BUSINESS CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Monday, May 31, 2021 Mobile computers on wheels that can’t crash Tech giants zoom into carmakers’ ring as digital era sinks roots deeper By LI FUSHENG [email protected] From Huawei to Xiaomi, China’s largest technology companies are swarming into the electric car busi- ness. Conviction among them is grow- ing that their tech expertise will prove instrumental in unlocking the vast potential of the e-car sector against a global backdrop of vehi- cles virtually becoming computers on wheels. Tech firms’ influx into the e-car sector is thus further heating up the already red-hot market where tradi- tional auto giants such as Volkswag- en as well as startups such as Tesla and China’s Nio are locked in fierce competition. Globally, e-cars are changing the auto industry that had stayed basi- cally unchanged since German engi- neer Karl Benz invented the vehicle in 1885. Now even affordable e-cars can greet the drivers when they get in, take their voice commands and even alert them when they get sleepy. Many can have their software updated wirelessly, and some e-cars can park themselves when drivers alight and return later to pick them up at a tap on the phone screen. It is these new features that have enticed the internet and technology companies to jump on the e-car bandwagon in the hope of picking their slice of the pie in return for their expertise in computing abili- Visitors check the smart electric Arcfox Alpha-S HI sedan at the Shanghai auto show on April 19. It is the first-ever vehicle featuring Huawei’s operating system and autono- ties, software and content. mous driving solution. LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY “For a good smart car, the hard- ware is the body and the software is the soul. Without the help of the tion in car software in order to meet internet, car manufacturers would people’s needs for individual, sus- still follow traditional ways of think- tainable and fully connected mobili- ing by replacing fuel tanks with bat- ty in the future,” said Diess. teries,” said Zhou Hongyi, founder Autonomous driving, the much- and CEO of Qihoo 360, a Beijing- hyped selling point of new entrants, based company that makes antivi- is another field that traditional car- rus software. makers are investing in heavily. Zhou made the remarks in May, Earlier this year, Japan’s Toyota when Qihoo 360 announced its invested $400 million in autono- partnership with Chinese startup mous driving startup Pony.ai, which Nezha. It would lead Nezha’s latest is rolling out its robotaxi fleet in Chi- financing round, and become its na and the United States. Toyota is second-largest shareholder. an investor in Uber’s self-driving “Smart cars are expected to technology. become one of the largest players in Another Japanese carmaker Hon- the field of smart technology. So net- da has long partnered with GM in its work security, as well as the cyberse- An Apollo robotaxi from Baidu is in service at Beijing’s Shougang The first 500 units of the U5, an all-electric SUV of Chinese auto- autonomous driving unit Cruise, curity of connected vehicles, will Park on May 3. The tech giant rolled out driverless taxi service in the maker Aiways, are ready to be shipped from its plant in Shang rao, which started to test fully driverless inevitably become an important national capital a day earlier. DU JIANPO / FOR CHINA DAILY Jiangxi province, to Europe in May 2020. AI SHIMIN / FOR CHINA DAILY vehicles back in late 2020. aspect of 360’s future strategy,” said Analysts and executives said the Zhou. biggest barrier to new entrants are The logic is shared by many “The core value of cars in the bile intelligence,” said Li Zhenyu, acquired the automotive business of the safety standards in the car indus- household product companies 1,000 future will be how intelligent they Baidu’s senior corporate vice-presi- Finnish software company Elektro- try that are much stricter than in the jumping on the gold rush of carmak- are,” Xia said. “The earlier a compa- dent. bit Corporation and later bought consumer electronics industry. ing, and sometimes even personal kilometers ny plans, the more control on self- Also at the Shanghai auto show, Israeli cybersecurity company “Prototypes are easy, production is emulation plays a part as well. overall distance that Huawei developed technologies it gains, the the first-ever vehicle featuring Hua- Argus in a 2017 deal to improve its hard,” said Tesla founder Elon Musk said its Arcfox Alpha-S HI can “(Xiaomi CEO) Lei Jun is now 52 travel in a busy Chinese city more advanced technology it has, wei’s operating