NetQin Lingdong and its two swords join forces to become a bridge between the upstream and downstream of the smart car industry chain

With the transformation and upgrading of the automobile industry, smart cars have begun to come into people's view.

Undoubtedly, smart cars are the next industry trend. In addition to the layout of traditional car manufacturers, Internet technology giants such as Google, Uber, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu have all entered the market, which is an industrial integration of "new and old forces".

In the view of industry insiders, on the one hand, the automobile industry itself is a highly specialized special manufacturing industry, with an extremely long industrial chain in the upstream and downstream, and a very high inherent threshold. From project establishment to implementation, an automobile product often needs to go through multiple stages such as research and development, design, manufacturing, testing, and mass production, and each stage consumes a lot of money and time.

On the other hand, while emerging Internet-based car manufacturers are knocking on the door of traditional car companies in the form of barbarians, Internet thinking centered on "user experience" has begun to infiltrate the "product first" thinking of the traditional automotive industry.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said: "Automakers need to think of vehicles as connected devices. Cars should work like a phone or laptop so they can be optimized wirelessly. From a safety and functionality perspective, it's very important for automakers to embrace the philosophy of connectivity. It's strange to have a computing device but not be able to connect to the Internet."

In the past, automobile engines and their control systems had a high entry barrier for companies other than automobile manufacturers, but the development of electric vehicles has greatly broken this entry barrier. Internet companies have begun to stir up a storm of "Internet car manufacturing".

Traditional automakers feel threatened and impacted, and are also undergoing internal changes.

Opportunities for traditional automakers

The rapid development of new energy vehicles and intelligent driving, as well as the impact of the influx of the Internet and emerging car-making forces on traditional car companies, have undoubtedly brought greater opportunities and challenges to the entire industry.

In the era of intelligent networking, traditional automobile manufacturers will choose to continue to develop along the original path, or be inclusive and integrate the superior products, technologies and thinking of emerging technology companies into their own systems. The two choices will make a world of difference to future development.

As the absolute controller of vehicle manufacturing, traditional automakers have absolute advantages. As a manufacturing industry with an extremely long industrial chain, high professionalism and technical characteristics, the automobile industry may still have many obstacles that Internet companies cannot overcome.

At the same time, we have to admit that emerging technology companies have their own unique advantages in user experience and applications. After the accumulation of the Internet and mobile Internet era, technology companies can grasp the needs of users to the extreme.

Traditional automakers do not have the advantage of reorganizing their teams and putting a large part of their energy into Internet-based products and applications during the vehicle manufacturing process. Therefore, they urgently need reliable partners to help them integrate the relevant downstream industry chain, especially the system software and hardware integration capabilities of the soft power of intelligent connected vehicles.

Today's cars have the computing power equivalent to 20 personal computers, running about 1 million lines of code inside, and processing up to 25G of data per hour. New features used to mean adding new hardware, but now they require new software support. Software development capabilities have become an important indicator for measuring companies in the automotive industry. However, software capabilities are still not the exclusive domain of vehicle manufacturers and first-tier suppliers. Intelligent connected vehicle system integrators can help traditional automakers apply the most advanced technologies, products, and applications.

How does NetQin, which does not manufacture cars, help traditional car manufacturers achieve intelligence?

NetQin, a listed company based on mobile Internet, began to enter the field of smart cars in 2015.

As early as the third quarter earnings conference call in 2016, NetQin Vice President Matt said that NetQin invested in Link Motion Technology in 2015 and consolidated the business, and Link Motion Technology was also NetQin's main way to enter the smart car market.

Link Motion Technology is a software and hardware company in the field of smart cars, focusing on the development of core computing solutions in the field of Internet cars.

As we all know, even for traditional cars, the industry chain is divided into upstream, midstream and downstream, and smart cars are no exception. There are five types of companies in the smart car industry chain.

First, there must be manufacturers with the qualifications to produce automobiles; tier 1 companies control the core competitiveness of production and manufacturing, and vehicle control integration; technology companies rely on their advantages in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction to seize a portion of the market share; ADAS suppliers use the perception and recognition algorithms they have mastered to provide ADAS system solutions for car companies and technology companies; and bottom-level component suppliers, such as radars, cameras, chips, electronic brakes, etc.

Although several Internet giants have entered the smart car market, most Internet companies are only interested in smart car systems. For example, John Krafcik, head of Google's driverless car, once emphasized that Waymo will not become a car manufacturer, but a driverless technology supplier.

Compared with it, the smart cars developed by NetQin's Lingdong have more advantages.

As a link in the smart car industry chain, NetQin's Link is positioned as a smart car system integration platform, capable of providing relevant technical services to vehicle manufacturers, tier 1 companies, technology companies, ADAS suppliers and underlying component suppliers.

For vehicle manufacturers, it is important to provide consumers with a good mobile Internet experience and automotive-grade safety. The multi-display synchronous display of Atom brings an excellent user experience. The OTA-based upgrade mechanism avoids the high upgrade costs brought by traditional recalls. At the same time, the highly integrated system cost provided by Atom is better than that of multiple discrete systems.

For tier 1 suppliers, Atom's deep technical strength and industry experience can help achieve high-quality and efficient software system integration. At the same time, it can help partners save software and hardware development costs. Atom can provide integrated solutions that can be quickly put into the market and can provide high value-added services.

For ADAS suppliers and low-level component suppliers, Lingdong systems and hardware can effectively integrate the products and services of downstream suppliers, help downstream companies quickly and efficiently deploy them into vehicles, and help downstream manufacturers solve compatibility issues with vehicle manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers.

In addition, NetQin's Link Motion Technology is also a bridge connecting vehicle manufacturers, tier 1 companies, and smart car service companies. It can ensure convenient communication among the five types of companies in the automotive industry chain and work together to realize the intelligentization of automobiles.

The more complex the in-vehicle system is, the greater the risk of electronic attacks. Atom believes that in-vehicle computers should not be reduced to the same electronic attacks and security risks as computers and smartphones. The dedicated firewall used by the Atom platform can block any intrusion from the external network to the car's CAN network. The software structure is layered to prevent external intrusions into the key functions of the car.

NetQin has been committed to Internet security, and its technical accumulation in this area is no less than any Internet giant. The organic combination with Link Motion Technology is undoubtedly a natural outcome. It can not only bring out Link Motion Technology's advantages in smart cars, but also ensure the security of smart car systems.

With the increasing number of cars in use every year, cars are becoming ubiquitous. With the entry of Internet technology giants, smart cars are getting closer and closer to people. While making it convenient for people to travel, they also need strong technical support. The combination of NetQin and Lingdong will surely escort the development of smart cars in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.