What's the best smart car? Experts explain the truth of Tesla's popularity

[Auto Home? Industry]? In the downturn of the automobile market environment, Tesla as a representative of the smart car companies but the counter-trend growth, the market value soared all the way to the top of the list of car companies, causing the automobile circle, the science and technology circle and the majority of investors a great deal of attention. Why is Tesla unique and soaring? In the future, where is the core value and competitiveness of intelligent cars? How should China's auto industry establish future-oriented competitiveness, and what are the other entrepreneurial opportunities?

On August 14th, the 2nd issue of "Focus Observation Room" of China Electric Vehicle Association (CEVA) went on line, focusing on the topic of "Core Value and Competitiveness of Intelligent Vehicles", with Dai Yifan, Director of Intelligent Network Center of Suzhou Automotive Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Xu Daquan, Executive Vice President of Bosch China, Xu Junhai, Director of New Energy Technology Center of GAC, and Xu Junhai, Deputy General Manager of Tencent Telematics, Mr. Xing Hui, Deputy General Manager of Tencent Telematics, Mr. He Xiongsong, Executive General Manager of Cintao Capital, and Mr. Wu Dexin, Content Director of Automotive Heart, discussed the topic.

Topic 1) The driving force behind Tesla's hot sales and soaring valuation against the trend: definition of innovation, intelligence, big layout of energy and travel, brand power, and time barrier.

Dai Yifan: EV is just a carrier, and a big reason why Tesla sells well or has a high valuation is still in the intelligentization, internet connection, self-driving function, and the technology route is relatively bold and radical. A lot of things supplier system can not keep up with Tesla's footsteps, it does its own chips, algorithms, do a lot of things. Coupled with the value of its own brand, not only in the automotive field, but also Musk's personal rockets and other fields, comprehensively speaking, the brand value is built very high. The above points cause Tesla is now a special phenomenon of everyone's enthusiasm.

Xu Daquan: just build a car to sell this part of the valuation should not be more than the public 70 billion dollars. The other 200 billion dollars from what place? Innovation as well as the brand effect and to the entire industry to bring the impulse, this value of 100 billion. Another 100 billion, from Elon?Musk this person's added value.

Tesla does have its own unique place, one is to create a new era of electric vehicles, China set up so many new car-making forces, there is the influence of Tesla. Second, innovative thinking, the introduction of new technologies, ideas and internal processes are completely different from traditional OEMs. Third, software-defined cars, Tesla is also a pioneer in this field. Fourth, Musk's personal charisma, for the future of the firm commitment to bring great confidence to investors.

Xu Junhai: The stock market is looking at the future, and Tesla is not only making electric cars, but also energy storage. His goal is not to sell how many thousands of cars, in fact, he is playing a bigger game of chess, the goal is to disrupt the entire energy industry. In addition, he is also doing autopilot, and has made a layout in the future of travel. From the two aspects of energy and travel, it is not difficult to see why the stock market is enthusiastic about it, the future development has great potential.

Xing Hui: Tesla has had a strong impact on the user's perception of the brand, technology products should have what kind of product power. In this case, the traditional car companies and how to accelerate the innovation, at least it will let the user in the brand will produce a fixed impression. Tesla's judgment on the future direction of the product and the purchasing power of users is very strong, and the sales volume is a matter of course.

He Xiongsong: Looking at Tesla's valuation from a higher dimension, the core is the victory of the route, and its high market value means that people are more and more recognizing electric vehicles. Tesla is the earliest and most determined company in the electric car industry, and the most successful one at present, and it has already accumulated greater advantages in the supply chain and technical reserve of the core three electric systems and intelligent driving system. These traditional car companies want to do can also, but it will take time, this is Tesla's barriers.

Topic 2) Traditional car companies face many challenges in the process of intelligent transformation

Xu Daquan: After hundreds of years of refinement, traditional companies have their inherent strengths in the details of car manufacturing, processes, quality control, safety, etc., which are both strengths and weaknesses at the same time. This weakness is mainly manifested in when a new technology comes, how to quickly put into the market, the traditional automobile internal system, decision-making process, new car development process and so on have produced constraints.

Tesla can't avoid the change of their business model. Super factory operation mode, build charging piles to provide charging services, direct stores, online marketing, which for the traditional OEMs is necessary to replace the concept at the same time to catch up with the place.

And then there's the data. Tesla has collected all the in-vehicle data and analyzed users' habits since the Model?S hit the market. Traditional OEMs are not good at doing this, and now the situation forces them to do it. From the perspective of traditional OEMs, including Tier 1 traditional manufacturing companies, it is becoming very, very important to introduce new thinking and change the traditional decision-making inherent within the company, as well as the processes of quality, technology, and launch.

Everyone is chasing Tesla today, but from a technology perspective alone, it is possible for a traditional automaker to technically catch up with Tesla or even surpass Tesla.

Xu Junhai: Tesla actually pioneered EV+ICV. Traditional car companies such as Volkswagen and Toyota feel that Tesla is more ahead of them in the following aspects, one is the electronic and electrical architecture. Traditional car companies still use distributed architecture, and it is very difficult to update the software. Tesla builds a new architecture, which is very favorable to the later software-defined car.

But Tesla's current architecture is not the most desirable ultimate architecture, the ultimate architecture should be centralized computing + domain control. Tesla is currently between the state of domain control and centralized computing, everyone has not reached the ultimate architecture, in the same starting line.

On the other hand, whether it's autopilot or NIC, a closed loop of data must be formed in order to keep updating and iterating. Tesla is very strong in autopilot and has formed a closed loop of data. But it's not a leader in Internet connectivity and smart cockpits, which Chinese car companies can quickly surpass.

