The reality of the Apple Car is still a question mark (?).
Will Apple produce the car directly or will it be commissioned and sold like the iPhone? Will the Apple OS be in a pure state in a new car, or will it be a combination of an electric car and an autonomous vehicle? There is still a lot of speculation around the Apple Car.
According to the opinions of foreign media and experts so far, it is predicted that the realistic appearance of the Apple car may be similar to that of Tesla.
Tesla tries to differentiate itself as if it resembles Apple
The basis of the Apple car is likely to be an electric vehicle composed of a powertrain such as a motor and a battery. If this plan becomes a reality, the Apple Car’s real competitor could be Tesla.
According to foreign media that have appeared several times, it is known that Apple wants to create a new level of lithium iron phosphate battery that existing electric vehicle makers cannot. As Hyundai Motor Company and others are actively developing electric vehicles equipped with new battery technology, it is speculated that Hyundai Motor and Apple collaboration will be possible.
A necessary condition for Apple to produce a decent electric vehicle is securing a factory site.
Tesla is building additional giga factories in Texas and Berlin, Germany. Giga Factory used to be a factory to make batteries, but now it has reached the level of making finished cars yourself. Tesla has completed the Giga Factory in Shanghai, China, and is starting to produce Model 3 and Model Y for export to China.
Tesla does not outsource vehicle production. It is famous as a company that unifies all processes from vehicle production to sales.
In contrast, Apple is familiar with the outsourcing culture. The iPhone is not produced by itself, but is produced on consignment through Foxconn in Taiwan.
It is known that Apple is in contact with various global automobile companies such as Hyundai Motor Group. It is analyzed for the purpose of finding a cooperative partner who can produce vehicles designed by them.
The atmosphere is dominated by Apple’s unsuccessful attempts. According to Reuters, the Hyundai Motor Group reported that it could not produce cars for Apple alone. It turns out that BMW and Daimler have not received such an offer from Apple at one time.
Some point out that if Apple really needs to produce vehicles, it has to shift its business method 180 degrees. However, it is unlikely that the possibility will be realized.
If Apple’s own OS is applied to many new cars in the future, the situation could turn into a rather positive direction. Because Apple’s iPhone user experience is high, Tesla can also be nervous if the automotive OS becomes common.
Apple and Tesla have the ability to regularly update their software (SW). Apple has generalized the iOS and iPad (iPad) OS systems that can complement and upgrade the performance of the iPhone and iPad. In addition, the SW carplay for vehicles was strengthened.
Tesla also performed regular software upgrades similar to Apple. Recently, a software update was conducted that changed not only the vehicle digital cluster but also the center fascia display design.
We even prepared a connectivity subscription service. You can use YouTube, Twitch, and Netflix with this service. It is an analysis that it is marketing targeting Apple, which operates regular subscription services such as Apple Music.
Apple is expected to gradually develop Carplay software. In the distant future, it is expected that an OS system that allows users to freely enjoy Apple’s own content without an iPhone will be established.
The key to realizing the Apple OS system is software for vehicle driving assistance.
Tesla SW has also increased the ability to freely control the driving assistance SW. If you proceed with regular updates, you can perform more natural driving assistance.
It is said that Apple has not yet accumulated more data related to autonomous driving or driving assistance than Tesla. It is reported that the test car for autonomous driving developed by Apple is running around parts of the United States, but how the intermediate process for this test is going has not been confirmed.
Overall, Tesla is likely to make cars better than Apple, now and in the future.
Tesla unveiled the Model S and Model X, which drastically eliminated the shifting gear and vertical center fascia display. Inside the revealed vehicle, it appears when the infotainment function is executed, which is an analysis that could be Tesla’s own response with the possibility of developing Apple cars in the future. This is because Apple has finished the technology that allows you to enjoy various infotainment with iPhone and iPad.
“Apple car comes out”… Chinese IT company’autonomous driving + electric car’ rush
Greater China has the potential to become a region that fosters strong rivals for Apple cars while serving as a supply chain for Apple cars.
