One after another, Chinese technology giants have announced their plans for the auto space throughout the past couple of months. Some internet businesses, such as search engine provider Baidu, made a decision to recruit support from a conventional carmaker to create cars. Xiaomi, which makes its smartphones but has stressed for many years it’s a light-asset firm earning money from software services, additionally jumped onto the automaking bandwagon. Industry observers are now speculating who is going to be the following. Huawei obviously comes to their heads.
Huawei seems well-suited for constructing cars — more capable than some of the pure net companies — thanks to its history in manufacturing and supply chain management, brand recognition, and huge retail network. But the telecom gear and smartphone maker repeatedly denied reports claiming that it was launching a car manufacturer. Instead, it says its function will function as a Tier 1 provider to get automakers or OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).
Huawei is not a carmaker, the firm ’s rotating chairman Eric Xu reiterated lately at the company ’s annual analyst conference at Shenzhen.
“Since 2012, I have personally engaged with the chairmen and CEOs of all major car OEMs in China as well as executives of German and Japanese automakers. During this procedure, I discovered that the automotive industry demands Huawei. It doesn’t want the Huawei brand, but instead, it requires our ICT [information and communication technologies ] expertise to help construct future-oriented vehicles,” said Xu, who explained the strategy hasn’t changed because it was incepted at 2018.
There are 3 big roles in auto production: branded automobile manufacturers such as Audi, Honda, Tesla, and soon Apple; Tier 1 firms that supply car components and systems directly to carmakers, including established ones such as Bosch and Continental, and now Huawei; and lastly, chip providers including Nvidia, Intel and NXP, whose function is increasingly crucial as industry players make strides toward vehicles that are highly automated. Huawei also makes in-house car chips.
“Huawei wants to function as next-generation Bosch,” a executive from a Chinese robotaxi startup advised TechCrunch, requesting not to be called.
Huawei makes its position as a Tier 1 provider unequivocal. Up to now it has procured three major customers: BAIC, Chang’an Automobile, along with Guangzhou Automobile Group.
“We won’t have too many of these types of in-depth cooperation,” Xu ensured.
L4 independence?
Image Credits: Arcfox Alpha S ,, (opens in a new window)
Arcfox, a brand new electric passenger car manufacturer beneath state-owned carmaker BAIC, debuted its Alpha S model quipped with Huawei’s “HI” systems, short for Huawei Inside (not as “Powered by Intel”), throughout China’s annual car show on Saturday. The electric sedan, priced between 388,900 yuan and 429,900 yuan (roughly $60,000 and $66,000), comes with Huawei functions including an operating system driven by Huawei’s Kirin chip, a selection of apps that run on HarmonyOS, automated driving, rapid charging, and cloud computing.
Maybe most eye-catching is that Alpha S has achieved Level 4 capacities, which Huawei confirmed with TechCrunch.
This ’s a bold statement, for it means that the car will not require human intervention in most situations, that is, drivers can take their hands off the wheels and nap.
There are a number of nuances to this particular claim, however. In a current interview, Su Qing, general director for autonomous driving Huawei, said Alpha S is L4 in terms of “experience” but L2 according to “lawful ” responsibilities. China has only allowed a few companies to test autonomous vehicles without safety drivers in restricted places and is far from letting consumer-grade driverless cars float metropolitan streets.
As it turned out, Huawei’s “L4” works were shown during a presentation, through which the Arcfox automobile traveled for 1,000 kilometers in a busy Chinese town without human intervention, though a safety driver was present at the driving seat. Automating the vehicle is a stack of sensors, such as three lidars, six millimeter-wave radars, 13 ultrasonic radars along with 12 cameras, as well as Huawei’s chipset for automated driving.
“This would be a lot better compared to Tesla,” Xu said of the car’s capacities.
But some argue the Huawei-powered automobile isn’t L4 by rigorous definition. The debate seems to be a matter of semantics.
“Our cars that you see now are L4, however I can assure you, I dare not allow the driver leave the vehicle,” Su explained. “Before you achieve really major MPI [miles per intervention] amounts, don’t even mention L4. It’s all just demos. ”
“It’s not L4 if you can’t eliminate the safety driver,” the executive from the robotaxi firm argued. “A presentation can be accomplished readily, but removing the driver is very tricky. ”
“This technology that Huawei asserts differs from L4 autonomous driving,” said a director working for another Chinese autonomous vehicle startup. “The current challenge for L4 is not whether it could be driverless but the way to become driverless in any way times. ”
L4 or maybe perhaps not, Huawei is certainly willing to splurge about the future of driving. This season, the firm is on course to invest more than $1 billion on clever vehicle components and technology, Xu said at the analyst occasion.
A 5G future
Many believe 5G will play an integral role in accelerating the growth of driverless vehicles. Huawei, the planet ’s largest telecom gear maker, could have a whole lot to benefit from from 5G rollouts throughout the world, but Xu argued the next-gen wireless technology isn’t a requirement for self-driving cars.
“To make autonomous driving a reality, the vehicles themselves have to be sovereign. That usually means a vehicle can drive without external support,” said the executive.
“Completely relying on 5G or 5.5G for sovereign driving will inevitably lead to problems. Imagine if a 5G site goes wrong? That would raise a very significant bar for mobile network operators. They would have to make sure their networks cover every corner, don’t move at any circumstances and have elevated levels of endurance. I think that’s only an irrational expectation. ”
Huawei might be pleased enough as a Tier 1 provider if it ends up shooting over Bosch’s economy. Many Chinese businesses are shifting away from Western technology providers towards homegrown choices in expectation of future sanctions or only to seek cheaper alternatives that are equally as robust. Arcfox is just the beginning of Huawei’s car ambitions.
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