In mid-June, Xiaomi Company official website began to launch various positions on autonomous driving, and the topic of building cars on the Internet, which had been silent for a period of time, revived.
From May 1 1, Zhou, the founder and chairman of 360 Group, announced that he would lead the bid for Nezha Auto Series D financing. The lively intelligent driving track had a quiet day, and no new entrants told the story of "building a car".
Although the development path and their respective advantages are different, and the product experience and business logic are also different, the smart driving automobile industry chain in China, which is jointly promoted by traditional car companies, cross-border giants and Internet technology companies, is maturing.
However, those who have already entered the market may not have the last laugh. Getting the right to speak in the market requires innovation, and it takes a lot of efforts to get on the road safely.
Don't be scared away by the car foam.
With Wei Lai, Tucki and the ideal "three brothers making cars" gaining a firm foothold one after another, people's doubts about internet car-making have increasingly turned to encouragement, but they have not alleviated their worries about the car-making bubble.
In the car-building boom, pathfinders in Ranger, Baiteng, Lindsay and other industries stumbled, leaving behind abandoned parks and semi-finished factories. Although dazzling, the concept of smart cars was deeply rooted in people's hearts.
"We should all believe in the power of the market. It doesn't matter if a swarm of bees rush in. In the end, ordinary people will vote with facts and cast the final winner. " In Zhou's view, the bubble obviously exists, but without the bubble, there would be no motivation and capital for enterprise innovation, and there would be no influx of talents.
Around 2000, the nirvana of science and technology industry after the internet bubble provided support for Zhou's theory.
Different from the myth that going public today means getting rich, when China Internet companies such as Sina, Sohu and Netease landed on Nasdaq one after another, the bursting of the Internet bubble in the United States made Internet companies in China encounter a serious survival crisis.
After the bubble burst, the global Internet industry ushered in a deep reshuffle, the rise of Internet technology giants such as Apple, Google and Amazon, and the establishment of the Internet ecosystem represented by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent in China, and the whole industry entered a vigorous innovation cycle.
In addition to the new car-buying consumer groups do not exclude the Internet marketing and service model, the fundamental reason for the rise of the new Internet car-making force is that smart cars need strong digital technology support.
Chen Xiaobing, a senior media person in the automotive industry, said: "The core competitiveness of smart cars is an effective combination of a series of technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, 5G, big data, AI and automobile driving. It is the key to the technological competitiveness of smart cars and directly affects the consumption experience."
In Zhou's view, without the help of the internet, the car-making industry just changed the engine into a motor and the fuel tank into a battery according to the traditional car-making idea, which is only an improvement on the traditional basis and cannot be regarded as a subversive innovation.
Zhou believes that all the preparations of the IT industry in the past decade may break out in the industrial chain of smart driving cars.
Although the car-making track is a bit crowded, Zhou believes that there are still too few companies involved in building cars, and the field of smart driving cars needs enough competition and innovation so that ordinary users can enjoy the unique driving experience of high-end cars.
How many car factories the world can accommodate still needs market test, but what is certain is that once it enters the market, it means a bloody battle.
Enterprises build cars across borders, and all roads lead to the same goal.
If we simply classify the internet car-making, there are independent car-making factions such as Baidu and Xiaomi, and there are also joint car-making factions such as Huawei, Tencent and Ali. The main feature is to export technology to traditional car companies.
The choice of week pairs can be summed up in the latter. He chose Nezha Auto, and Nezha Auto has been ignored by netizens under the aura of Internet car-making. Zhou called it "gene complementation".
Whether it is personal commitment or teamwork, the progress of technological innovation is still the hottest "stalk" on the Internet.
On June 17, Baidu Apollo and ARCFOX Polar Fox released a new generation of mass-produced unmanned vehicle Apollo Moon. Both parties expect to launch 1000 * * unmanned vehicles in the next three years.