In terms of supply chain, there has been news that Apple Car’s own 7nm chip’A12 Bionic’ will be made at TSMC in Taiwan. In addition, as it is known that Foxconn, Apple’s largest partner, establishes a joint venture with China’s Gili Motors to establish a consignment production plant for automobiles, an analysis of whether it is producing Apple cars was also revealed. The iPhone supply chain, which has been in close cooperation with Apple, is moving toward a new target called Apple Car.
Looking at the competitive landscape, it can also be seen that the strongest potential future car companies that will compete against Apple Cars are taking the lead.
Mobile companies entering the future car market in China include Huawei and Oppo.
Huawei is the most active among Chinese smartphone companies in developing autonomous driving and electric vehicle-related automotive software and parts. It applied its own developed vehicle software platform to automobile companies such as BYD and WM motor.
Oppo, the second largest mobile brand in China, recently unveiled a patent for autonomous driving, raising expectations for mobile brand companies to enter the smart car market.
For now, it is difficult to predict as a direct competitor to Apple Cars, as it is unlikely that Huawei and Oppo will launch cars under their own brands.
The real competitors are Internet companies.
Internet-born Chinese IT companies are forming a future automobile ecosystem that combines self-driving cars and electric cars through a joint venture. It can be met as a competitor in the same direction in that Apple Cars will aim to become a model that combines self-driving cars and electric cars.
Although it does not directly manufacture cars, its orientation is similar to that of Apple cars in that it adopts a method of supplying a software platform under a brand or collaborating with a manufacturer.
Baidu, China’s largest search portal, has recently established an electric vehicle joint venture with Gili Motors, after supplying the autonomous driving platform Apollo to several global automakers.
It is a model that adds its own software to an electric vehicle made by a joint venture. In terms of the’IT company + traditional car’ partnership, in China, we made a discussion about the ‘2.0’ era that will shake the automobile industry in the future.
It is predicted that’Car Life’, which connects smartphones and clouds, will transform into the era of car purchase decisions.
Based on the electric vehicle platform’Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA)’ developed by Gili Motors with an investment of 18 billion yuan (about 3,115.2 billion won) over four years, Baidu has provided process, manufacturing and quality control technology. Cooperation in the form of responsibility for supply chain such as smart car design, R&D, manufacturing and sales services.
If Apple Car becomes a model to cooperate with traditional car companies, it is expected to be in the form of cooperation with companies that have competitiveness in electric vehicle platforms like Gili Motors.
Baidu’s Apollo platform has already been applied to more than 70 global car brands and more than 650 vehicle models, drawing the future of Car Life. With this technology, a robot taxi carrying citizen passengers is being tested. It received the world’s sixth test license for a real self-driving car without’safety personnel’ from DMV in San Francisco, USA.
Alibaba, an e-commerce company, established a joint venture with Shanghai Motors,’Zuji Motors’ to announce the electric car brand’IM (INTELLIGENCE IN MOTION)’ and introduced two electric car models on the 13th of last month. It is expected to be released within this year.
It is also a combined model of IT companies and traditional cars. Alibaba’s SW technology with cloud and artificial intelligence technology will be added to the joint venture electric vehicle. Alibaba also supports smart cockpit, chip development, and computation capabilities.
By securing electric vehicle battery technology, the energy density was increased to 300Wh/kg. By the end of this year, it has announced that it will introduce a point-to-point (P2P) autonomous driving function, and has announced that it will establish itself as a powerful smart car brand.
AutoX, an autonomous driving startup invested by Alibaba, has grown into a technology company in San Francisco, the United States, to acquire a driverless autonomous vehicle license for the second time after Google Waymo.
If Apple chooses to establish a joint venture with an automaker for Apple cars, it will face new competitors with similar business models to Baidu and Alibaba.
Gili Motors and Shanghai Motors are also cooperating with CATL, the largest electric vehicle battery company in China, and a partnership is expected to expand to battery companies.
In summary, it is a partnership of’IT companies + traditional car companies + electric vehicle batteries’ companies.
