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[Netease Smart News, August 10th] In 2014, Uber and Lyft symbolize the future. The emergence of these new start-ups has stolen the sales of established car manufacturers, curbed the demand for private cars, which put great pressure on auto manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors (GM).
Initially, automakers believed that they should cooperate with Uber or Lyft to develop autonomous vehicles together. Otherwise, the automobile manufacturer industry will gradually disappear. But in the short life cycle of the driverless car industry, a series of major changes have shifted the advantages to traditional car manufacturers.
Ford, General Motors, Volvo and other car manufacturing companies have been reborn because of driverless technology, because Silicon Valley has realized that the car manufacturing process is extremely difficult, and no matter how easy they are to develop new technology vehicles, they will not hit the road unless they Work closely with car manufacturers.
This shift began to become clearer in 2016, when Google reached an agreement to install a limited number of Fiat Chrysler cars (currently about 500 cars) in autopilot technology, and Uber bought 100 Volvos. The car to achieve this change.
Both Google and Uber have realized the difficulty of finding automakers, but they are also in great need of automakers to become their "car makers." Technology companies hope that automakers can produce self-driving cars with Google or Uber brand, but automakers have refused because the new technology will strip out their brands.
Now they have a way to connect their own driverless cars to the car network. Daimler is working with Uber and Jaguar Land Rover is working with Lyft.
Automated driving ecosystem
The autopilot ecosystem consists of three main components: automotive manufacturers, autonomous driving software vendors (usually compared to the "brain"), and market channels represented by customer networks developed by Uber and Lyft.
Earlier, automakers established relationships with car companies to ensure they would not be blocked outside this emerging market. General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft and plans to connect unmanned cars to their networks after Lyft has set up their own vehicles in the future.
Then, for most of 2016, software companies established autonomous auto-driving technology. At the time, it was said that building the brains that drive these cars was the hardest problem, and Silicon Valley was the answer to the question. Without the technology company’s autonomous driving engineers, these lagging, hundred-year-old companies would completely disappear.
The tech industry is convinced that the software part is indeed the most difficult problem to solve. Carmakers like Ford want to partner with Alphabet’s autonomous driving department, which is now called Waymo, or a company that can compete with Waymo. Before his former chief executive Travis燢alanick decided to start his own business, Uber was even trying to work with Waymo.
In March of this year, General Motors purchased Cruise Software, a company with $1 billion. In the battle for talent, Uber acquired Otto, a self-driving truck company, for $680 million. The acquisition is now at the core of a trade secret misappropriation case between Alphabet and Uber.
In the latter part of the game, Ford acquired Argo.ai, another self-driving software startup, for $1 billion. The above is only a part of the acquisition.
But at that time, dozens of auto-driving software companies mushroomed. This led to some competition among these companies, but Detroit had the upper hand because only a few large car manufacturers used these technologies.
This shift has prompted some venture capital firms to shift their focus from investing in the "brain" part of autonomous driving, paying more attention to some so-called "raw material" technologies. These raw material suppliers are making hardware that needs to be installed on self-driving cars. This includes companies that are committed to developing smaller parts of the supply chain - such as laser radar or optical radar. For example, the newcomer Luminar recently raised a $36 million seed investment from 1,517 funds, Canvas燰entures and GVA Hot apital.
This also allows software developers to compete in talent, rather than compete on different technology products. For start-ups like Aurora and nuTonomy, both companies have created a system that helps cars process the information received by sensors. Investors will first decide which company to invest in based on the skill level of the engineer.
Some people expect that there will be a period of consolidation in the future. Some of the smaller start-up companies will unite to bring their capital, infrastructure, and talent together, while others will give up midway.
Karl Ignamma, co-founder of nuTonomy, stated: "My core assumption in this field is that this is a very complicated and difficult new technology and it will be difficult to have The team can find a viable solution. If you believe that only a few people can get this technology, then I think people who hold this technology will have this rare and valuable product."
To a large extent, these 30 or more self-driving start-ups are not trying to build a car from scratch. They also know how important it is to ensure that hardware and software are tightly developed and integrated into the production line. All this requires a car manufacturer's partner.
I have learned a lot on self-driving cars. One of the things is that you need the support of car manufacturers. "Argo.ai CEO Brian destroys Aalesky. "The virtual driving system is an extremely complex combination of hardware and software. You need the support of a car manufacturer to ensure safe and effective integration. â€
Today, there are countless car manufacturers to choose from.
Automakers like Ford can hedge their bets and cooperate with a number of autonomous driving technology companies. For the same reason, there is no reason for an automaker to easily collaborate with Uber and Lyft — and even develop their own taxi application software. In addition, these 100-year-old companies have clear and potentially constant value in the automated driving supply chain.
Of course, there are exceptions and this situation may change again. As he said, if only a few auto-driving software companies can achieve L5 fully autonomous driving, these companies will become more valuable and competitive. The most obvious exception is Lyft's new autonomic strategy, which provides an agnostic platform for automakers and technology companies, but also establishes its own autopilot software. But even so, it is to gain advantages in the supply chain, making it a more attractive partner for car manufacturers.
Automotive, automated driving software and the road to market are all important components of this system. But clearly, at least for now, automakers have a lot of influence in this dynamic. (Selected from: tech news dirt Author: JOHANA BHUIYAN compile: NetEase see foreign intelligence platform compiler revision: Towers)
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