system and autono- software capabilities. in a tweet in May, in response to a years old, one year older than me, without human intervention the more power it will own in the mous driving solution made its Carmakers are bracing them- user tweet seeking his comment on and he is having a shot at the electric market.” premiere. selves for the transformation as the new players including Xiaomi. car industry. So why shan’t I?” said At this year’s Shanghai auto show, A video clip showed that the vehi- well. “We (traditional carmakers) Tesla’s first model, the Roadster, Zhou. made public its plan in January, two held in late April, Baidu was among cle can navigate itself through busy may be a little slow, but we are not came out in 2008. But even today, Xiaomi, China’s largest smart- months earlier than Xiaomi. the 100-plus technology companies urban traffic without a driver. The stupid,” said Andy Palmer, former inconsistent product quality is phone maker by shipments, The Beijing-based internet giant that stole the limelight of the bienni- company said that its vehicles can CEO of Aston Martin and former something customers complain unveiled its carmaking plan in will build a joint venture with Volvo al event for vehicle makers and car drive themselves for 1,000 kilome- COO of Nissan. most about. March. Co-founder and CEO Lei owner Geely, and the first vehicle aficionados. ters without human intervention. Volkswagen Group established its As vehicles are becoming mobile called it his final startup project, will hit the market in three years, The company said its autono- “Our goal is to bring digital tech- software division last year, and the computers, product consistency, saying he would lead the standalone followed by new vehicles every 12 to mous driving Apollo system will nology into every car in the world,” German carmaker expects the soft- which is something that traditional division and the first vehicle, which 18 months, said the joint venture’s come preinstalled with at least one said Wang Jun, head of Huawei’s ware developed in-house will carmakers excel at, will be as crucial can be a sedan or an SUV, is expect- CEO Xia Yiping. mass-produced car model each smart car business unit. account for 60 percent of all the soft- as — if not more than — it was in the ed to hit the market in three years. Baidu’s decision to build cars was month in the second half of this While Huawei vows to become ware it needs. past 100 plus years. “From smartphones to smart partly because it wants to demon- year. It expects Apollo’s solutions the Bosch of the smart vehicle era, To that end, it has doubled the “The zero defect concept is very home appliances, and smart vehi- strate its autonomous driving tech- will be preinstalled on 1 million German suppliers including Bosch investment plan to 27 billion euros difficult for electronics companies cles, we would like to offer our cus- nology, which it started to develop vehicles over the next three to five and Continental are keenly aware of ($33 billion) by the middle of the to comprehend,” Yancey Hai, chair- tomers better experience enabled by back in 2013, believing its own vehi- years. the changes that are reshaping the decade, said Volkswagen Group man of electric car powertrain mak- our technology,” said Lei. cles will help convince carmakers to “Apollo will continue to increase auto industry and have taken CEO Herbert Diess. er Delta Electronics. “It is OK to Baidu is another dotcom firm that buy its solutions as well as its maps its investment in fields such as action. “In the coming years, it will be crash this computer — you can will produce electric vehicles. It and infotainment content. autonomous driving and automo- As early as 2015, Continental crucial to also reach a leading posi- reboot it. For cars, no way.” are getting bigger, in terms of both And with a scan of your face, the told that you will soon hail flying their size and number, to facilitate vehicle, like Aion’s LX, will adjust driverless taxis. Wonderful world of vigorous vehicles such things as navigation and itself automatically from the posi- China’s Geely showcased a two- onboard infotainment. tion of the driving seat to music it seat model in April this year at the That is what I call the benefit of once a roadblock that discouraged Augmented reality or AR head- will play and destinations you are Shanghai auto show. hindsight. What are already out people away from electric cars. With up displays, or HUDs, are making most likely to go. Developed by German company REPORTER’S there seldom failed to wow even sea- the lapse of merely three years or so, their way into electric vehicles.