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Apple develops self-driving chips, how far is Apple Car from us?
Self-developed baseband chips, self-developed radio frequency chips, self-developed autopilot chips... In the past month, news about Apple's self-developed chips has spread like wildfire, and the stock prices of its major supply chain manufacturers have also fluctuated. From computing chips to communication chips, to automotive chips, Apple's self-developed road is like "dealing monsters and upgrading", and the goal is getting more and more difficult. Can Apple's R&D capabilities and supply chain integration capabilities help it cross the high threshold of automotive chips?
Both software and hardware layout self-driving market "brain" is about to debut?
Apple's car-building plan has gone through ups and downs, but it has been surging. In 2014, Apple launched the "Titan" program with the goal of self-driving electric vehicles. However, due to factors such as development direction, organizational structure, and technical challenges, the focus of research and development has shifted from car manufacturing to autonomous driving systems. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in 2017 that Apple was developing an autonomous driving system and regarded it as an important core technology.
"We are focusing on autonomous driving systems and will expand to autonomous driving and more areas." Tim Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "We see it as the cradle that breeds all AI projects, and it is also what we are engaged in. The most difficult AI project."
Tim Cook's positioning of the autonomous driving system also explained Apple's recent adjustments to the project's organizational structure. It is reported that Apple has handed over the development team of the autonomous driving system to John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy. The system will be used in Apple's cars.
Apple's product line has always focused on walking on "two legs", and software deployment and strengthening the core hardware dominance are always synchronized. Since the beginning of this year, Apple has successively applied for “multi-sensor real-time alignment and calibration” system for surrounding environment perception, steering system, body structural ventilation, and LiDAR-based obstacle detection system for patents surrounding perception, safety, and in-car entertainment.
But the layout based on the sensor system is not enough to build an autonomous driving architecture. Sensors are the sensory organs of self-driving cars. They are responsible for the perception level. To make decisions and execute the information collected by the sensors, they also need computational control chips that act as the brain. It is reported that Apple is cooperating with TSMC to develop self-driving chip technology, and plans to build a factory to produce "Apple Car" chips, and start negotiations with the supply chain.
Can R&D and the supply chain break through the barriers of the automotive industry?
If the introduction of the A series of mobile phone chips made Apple’s self-developed "famous in World War I", the emergence of the M1 chip further ignited the market's enthusiasm for Apple's self-developed system. Teng Ran, deputy general manager of CCID Consulting's IC Research Center, told reporters that the successful launch of Apple's A series and M1 firstly benefited from Apple's strong R&D capabilities, including a large R&D team and continuous and stable R&D investment. Secondly, due to Apple's relatively closed ecological model, it has obvious advantages in software and hardware co-calibration and matching. Thirdly, due to Apple's complete system integration capabilities from chip-hardware-software-system aspects, it provides a good way for the rapid iterative upgrade of products.
At present, the processor chip is only the beginning of Apple's self-developed road. On December 11th, US time, Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, revealed that Apple has launched its first baseband chip development. The release of the news once caused the stock price of Apple's baseband chip supplier Qualcomm to fall.
Industry experts pointed out to reporters that for computing chips, because companies such as ARM already have mature IP and reference designs, chip designers can purchase IP and reference designs to combine products like building Lego and optimize them The strength creates a performance difference. The biggest difficulty of wireless communication chips lies in the design of the communication physical layer and protocol stack, which requires extremely complex design and test verification, including massive laboratory tests and field tests, and the product stability period is many years.
The difficulty of research and development of automotive chips lies in the stricter reliability and certification standards. "Compared with consumer electronics chips, autonomous driving chips have a longer R&D cycle and industrialization cycle. In terms of technology, the stability and consistency of the chip are especially valued. In terms of capital, long-term investment by chip companies is required. The development period generally exceeds 5 In 2009, it is necessary to obtain dual certification from Tier 1 manufacturers and car manufacturers in terms of certification, and the time period is long.” Teng Ran said.
The pursuit of intelligence for autonomous driving makes chip design even more difficult. Huang Jipo, chairman of Saiteng Microelectronics, once told reporters that in the whole process of the evolution of automobiles to intelligent systems, due to the increasing regulations on safety and environmental protection, there has been more improvement in computing and control chips represented by MCU. High demands. In particular, the architecture of automotive electronic control has increasingly adopted the execution architecture of domain controllers and numerous ECUs. Domain controllers require higher computing power, more powerful network interfaces, and lower power consumption. The R&D capabilities of chip companies and chip manufacturing processes put forward higher requirements.
Fortunately, Apple is not alone. While laying out the software and hardware, the supply chain has been in motion. Digitimes reported that Apple has initiated cooperation negotiations with the automotive electronics supply chain. In addition to plans to set up factories with Apple to develop automotive chips, TSMC will also use gallium nitride technology to help consumer and commercial vehicles move towards electrification. At the same time, Foxconn, Apple's multi-year supplier, has also recently entered the field of electric vehicles.
Judging from the six-year license agreement signed between Apple and Qualcomm, Apple has an expectation of a protracted battle for baseband self-developed chips, as is the "Titan" plan that has been accumulated over six years. Foreign media predict that "Apple Car" is expected to be unveiled in 2024 or 2025, which means that the overall R&D cycle of Apple cars may be more than ten years. What product form the "Apple Car" that has been sharpened for ten years will take, and how it will connect with Apple's existing product lines in the future has also triggered expectations from all parties.