Xing Hui: Tesla is ahead of the curve on the route of electric intelligence, because it is clearer about what it wants, what resources it has at each stage, and what it can do. There is no absolute barriers, only time barriers, today is still very optimistic about the potential of domestic car companies in this regard.

He Xiongsong: Electric vehicle is a new product system, the talent, organizational structure, supply chain requirements are different, and need to carry out a deep transformation in the corporate genes. The advantages of the past success of traditional car companies have become resistance, and it is very difficult to jump out.

If traditional car companies want to make a breakthrough, external cooperation and investment in startups may be a good way to do it. China's startups are very energetic, and investment institutions are willing to invest in electrification and intelligent driving, which will certainly come out with very good startups and teams. If traditional car companies can connect with external teams for R&D and innovation, it may be more efficient and flexible than doing it on their own.

Topic 3) Shift in the value chain of the automotive supply chain

Xu Daquan: There are two levels. On the one hand, private cars have to be more attractive to customers, and new IT connectivity technologies, better entertainment systems, real-time troubleshooting systems, and driver-assistance systems have to be introduced to increase the customer experience.

On the other level, if travel services are the trend of the future, it is likely that one or two travel service providers will turn into the top of the ecological chain, such as DDT, Uber, Lyft. the pattern will change a lot, and maybe there is no longer a need for so many OEMs that build different cars.?

Xu Junhai: the original with the supplier is just a hammer deal, only the next model will consider how to make new changes, now will be with the supplier for continuous iteration and upgrade.

From the point of view of the pricing model, although manufacturers have invested more in research and development, hardware and software costs, but can be constantly upgraded to charge consumers for services. The key is that car companies can provide a service experience that exceeds expectations.

Topic 4) The key for China's automotive industry to build up the core capability of intelligent vehicles: organizational innovation, talent introduction, and innovation definition?

Xu Daquan: Traditional enterprises must adjust their strategies. Bosch was thinking about what to do a few years ago, and set up the Intelligent Network Division to centralize automotive and internet connection into one breakthrough. Starting January 1 next year, Bosch will also set up a new division to integrate the power control domain, body control domain, autonomous driving domain, intelligent cockpit domain, into one division. This team of 17,000 people, with a yearly investment of 3 billion euros (about 25 billion yuan), will spend a huge effort to develop and define the future of automotive software.

Responding to new technologies and future changes through changes in business units will involve cutting lengthy decision-making processes within the company, bringing in talent from the IT industry, expanding collaborations, and investing in new innovative companies. It's also important to consider who you will serve in the future. In the past, Bosch has mainly served traditional OEMs, and the future defines many new customers.

The biggest challenge in moving from hardware to software is still the shift in thinking. We have to bring in talents, many of whom come from the IT industry, and it is a great challenge to see whether the original salary and benefits can attract and keep them.

Xu Junhai: in the organization to do the innovation of the institutional mechanism, to do intelligent alone is not enough to rely on the car companies themselves, can be done through the industrial alliance. In the talent piece, the more needed is a composite talent, both know the software and understand the future direction of the car.

More importantly, companies from the innovation point of view to re-examine what kind of car to do in the future. Now there is a lack of product managers to define the future of the car, because there is no place to benchmark, to rely on their own to think, strategy is more important than technology.

Topic 7) Openness will become an important trend in the development of automotive software

Xu Junhai: Tesla's software openness may be a twofold consideration, on the one hand, for the future of L4-level autonomous driving, software must be developed in the direction of openness, and autonomous driving and Internet connectivity will require the participation of more data to form a closed loop of data. Tesla's open-source software should also be based on the consideration of obtaining more data and iterating faster.

On the other hand, a self-driving car is equivalent to a robot, and many countries will restrict foreign brands of self-driving vehicles for safety reasons. Whether Tesla is trying to show that it's safe and harmless, and that it can be monitored by the state, could be a consideration on both counts.

Guangzhou Automobile has already opened up the ADiGO platform, including hardware and software, and will also go in the direction of openness when doing L4 autonomous driving and future ICVs.

'GAC ADiGO (Intelligent Driving Interconnection) Ecosystem'

Topic 6) Domestic landing of intelligent networked autonomous driving lacks in the basic layer

Dai Yifan: Overall, the more we move towards the basic layer of intelligent vehicles the more we lack, and the more we move towards the application layer the better we are developing. Some of the products involved in the foundation of the intelligent networked car chips, electronic devices, the underlying software, sensors are often overlooked.

The advantage lies in the communication and network connection, to promote vehicle-road coordination, network connection, there is strong support from the national policy. There are also mines, ports, sweepers, logistics vehicles, self-driving minibuses and many other application scenarios to land, a large number of test and demonstration bases in the country to promote the development of these applications forward.

Topic 7) There are still many entrepreneurial opportunities in the field of autonomous driving and Telematics

He Xiongsong: the time node is very important, the driverless cab really need a long time to land, but the specific scene of the L4 company in two to three years the probability of success will land, this is a very good opportunity, the inflection point of the revenue and profit will soon be coming.

Xu Daquan: Now is still in the era of warring states, no one really a dominant completely won. There are a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities in this situation. Bosch is more concerned about the hydrogen fuel cell, which is divided into electric pile, system integration, core components, automatic driving with LiDAR technology, sensor perception fusion, image processing technology, decision-making control based on AI, the car's precise positioning, vehicle-circuit coordination V2X technology, roadside units, etc., there are a lot of opportunities to consider. (Editor/Automotive House? Du Junyi)