![]() With these tech juggernauts joining the race, Chinese car companies are being forced to up their tech game to have a chance of competing.Īt the end of the day, is that a good thing? I’m not sure. Even Huawei, forced by US sanctions to reinvent itself, is now targeting smart cars as its next strategic focus. Xiaomi, one of China’s smartphone giants, has spent nearly a billion dollars on becoming an EV company. Autonomous driving tech is one of Baidu’s main focuses now that it has transitioned from a search engine to an AI company. Then they will start adding more features and trying to charge you,” he says.Ĭhinese car companies aren’t just becoming tech companies, Chinese tech companies are also turning into car companies. “Once more and more EVs on Chinese roads have ADAS -the free systems and the premium systems-then we will get to servicification. The third phase is not far away, he believes. “The United States and Europe are in phase one, electrification China is in phase two, smartification,” Tu says. That enables the Chinese auto industry to hop on the next phase earlier than everyone else. (While the first two are easy to understand, the third phase means the auto companies’ business models revolve around selling services, and the fourth phase means the proliferation of robotaxis.)Īs I wrote earlier this year, China has managed to achieve a significant lead with the development and adoption of EVs, through a mix of different factors like government subsidies and battery tech innovations. Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights, a business consulting firm that specializes in transportation, breaks down the ongoing auto industry evolution into four phases: electrification, smartification, servicification, and autonomization. But that transition is happening even faster in China. Globally, this trend is spearheaded by Tesla, with traditional auto brands slowly playing catch-up. Beyond horsepower and exterior/interior design, companies are now also competing on who can adapt the latest technology into a consumer-facing product. Meanwhile, as batteries make up the majority of the costs and upkeep of an EV model, NIO also launched a monthly battery-swap service in China and a monthly battery-rental subscription in Europe.Īll of these examples show that we are increasingly seeing auto companies turn into tech companies. ![]() In the future, they will be able to pay double the amount for a more advanced version. By paying 380 RMB ($52) a month, NIO owners can get the basic version of an NOA system in their cars, which works on highways and major urban roads. ![]() NIO, one of the frontrunner companies in China’s homegrown EV industry, has embraced the subscription model. Not only was everyone boasting about their brand’s autonomous driving capabilities, but companies were also showcasing all kinds of other advanced software features.įor example, SenseTime, an AI company, uses facial recognition tech to monitor driver fatigue and also to identify children left in the car SAIC Volkswagen is using augmented reality to display map information on the windshield Baidu is incorporating its generative AI model in the in-car audio chatbot for route planning. ![]() Zhang’s observation is consistent with what I saw this year, particularly when I went to the massive auto show this April in Shanghai. It’d be hard for auto brands to sell their cars if they didn’t advertise their products this way,” he said. Consumers are expecting those vehicles to be tech products, like smartphones. “The auto industry is very competitive now. You can read all of it here.īut during my interview with Zhang Xiang, a Chinese auto industry analyst and visiting professor at Huanghe Science and Technology College, one comment stuck out to me. This morning, I published a story that took a closer look at how city NOAs have become the industry darling in 2023, including how they actually perform and the difficulty in educating drivers on using the system responsibly. These software systems are not quite fully autonomous driving-your hands are still supposed to be holding the wheel-but they let cars stop, steer, and accelerate in the city by themselves.īoth EV makers and AI startups have published aggressive roadmaps for national rollouts of their city NOA services, claiming their customers in dozens or hundreds of Chinese cities will soon be able to experience being driven by their cars through narrow city streets. This year, car buyers in China are constantly bombarded with claims about how advanced Navigation on Autopilot (NOA) systems are coming to their city.
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