-known Chinese companies around 2020 and finally chose Tencent as its partner.
Tencent was the first company to build a self-driving proprietary cloud in China, and Bosch became its first customer.
With the development of self-driving technology, enterprises have an increasing demand for data security and customized services, giving birth to the concept of proprietary cloud.
Private clouds have more advantages in terms of efficiency and security compliance than public clouds.
And with the continuous maturity of cloud computing and artificial intelligence technology, the application of autopilot proprietary cloud in data processing, model training, simulation testing and other aspects is gradually expanding.
It is reported that Bosch plans to introduce a high-level intelligent driving solution based on no-map solution to the market by the end of 2024, covering many cities.
Tencent provides proprietary cloud services in this solution, which is the first time in the industry to use proprietary cloud technology.
Specifically, Bosch deploys the data and some applications of this mass production solution to Tencent Intelligent car proprietary Cloud, and uses the flexible and scalable computing cluster provided by Tencent to carry out efficient model algorithm training, data processing, simulation and other work, so as to promote the mass production and upgrade iteration of high-level smart driving.
Tencent is an ecological enterprise, it does not have a great desire to monopolize a certain field or control partners.
On the contrary, Tencent is willing to share resources as a partner to support Bosch’s development, which is completely different from other enterprises.
” Wu Yongqiao spoke bluntly.
Touyuan: Tencent Smart Travel, based on the above characteristics, coupled with Tencent’s outstanding ability in data compliance, and has the qualification of graphic merchants, can provide complete services, Bosch will join hands with Tencent.
In fact, the cooperation between us is 1: 1 greater than 2.
Tencent provides more general-purpose technology, while Bosch has a deep understanding in its field, and we have a cooperative relationship.
” Liu Shuquan, vice president of Tencent Smart Travel, commented.
In the new round of strategic cooperation memorandum, Bosch and Tencent make it clear that they will further deepen the cooperation in the field of intelligent driving intelligence module business.
On the basis of the achievements made, we will continue to consolidate cooperation in the fields of cloud + AI and globalization, and jointly explore cooperation in such fields as autopilot cloud and map, intelligent cockpit AI large model application, assisting local car companies in overseas business, building hybrid cloud base and AI large model enabling enterprise application, etc.
Advanced intelligent driving, internal competition, at present, high-level intelligent driving is in a critical period of rapid development.
The gradual upgrading of self-driving technology from L2 to L4, as well as breakthroughs in new technologies from map to non-map and end-to-end, not only marks a leap at the technical level, but also indicates a profound adjustment of the market pattern.
Compared with companies such as Huawei and Tesla, which have been deeply cultivated in this field for many years, Bosch, as a pursuer, has made remarkable progress in only about three years, and has revealed the profound heritage of a hundred-year-old industry giant.
Tuyuan: Bosch intelligent driving control, but Wu Yongqiao also sighed: “indeed experienced a lot of twists and turns in the middle, and Tencent provided us with a lot of services during this period.
” At present, Bosch’s high-level smart drive mass production project is still based on Gaojing map and has been launched in five cities.
The next map-free solution is to be launched, in which navigation maps are also developed in cooperation with Tencent.
Although non-mapping has been continuously raised by the industry in the past two years, very few breakthroughs have been made.
Wu Yongqiao points out, “at present, some of the unmapped plans on the market may still be light maps.
” Liu Shuquan admitted that at present, from the high-precision map scheme to the realization of pure no map, there are still some situations that need to use the light map scheme as a transition.
In the face of complex road conditions such as major intersections, off-ramps, toll stations and lane merging and separation, it is still necessary to use light map scheme.
These scenarios usually involve more traffic dynamics and potential risks, so supplementary information through light maps can provide additional security.
For other relatively simple road conditions, whether straight roads or detours, no map scheme can be used for navigation and decision-making.
The emergence of end-to-end provides a new possibility for autopilot, and it is also one of the important grasps to realize autopilot without map.
Bosch has a clear mass production schedule for end-to-end non-drawing solutions.
Bosch began to deploy a two-stage map-free solution at the beginning of the year and launched Demo in the first half of this year.
In December this year, Bosch will mass produce a two-stage end-to-end map-free solution, and it is expected to achieve mass production in the middle of next year, which is basically in line with the mainstream players in the industry.
Wu Yongqiao judged: “next year, only 1 or 2 enterprises in China should be able to achieve an one-stage model, and by around 2026, we will implement a framework solution based on the world model.
” At present, there are not many enterprises that can really achieve one-segment end-to-end.
