Source | CSDN Cloud Computing
Gartner released five technology trends for the automotive industry in 2022 to help CIOs better respond to the software, hardware and digital transformation of the automotive industry.
Pedro Pacheco, senior research director at Gartner, said: "Over the past century, automakers have focused on the research and development of automotive mechanics, leaving most of the software development work to other companies. The key, software will be the main driver of profit growth for automakers. The ultimate goal of each OEM (OEM) will be to transform into a technology or software company.”
Five technology trends will emerge in the automotive industry in 2022.
Trend 1: Automakers rethink hardware procurement strategies
Automakers are reassessing their longstanding just-in-time (JIT) inventory strategy. This strategy leaves OEMs and tier-one suppliers with no contingency inventory available in the event of a shortage of various chips. As a result, automakers are rethinking how they work with chipmakers and considering designing their own chips.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, 50% of the top ten auto OEMs will design their own chips and establish direct, long-term strategic partnerships with chip companies, while abandoning just-in-time inventory management strategies.
Trend Two: Digital Giants Integrate Cars into Overall Ecosystems
Digital giants such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Alibaba or Tencent will continue to expand their influence in the automotive technology space in 2022. "These technology companies are further integrating cars into their respective ecosystems, which will lead to new connected car services," Pacheco said.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 70% of cars sold will be powered by the Android Auto operating system, up from less than 1% today.
"Because it's very difficult to develop technology and software in-house," Pacheco said. "Car companies either partner with digital giants to make major profits through software, or they do most of the development work themselves by building a huge internal resource pool."
Trend 3: The development of open data and open source cooperation models is accelerating
Several tech companies have created open-source vehicle architecture operating systems and open electric vehicle (EV) platforms in 2021. This new partnership model for the automotive industry will accelerate in popularity in 2022.
In addition, automakers will increasingly look at data from a technical perspective. "Instead of selling data, car companies are building or integrating ecosystems to get more diverse data to develop more attractive features or digital services," Pacheco said.
Trend #4: Mature automakers are using OTAs as their primary digital revenue channel
The automotive over-the-air (OTA) software market has changed significantly in the last year when several automakers began offering software updates.
Most automakers are already turning their vehicles to support software updates by updating the hardware on their vehicles, and they are now shifting to a revenue model that replaces the sale of assets with the sale of services.
Gartner analysts predict that by 2023, half of the top 10 automakers will unlock and upgrade features through software updates that customers can purchase after purchasing a car.
Trend 5: More regulations in the autonomous vehicle space, but barriers to commercialization remain
Despite continuous improvements in sensing technology, increasingly advanced perception algorithms, and evolving regulations and standards, autonomous vehicle developers have struggled to expand self-driving technology to new cities or regions.
Automakers have begun releasing Level 3 autonomous vehicles and are working to deploy Level 4 autonomous trucks and commercial robo-taxis. But it will still take a long time for them to prove the safety and efficacy of autonomous driving technology, and at the same time, extensive simulations and real-world testing have made commercialization of the technology slow and expensive. In addition, issues such as the division of responsibility in the event of an accident and related legal and social concerns, such as how human-driven vehicles will interact with AI vehicles, make it difficult to commercialize the technology.
Jonathan Davenport, research director at Gartner, said: “The high R&D costs of robo-taxi or Level 4 trucks have hindered not only the rate of adoption but also the realization of ROI. Ironically, one of the main benefits of autonomous vehicles is reduced transportation cost."
Gartner analysts predict that by 2030, there will be four times as many Level 4 autonomous robo-taxis in operation globally as there were in 2022.