Shanghai, September 5, 2024 – Chen Tao Capital, in collaboration with three other key stakeholders, has recently released the Automated Driving Soft-Hardware Integration Evolution Trend Research Report. This landmark study, which gathered insights from nearly 200 industry experts, investment institutions, research organizations, and leading companies in the intelligent driving sector, delves into the challenges and opportunities presented by the soft-hard integration product design model for the automated driving industry.
The Rise of Soft-Hard Integration
Soft-hard integration refers to a product design approach that combines software and hardware systems to enhance system efficiency and performance. This design model simplifies the optimization and collaboration of software on hardware, resulting in higher performance, lower power consumption, lower latency, and a more tightly integrated system. With the continuous advancement of intelligent driving technology, the trend of soft-hard integration in the automated driving industry has become increasingly evident, and the mass production capability of soft-hard integrated systems has gradually become a key factor in the competition for high-level intelligent driving.
The Comprehensive Report
The 2024 Automated Driving Soft-Hardware Integration Evolution Trend Research Report provides an in-depth analysis of the soft-hard integration product design model from various perspectives, including its definition, industry status, underlying reasons, development capabilities, representative companies, driving forces, and future development trends. The report aims to establish a foundation for industry consensus and discussion, promoting the vigorous development of the automated driving industry.
Key Findings
The report highlights the following key findings:
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Discussion Scope: The report defines the scope of the discussion on soft-hard integration, focusing on core objects that have a significant impact on the automated driving industry ecosystem, including software Tier 1 for automated driving, automated driving chip manufacturers, and vehicle manufacturers. It describes the companies’ capabilities in software-hardware collaborative research and development and their ability to provide soft-hard integrated products.
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Two Types of Soft-Hard Integration: The report identifies two typical forms of soft-hard integration: heavy soft-hard integration and light soft-hard integration. Heavy soft-hard integration refers to full-stack development of chips, algorithms, and operating systems/middleware by the same company, leading to an ecosystem collaboration model. Light soft-hard integration involves automated driving solution companies using third-party chips, optimizing specific chips to the maximum extent and delivering rich productization experience.
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Development Capabilities: The report analyzes the necessary development capabilities for soft-hard integration, such as intelligent driving system algorithm architecture, intelligent driving chip design capabilities, and intelligent driving system underlying software, based on different types of corporate cases.
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Influence Factors: The report summarizes three elements that affect the judgment of soft-hard integration strategies: technology maturity, technology equity, and total returns. When one of these elements is met, the company has the conditions to consider soft-hard integration. When two elements are met, the company has the motivation to promote soft-hard integration. If all three elements are met, soft-hard integration becomes the company’s optimal strategy choice.
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Future Trends: The report predicts that, in the long run, soft-hard integration and soft-hard decoupling will coexist in the market. However, in the short term, companies focusing on soft-hard integration will demonstrate stronger market competitiveness. In the automated driving industry, the trend of soft-hard integration will vary according to the level of automated driving solutions: for low-level intelligent driving, vehicle manufacturers will often directly adopt suppliers’ soft-hard integrated solutions and develop towards standardization. For high-level intelligent driving algorithms and other key capabilities, the proportion of self-research by vehicle manufacturers will increase. When chip computing power is much greater than the actual application demand, and the adaptation of solutions to chip computing power is no longer a core capability, the industry will have the necessary conditions for achieving soft-hard decoupling. However, as algorithms are still rapidly iterating and the demand for computing power is still increasing, the soft-hard integration strategy will remain the mainstream in the industry for a long time.
Conclusion
The release of the 2024 Automated Driving Soft-Hardware Integration Evolution Trend Research Report by Chen Tao Capital and its partners provides valuable insights into the soft-hard integration trend in the automated driving industry. As technology continues to evolve, the industry will likely witness a more balanced approach to soft-hard integration and decoupling, ultimately leading to more efficient and advanced automated driving solutions.
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