The one-stage scheme connects seamlessly from perception to predictive planning, which ensures the complete transmission of information and avoids the possible problem of information loss in the multi-stage scheme.
And because all the processing steps are integrated into one model, the overall response speed of the system may be faster, which is particularly important for self-driving scenarios with high real-time requirements.
, butOnce there are problems in the middle, the whole system is like a “black box”, which is difficult to debug accurately.
All the processing steps are closely coupled, which makes the positioning and solution of the problem more complex.
In the longer term, the world model is a development direction of autopilot technology, and its advantage lies in its strong generalization ability and adaptability, but it is also faced with the challenges of large amount of training data and high demand for computing resources.
This change needs to be realized step by step, not overnight.
Gradually transition from two-stage end-to-end to one-stage end-to-end, and finally realize the application of the world model, this roadmap has gradually become a consensus in the industry, and the key to the smooth development of this route lies in financial support and long-term strategic commitment.
Bosch is not actually bound by capital and can stick to its own strategic strength for a long time.
” Wu Yongqiao said confidently.
In addition, Bosch has a comprehensive layout in terms of the core elements of autopilot such as computing power, algorithms and data: in terms of computing power, Bosch cooperates with Tencent to use GPU computing power.
in terms of algorithms, Bosch has five Academia Sinica around the world and has developed rapidly with in-depth cooperation with a number of universities.
At the data level, Bosch is gradually expanding its mainframe factory customers.
Wu Yongqiao said: “We work with big customers to obtain high-quality data.
” Customers also need high-quality data and guaranteed capacity input to enhance the end-to-end experience, which is a win-win process.
So in the future competition, the core competence, I think, is high-quality data, which is the core factor of how far and fast the end-to-end model can go.
” Among them, as a supplier, how to deal with the relationship with the mainframe factory is also the key.
Wu Yongqiao believes that once smart driving becomes standard, it will become a standard part, and the mainframe factory will not develop it on its own.
“now many mainframe factories have to carry out team integration, I think in the future where the end customer experience is different, the mainframe factory may do it by itself, and other common things will not be done by themselves, because the cost is too high.
” If you survive, you will have a future.
the ring will be hot, and there will be winners and losers, and it is already obvious that some star enterprises that were originally powerful are being eliminated.
The capital and technological investment consumed by electrification is controllable, but the capital, manpower and material resources required for intelligence are not controllable at present.
Not many enterprises can have so much determination, capital, technology, talent and infrastructure to support intelligence, so intelligence will eliminate a large number of enterprises.
” Wu Yongqiao said frankly.
With the increasingly fierce price war, the smart driving market has been obviously divided, from basic ADAS to high-level smart driving market, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce.
As the forefront of the industry, high-level smart driving is gradually infiltrating from the luxury car market to the middle and low-end models.
Wu Yongqiao estimated that by 2027 at the latest, 60% to 70% of the models in the 100000 to 150000 price range will be equipped with mid-class smart driving function, and high-level smart driving may take some time, because the cost is still high, but it will also speed up getting on the car.
With the increase in market demand, enterprises that are unable to provide high cost-effective smart driving functions in the future will undoubtedly be eliminated.
What kind of enterprise can survive? Liu Shuquan said that the future competition in the industry will mainly focus on capital and talent.
The development trend of an industry is often the process of gradually eliminating bubbles and gathering resources.
At present, the focus of global automobile production is mainly concentrated in the United States, China, Germany, Japan and South Korea.
In these central areas, alliances or mergers are likely to happen.
In Wu Yongqiao’s view, when the technology is mature, the enterprises with strong engineering ability, sufficient cash flow and advanced consciousness must be able to survive and live very well.
On the whole, the competition in the field of advanced intelligent driving has entered a new stage.
At this stage, technological innovation, mass production capacity and ecological cooperation have become the key factors to determine whether enterprises can stand out.
The cooperation between Bosch and Tencent is a successful example, which greatly accelerates the landing of high-level intelligent driving solutions through resource sharing and technology complementarity.
With the intensification of market competition, we may see more cases of such cooperation and integration in the next few years.
These cooperation is not only to cope with the current competitive pressure, but also to occupy a favorable position in the future technological innovation.
The cooperation between enterprises will no longer be limited to a single field or technical level, but to build a more perfect ecosystem, covering many links from hardware manufacturing to software development, from data processing to security certification.
In this process, those enterprises that can quickly adapt to market changes and continue to promote technological innovation may become the ultimate winners.
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