Recently, the 6th Global Intelligent Vehicle Industry Conference (GIV2023), co-hosted by the China EV100 and the People's Government of Hefei City, concluded successfully in Hefei. Centered on the theme of "Embarking on a New Journey to Boost the Industrialization of Intelligent Vehicles", more than 100 representatives from government departments and relevant fields gathered to discuss cutting-edge hot topics in the intelligent vehicle industry. Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Axera, was invited to attend the conference and deliver a speech at the "New Technology Forum", sharing Axera's innovative practices in the field of intelligent driving chips on site and exchanging views with the guests on the high-quality development path of China's intelligent vehicle industry.

Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Axera

Booming Edge and End-side Intelligence, Broad Prospects for China's Intelligent Driving Market

Focusing on intelligence and connectivity, the Global Intelligent Vehicle Industry Conference (GIV2023) is a highly influential high-end dialogue platform in the professional field. This year's "New Technology Forum" focused on the industrial practice and prospect of innovative technologies for intelligent vehicles, paying attention to the in-depth integration of advanced technologies such as cloud computing, big data and large models with the automotive industry.

"Benefiting from the long-term development of semiconductors, artificial intelligence has gradually extended to the edge and end sides, and end-side AI applications represented by intelligent driving are booming," Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin stated in her speech. With the emergence of large computing power and large models, artificial intelligence is no longer limited to the cloud, but has begun to penetrate into daily life, and is transforming from fixed terminal scenarios represented by smart cities and smart homes to mobile terminal scenarios such as intelligent driving.

In Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin's view, intelligent chips play a crucial role in the intelligent driving field. From the initial L0, to L1~L3 with advanced driver assistance functions, and to unmanned driving in the future, driven by the continuous development of the industry, the intelligent driving chip market is expected to exceed 10 billion US dollars. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the demand for intelligent chips from hundreds of millions of intelligent terminals represented by robots will continue to surge, and the market for intelligent chips with perception and computing capabilities is even likely to approach a scale of 1 trillion US dollars.

"China has become a battleground for intelligent chips," Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin pointed out. In 2022, international chip giants maintained a high proportion of revenue in China, making the Chinese intelligent driving market a "must-contest territory" for all chip manufacturers. At the same time, based on the global leading position of China's new energy vehicle manufacturers, domestic automotive chip companies also have the opportunity to compete with international giants on the same stage. Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin predicted that "In three to five years, Chinese chip companies may occupy the major share of China's intelligent driving market."

In addition, the intelligent driving industry, where challenges coexist with opportunities, is also facing issues such as cost reduction and efficiency improvement, as well as data security and privacy protection. In Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin's opinion, as industry competition becomes increasingly fierce, chip companies need to further consider how to provide products and solutions with differentiation, higher cost performance, and simultaneous consideration of data privacy and security.

Focusing on Perception and Computing, Axera Continuously Empowers Diverse Scenarios of Intelligent Driving

Based on years of experience in the smart city field and profound insights into the intelligent driving industry, Axera has found an opportunity to quickly enter the new field. In the first half of 2023, the first L2-level intelligent driving chip M55 series has achieved mass production in two vehicle models, and the second automotive chip M76 series will also realize large-scale implementation in the first half of 2024.

Such rapid track expansion fully reflects Axera's technical strength. Faced with industry opportunities, relying on two self-developed core IPs: Axera Smart Compute mixed-precision NPU and Axera Smart Vision AI-ISP, the company has completed the R&D and mass production of more than four generations of intelligent chips within four years of its establishment. Axera has strategically adopted the development strategy of "one body, two wings" with "smart city + intelligent driving" as the core, and at the same time laid out the huge edge and end-side device markets such as robotics and AR/VR.

In Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin's view, the technical logic of the above three businesses is interlinked, which is highly consistent with Axera's core technological and product attributes of "Perception + AI Computing" — this is exactly the foundation of Axera's confidence in its cross-border layout and rapid mass production.

In terms of automotive product planning, Axera has corresponding product layouts in diverse scenarios such as L2, L2+, L2++, and L3/L4. Among them, the M55 series for L2 level features ultra-high cost performance and ultra-low power consumption, and has currently achieved front-loading mass production in passenger cars; the M76 series chips realize a single-chip integrated parking and driving domain control solution by providing a high-performance NPU, support highway NOA, can replace the existing multi-chip solutions on the market, and enable customers to conduct rapid verification and development. In addition, the M77 series for urban NOA is also under simultaneous development.

"The accelerated advancement of automotive intelligence has also driven the joint progress of new technologies and products such as chips and operating systems," Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin said. As an intelligent chip company, Axera adheres to its positioning as a Tier 2 supplier, and is committed to cooperating closely with various Tier 1 suppliers and automakers to provide them with solutions with differentiated advantages and high cost performance, and jointly boost the long-term development of China's intelligent driving industry.

In a subsequent meeting with Mr. Zhang Yongwei, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China EV100, Dr. Qiu Xiaoxin gave a detailed introduction to Axera's strategic deployment and commercialization progress, especially the exploration and practice of the series of automotive chips in intelligent vehicle solutions.

Vice Chairman Zhang Yongwei spoke highly of this, and in particular expressed recognition and appreciation for Axera's development strategy based on self-developed technologies, dual-track development, and focus on differentiation and cost performance. He emphasized that with the continuous emergence of new technologies, new products and new models, the intelligent vehicle and its ecological market have become an important opportunity for China to transform from a major automotive country to a powerful one. Emerging intelligent chip enterprises represented by Axera are the key factors for the high-quality development of China's intelligent vehicle industry in the future. In the follow-up, the two parties will carry out further exchanges and cooperation in the construction of the intelligent driving industrial ecology and the sound development of the supply chain.