By Junko Yoshida
Everyone loves to talk about China’ speed – speed of goods delivery, design and manufacturing, technology innovation and fundamental lifestyle changes the Chinese are in a hurry to embrace, foster and advance.
In the tech world, “China speed” manifests itself most prominently in the automotive market – for the whole world to see and revere.
China, bar none, rules the global market in EV batteries and deployment of intelligent automotive systems. China is now on its way to designing its own automotive chips.
Although all the stories about China ring true, they are enhanced by urban legend.
Seriously, are Chinese OEMs really designing new cars in 12 months?
If Xpeng, Nio and LiAuto are already taping out automotive chips, are the days numbered for Nvidia or Qualcomm automotive processors?
We sat down with Jack Weast, Intel Fellow, now vice president and general manager of Intel Automotive, and Tu Le, founder and managing director of Sino Auto Insights, both proficient in automotive technology and experienced with matters in China.
We wanted to ferret out the truth in all the stories we’ve been hearing about China, and to learn where China’s really going. Perhaps, most importantly, what does it all mean to Jack Weast, who now runs Intel’s global automotive business from Beijing.
YOUTUBE video:
We broke down the 53-min long conversation by the segments below, for your convenience.
00:00 Introduction: How the everyday life in China is like
11:08 When China speed is applied to automotive
Intense competition among Chinese carmakers, their drive to out-innovate one another and drastically shrink design cycles
15:44 What Chinese consumers want in their vehicles
Bells, whistles and the specific new technologies young Chinese consumers expect to find in their new vehicles
23:35 Chinese vehicles in global context
Differences in pricing, impact on trade restrictions on Chinese vehicles
25:40 Chinese OEMs are designing their own automotive chips?
Which companies are developing what kind of automotive processors? Are they already here? Can they afford them?
30:13 Intel pitches chiplets
Intel offers a hybrid custom option for carmakers in the form of chiplets. What exactly are they?
36:26 Lego-block style chiplet ecosystem?
Can we already snap together different chiplets from different manufacturers?
41:20 Chiplets: Benefits of a full custom design at a fraction of cost
With chiplets, a customer can get a custom SOC, but three quarters of it is already built by Intel?
42:37 Tech Companies Get into the Transportation business
The automotive business is drastically changing in China with tech companies infiltrating the transportation business.
47:07 What’s still missing in China
China is missing a global market opportunity.
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Junko Yoshida is the editor in chief of The Ojo-Yoshida Report. She can be reached at [email protected].
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