Both software and hardware layout self-driving market "brain" is about to debut?
Apple's car-building plan has gone through ups and downs, but it has been surging. In 2014, Apple launched the "Titan" program with the goal of self-driving electric vehicles. However, due to factors such as development direction, organizational structure, and technical challenges, the focus of research and development has shifted from car manufacturing to autonomous driving systems. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in 2017 that Apple was developing an autonomous driving system and regarded it as an important core technology.
"We are focusing on autonomous driving systems and will expand to autonomous driving and more areas." Tim Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "We see it as the cradle that breeds all AI projects, and it is also what we are engaged in. The most difficult AI project."
Tim Cook's positioning of the autonomous driving system also explained Apple's recent adjustments to the project's organizational structure. It is reported that Apple has handed over the development team of the autonomous driving system to John Giannandrea, senior vice president of machine learning and artificial intelligence strategy. The system will be used in Apple's cars.
Apple's product line has always focused on walking on "two legs", and software deployment and strengthening the core hardware dominance are always synchronized. Since the beginning of this year, Apple has successively applied for “multi-sensor real-time alignment and calibration” system for surrounding environment perception, steering system, body structural ventilation, and LiDAR-based obstacle detection system for patents surrounding perception, safety, and in-car entertainment.
But the layout based on the sensor system is not enough to build an autonomous driving architecture. Sensors are the sensory organs of self-driving cars. They are responsible for the perception level. To make decisions and execute the information collected by the sensors, they also need computational control chips that act as the brain. It is reported that Apple is cooperating with TSMC to develop self-driving chip technology, and plans to build a factory to produce "Apple Car" chips, and start negotiations with the supply chain.
Can R&D and the supply chain break through the barriers of the automotive industry?
If the introduction of the A series of mobile phone chips made Apple’s self-developed "famous in World War I", the emergence of the M1 chip further ignited the market's enthusiasm for Apple's self-developed system. Teng Ran, deputy general manager of CCID Consulting's IC Research Center, told reporters that the successful launch of Apple's A series and M1 firstly benefited from Apple's strong R&D capabilities, including a large R&D team and continuous and stable R&D investment. Secondly, due to Apple's relatively closed ecological model, it has obvious advantages in software and hardware co-calibration and matching. Thirdly, due to Apple's complete system integration capabilities from chip-hardware-software-system aspects, it provides a good way for the rapid iterative upgrade of products.
At present, the processor chip is only the beginning of Apple's self-developed road. On December 11th, US time, Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, revealed that Apple has launched its first baseband chip development. The release of the news once caused the stock price of Apple's baseband chip supplier Qualcomm to fall.
Industry experts pointed out to reporters that for computing chips, because companies such as ARM already have mature IP and reference designs, chip designers can purchase IP and reference designs to combine products like building Lego and optimize them The strength creates a performance difference. The biggest difficulty of wireless communication chips lies in the design of the communication physical layer and protocol stack, which requires extremely complex design and test verification, including massive laboratory tests and field tests, and the product stability period is many years.
The difficulty of research and development of automotive chips lies in the stricter reliability and certification standards. "Compared with consumer electronics chips, autonomous driving chips have a longer R&D cycle and industrialization cycle. In terms of technology, the stability and consistency of the chip are especially valued. In terms of capital, long-term investment by chip companies is required. The development period generally exceeds 5 In 2009, it is necessary to obtain dual certification from Tier 1 manufacturers and car manufacturers in terms of certification, and the time period is long.” Teng Ran said.
The pursuit of intelligence for autonomous driving makes chip design even more difficult. Huang Jipo, chairman of Saiteng Microelectronics, once told reporters that in the whole process of the evolution of automobiles to intelligent systems, due to the increasing regulations on safety and environmental protection, there has been more improvement in computing and control chips represented by MCU. High demands. In particular, the architecture of automotive electronic control has increasingly adopted the execution architecture of domain controllers and numerous ECUs. Domain controllers require higher computing power, more powerful network interfaces, and lower power consumption. The R&D capabilities of chip companies and chip manufacturing processes put forward higher requirements.
Fortunately, Apple is not alone. While laying out the software and hardware, the supply chain has been in motion. Digitimes reported that Apple has initiated cooperation negotiations with the automotive electronics supply chain. In addition to plans to set up factories with Apple to develop automotive chips, TSMC will also use gallium nitride technology to help consumer and commercial vehicles move towards electrification. At the same time, Foxconn, Apple's multi-year supplier, has also recently entered the field of electric vehicles.
Judging from the six-year license agreement signed between Apple and Qualcomm, Apple has an expectation of a protracted battle for baseband self-developed chips, as is the "Titan" plan that has been accumulated over six years. Foreign media predict that "Apple Car" is expected to be unveiled in 2024 or 2025, which means that the overall R&D cycle of Apple cars may be more than ten years. What product form the "Apple Car" that has been sharpened for ten years will take, and how it will connect with Apple's existing product lines in the future has also triggered expectations from all parties.