It is worth noting that, as an unmanned vehicle that can be operated on a large scale, the cost of Apollo Moon is 480,000 yuan, which is only one third of the average cost of L4 self-driving vehicles in the industry, which provides a greater possibility for * * * to enjoy unmanned vehicles and truly go to large-scale commercialization.
In fact, empowering the Internet concept, expanding the intelligent ecology and increasing the number and viscosity of users are the core business models for enterprises to build cars across borders. No matter which road you choose, almost all automobile manufacturers have to bear huge cost pressure and adapt to new innovation directions.
It is estimated that by 2025, the penetration rate of smart cars in China will reach 82% and the number will reach 28 million; By 2030, the penetration rate will reach 95%, about 38 million vehicles.
Massive numbers mean that people, people and roads, people and cars, and people and platforms will establish all-round contacts. When everything can be programmed and interconnected, data-driven business has become the main feature of innovation in the automobile industry, and it makes sense to say that "traditional automobile enterprises are becoming computer peripherals of Huawei and other enterprises".
When the new car-making forces leverage the supply chain, car-making technology and scientific and technological means of traditional car companies to continuously enrich the functions of cars, the driving experience different from traditional cars has become a weapon for them to attract consumers.
Not only that, the banner of "equal rights in science and technology" played by 360 put forward the concept of "building cars for the people", building cars for consumers who have not bought their first cars, and it is expected to become a reality because of more applications of technology.
Zhou believes that in the past, only a few million luxury cars had so many IT capabilities, and making cars on the Internet can let ordinary people enjoy these intelligent cockpits and intelligent driving capabilities.
Personal biometric information security is very important.
When cars are upgraded from human-controlled vehicles to intelligent tools such as computers and mobile phones, once they are attacked by the network, the consequences are unimaginable.
Zhou believes that as long as there is contact with the outside world, there will always be loopholes, so the simulation attack test of smart car networking security is as important as the car collision test.
In addition to strengthening vehicle safety protection technology, legislation to strengthen the protection of personal information and important data, and standardize vehicle data processing, there are also high voices. The information security of automobile industry and users needs all-round security barriers.
The "Several Provisions on the Safety Management of Automobile Data (Draft for Comment)" drafted by the National Internet Information Office in conjunction with relevant departments clearly defined the scope of important automobile-related data for the first time, and put forward the obligation of data processing and reporting for the first time.
Yang Diange, the first president of Tsinghua University Vehicle and Transportation Research Institute, said in an interview with the media that the management documents stipulated the data collection, transmission, storage, management, use and transmission in the R&D, design, manufacture, use and management of smart cars.
Yang Diange said that before, the data management of smart cars in China was basically blank. Under the guidance of this management regulation, enterprises can carry out research and development of smart car-related technologies, which is very helpful for the healthy development of China's smart car industry.
From the user's point of view, the lack of consumer security caused by the deep binding between smart phones and users has been brought into the field of smart travel, and the contradiction between user information collection and disclosure cannot be avoided.
Article 10 of the Administrative Regulations proposes that biometric data such as driver's fingerprint, voiceprint, face and heart rate can be collected only for the convenience of users and the purpose of improving the safety of vehicle-mounted electronic and information systems, and at the same time, alternative methods of biometric characteristics should be provided.
Yang Diange pointed out that this is to remind car companies that it is very sensitive and important to use the user's personal biological status information as little as possible in the research and development of smart car functions.
Without personal biometric information, many functions of smart cars cannot be realized. Only by collecting this information can the intelligent driving function be better realized.
Yang Diange emphasized that users have every right to refuse to use these functions and not provide such information. In other words, users can not provide this information, but car companies must provide corresponding services.
When it comes to this management regulation, Chen Xiaobing thinks it really caters to the needs of consumers. For example, in the setting of related functions and data collection, car companies should let users know that personal data is being collected in real time and can be closed at any time in the simplest and most convenient way.
Unlike smart phones, smart cars collect road environment data in real time during driving. Therefore, in addition to personal information security, the social security problems that may be caused by smart driving cars cannot be ignored. In this regard, the management regulations put forward the requirements of data localization in relevant chapters.