Set sail1992

After thinking for a full four or five minutes, Mr. Feng finally said: "You are right. Today's cars are indeed becoming more and more electronic, and chips are being used more and more in cars. If we wait until hybrid Cars and pure electric cars have begun to be popularized and applied on a large scale. It is hard to say whether a car should be regarded as a mechanical product or an electronic product."

Zhang Qihang nodded slightly.

Today's cars, most people still regard them as a mechanical product. They think that the three major parts of a car are the engine, gearbox and chassis. As long as you master the production and manufacturing capabilities of these three major parts, you have mastered automobile manufacturing. With the core technology and a good design team, we can design a hot-selling product.

But the situation has quietly changed since then. There are more and more electronic accessories in cars, from the engine ECU at the beginning, to the transmission computer TCU, to the ABS system, ESP system, and cruise control system. , automatic driving assistance system...

Mr. Feng suddenly raised his head and asked Zhang Qihang: "Qihang, what do you think, as there are more and more electronic subsystems on cars, will future car manufacturers be reduced to working for chip manufacturing companies? I think now It’s starting to show this tendency.”

Zhang Qihang said: "This trend is indeed showing now, but I think it is not the case that OEMs will eventually be reduced to working for chip manufacturers. With the advancement of technology, major automobile manufacturers are basically The level of mechanical quality can reach a passing level.

At this time, in order to become bigger and stronger, everyone may start to pursue some higher things, such as making the car more entertaining and intelligent, or even directly turning it into an entertainment center, but in the end, the car is still a means of transportation. , the core appeal is to transport passengers safely from point A to point B, and to ensure the safety of passengers in the car to the greatest extent in the event of an accident.

So from this point of view, the future automobile industry may have a different definition of "core technology" than it does now, but an excellent automobile manufacturing industry group will inevitably master the corresponding core technology. It's just that in a different era, This 'core technology' refers to different things. For example, in the era of pure electric vehicles, the core technology has become electric motors, electronic control systems and battery technology.

As an OEM, the most important thing is to keep up with the trend of the times, actively embrace new technologies, and not be conservative. "

"It makes sense, it makes sense."

Mr. Feng nodded repeatedly. Even though he has been engaged in the automobile manufacturing industry for more than 10 years and is considered to be the most senior group of senior people in the domestic automobile industry, after hearing Zhang Qihang's words, Mr. Feng also felt enlightened. Feel.At this moment, Mr. Feng only had one feeling in his heart: He should really bring over the leaders of the old car manufacturers who only know about joint ventures all day long, and let them hear what Zhang Qihang thinks about the automobile industry.

Just thinking about it, the old man also knows that this is impossible, there are too many things involved.

At the same time, he felt vaguely regretful: It's a pity that Xiao Zhang has to leave after all. It would be great if he could stay in Huateng Group forever.If he can enter the competent authorities of the domestic automobile industry, what a huge boost it will be to the development of the national automobile industry and industry?

Thinking of this, Mr. Feng couldn't help but sigh: "I see that automotive electronics giants such as Bosch and Siemens sell TCUs so expensively, but our domestic companies have to bite the bullet and buy them. On the contrary, we rely on our own production , the cost has been reduced a lot... Now think about it, Qihang, your decision to launch the integrated circuit R&D center was really far-sighted." "Sir, please don't put money on my face," Zhang Qihang waved his hands repeatedly: "Let's Are you still unclear about the situation of the group's integrated circuit design and R&D center? Although it has chip design capabilities, the production can only be left to others.

And what’s going on with the chip that can be designed?Aren't they just things like baseband chips, radio frequency chips, and DSP chips that have relatively low technical content?When our group's design and R&D center can design and develop CPUs, it will be truly established. "

Mr. Feng's eyes widened in shock: "You still want our integrated circuit R&D center to develop CPUs?"

"The CPU must be developed," Zhang Qihang nodded: "Even if we don't develop any high-performance CPU for the time being, we still have to find ways to independently develop and modify the central processing units mounted on the on-board ECU computers and TCU computers, right? You also know The price of the dedicated central processing unit for vehicle-mounted computers that we purchase from Siemens is actually quite high."

Hearing Zhang Qihang mention this, Mr. Feng's expression changed. He nodded slowly: Although Huateng Group now has the ability to design and develop vehicle-mounted ECU computers and TCU computers, all the required chips are outsourced. Yes, the production is also handed over to relevant OEM companies.

Siemens and other manufacturers that specialize in the production of automotive-grade central processors have also realized that Huateng Industrial Group cannot produce automotive-grade central processors on its own, and there are only a few manufacturers of automotive-grade central processors. The price of supply to Huateng Industrial Group makes Huateng Group uncomfortable. The final result is that although Huateng Industrial Group's own TCU computers are indeed cheaper than those purchased from manufacturers such as Bosch, Delphi, Marelli, etc., the overall manufacturing cost is also It is not very cheap, and its competitiveness in export sales is not very good. This is one of the reasons why Huateng Industrial Group's ECU has not been widely promoted.

"So it's not that I want to build a CPU, but that others force us to build a CPU. It's too uncomfortable to be stuck in the neck." Zhang Qihang sighed and said helplessly: "But even if we want to build a CPU, But don’t worry about car-grade products, let’s start with mobile phone CPUs.”

Mr. Feng immediately reacted: "Are you talking about what Academician Ni just said?"

"Yes, that's it," Zhang Qihang said: "I have told Mr. Ni before that the best way is to obtain authorization from ARM and then slowly form its own R&D strength."

While saying this, Zhang Qihang's eyes were shining.

Seeing the light in Zhang Qihang's eyes, Mr. Feng sighed silently: Although the leaders' considerations are indeed reasonable, Qihang really should stay in Huateng Group. Cars are Xiao Zhang's favorite.