Here, it was revealed that Tencent also applied for a patent on autonomous driving on the 29th of last month following cooperation with China’s Changcheng Motor Company and other smart cars. It cannot be ignored as it is showing its strength in the field of in-vehicle digital infotainment systems based on its strong competitiveness in the social media and entertainment content ecosystem. Apple Car also has great similarities with Tencent in that it is trying to expand into an entertainment content ecosystem.
Not only traditional automobile manufacturers, but also Nio, Xiaofeng, Rioto, and WM Motors, which are counted among the rapidly rising four electric cars in China, are worth watching. These electric vehicle companies are developing autonomous driving technologies in cooperation with Internet companies in addition to their own electric vehicle technology. WM Motor recently announced the mass production of an autonomous vehicle capable of level 4 valet parking in partnership with Baidu.
These companies can also become potential opponents of Apple cars based on a solid electric vehicle supply chain and electric vehicle battery technology.
Chinese companies combine artificial intelligence (AI) technology with a large amount of data, automobile manufacturing capabilities, and electric vehicle battery technology to establish a multilateral cooperation model, while actively responding to the future automobile market that will come with the emergence of Apple cars with rich ecosystem competitiveness. It can be seen that there is.
The automobile and semiconductor industry is crossing
It is expected that automakers and semiconductor makers will accelerate the joint market.
Already several years ago, automakers and semiconductor companies, as well as major IT companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, have entered the electric/autonomous vehicle market, creating a new ecosystem where traditional manufacturing and IT converge. Because I came.
The semiconductor industry expects that the electric and self-driving car industry will establish a close collaboration system by cooperating with automakers and semiconductor companies from the initial stage of development.
In fact, the cooperation system between automakers and semiconductor companies has been strengthened and active in recent years.
In November of last year, Hyundai Motor Company and Nvidia announced a plan to install a’Connected Car Operating System (ccOS)’ applied with NVIDIA high-performance information processing semiconductor (Nvidia Drive) on all vehicles to be released from 2022. ccOS is a technology that can quickly process large amounts of data by analyzing AI-based deep learning data. Hyundai Motor Company has been developing related technologies in cooperation with NVIDIA since 2015.
Earlier this month, GM announced plans to apply Qualcomm’s cockpit chipset to the in-vehicle infotainment system. In addition to Qualcomm, GM will also cooperate with Amazon to introduce driver assistance computers (Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride) and voice recognition solutions (Amazon Alexa) to assist autonomous driving in vehicles that will be released from 2023. From 2035, the company plans to stop selling all internal combustion locomotives and devote all efforts to the electric and autonomous vehicle business.
Experts are expecting that the merger and acquisition (M&A) to secure the competitiveness of semiconductor technology for automobiles will also become more active while the joint venture between automakers and semiconductor companies is actively progressing.
The most notable company is Samsung Electronics, which acquired Harman in 2016 and entered the electronic parts market. Samsung Electronics recently announced its plan to pursue meaningful M&A within three years in its earnings announcement.
Related Articles
Is it an autonomous car? Is it OS extension?… Apple car two scenarios
Apple is compelled to make Apple Cars
Another ghost, the apple car, is roaming
[조재환의 카테크] Repeated theory of Apple Car cooperation… Coexistence of expectations and concerns
In the semiconductor industry, Samsung Electronics is expected to engage in M&A, focusing on leading companies in the automotive semiconductor market such as NXP Semiconductors (automotive AP), Texas Instruments (PMIC), and Renesas (MCU). Considering Samsung Electronics’ portfolio (memory, application processor, foundry, sensor, etc.) in the semiconductor business, M&As with these companies are expected to generate the most synergy.
A senior official in the semiconductor industry said, “Because of the nature of Apple, Apple cars are highly likely to be released with the concept of a complete electric and autonomous vehicle that incorporates cutting-edge technologies, and this will replace the existing automobile market in an instant like a smartphone. And IT companies such as Facebook are expected to promote various M&As to enter the fully autonomous vehicle ecosystem, and Samsung Electronics is particularly interested.”