At present, when major foreign-funded auto companies continue to increase their investment in China, more and more Chinese auto brands have begun to go abroad, accelerate their globalization business, and transfer their track to a broader overseas market.
SAIC Overseas Mobility Technology Co., Ltd. ("SAIC Overseas Mobility" for short) was established in 2018. It undertakes the product innovation function of SAIC Group's networked, intelligent and internationalized products. "Intensive cultivation" in subdivided fields forms a three-dimensional competitive combination. Through cooperation with Amazon cloud technology, SAIC Motor's overseas travel has completed the coverage of intelligent network connection services in multiple European countries, and at the same time achieved multiple business innovations in overseas vehicle voice and overseas travel. It is estimated that by the end of 2023, the cumulative number of SAIC's intelligent network connection users in overseas markets will exceed one million.
Currently, the Amazon cloud technology services used by SAIC for overseas travel include: Amazon EKS, Amazon EC2, Amazon DocumentDB, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Alexa, etc.
Solution: "Potential" and "threshold" coexist for car companies to go overseas, and it is necessary to accurately select technical partners
As the world's largest auto exporter, Chinese auto companies continue to go abroad to explore broader overseas markets. Judging from the export sales rankings, SAIC Motor has become the "vanguard" of Chinese automobiles going overseas. Its MG brand models are widely welcomed in overseas markets, and it has become the "China's single-brand overseas sales champion" for four consecutive years.
"Driving out" is only the first step. Only by allowing the car to "take root" in the local area can the brand survive. This kind of localization ability is especially reflected in the "intelligence" that Chinese cars are now selling overseas. SAIC's vehicles are exported to India, Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions. Only by finding out the differentiated pain points in different markets, responding quickly, and providing a "localized" smart experience can consumers accept it. For example, many Indian car owners will hire drivers, so they hope to be able to remotely monitor the usage time and driving distance of the car; while the average age of European customers is older than that of Southeast Asian markets, so the font size of the smart car system should be bigger, and so on.
SAIC executives have regarded intelligent network technology as an important strategy for overseas business. However, if a dedicated intelligent network connection system is made for each market, the cost allocated to each vehicle will be high, and the balance between cost and user experience is the biggest problem at this stage in intelligently going overseas. The original intention of SAIC Overseas Travel was to efficiently respond to such complicated needs and add intelligent highlights to SAIC’s overseas products.
As cars become more and more smart terminals, always-on and real-time updates have become the standard configuration of a new generation of smart cars. Behind this, a solid and reliable cloud service is an important supporting base. During the R&D and deployment process of SAIC i-SMART intelligent network connection products, whether the selected technology platform and ecosystem can provide sufficient assistance in overseas markets and reduce the difficulty of global deployment of enterprises has also become an important factor affecting the success of the overseas strategy .
Solution: Create an i-SMART intelligent network connection platform to increase the added value of vehicle products
Xu Jie, CTO of SAIC Overseas Travel, said: "Amazon cloud technology has helped SAIC deploy i-SMART, an intelligent network solution, including intelligent vehicle systems, client APPs, system online update OTA, etc. This solution has been applied to MG brand vehicles. Assisting in the completion of the development of overseas in-vehicle voices provides SAIC with a differentiated competitive advantage for its complete vehicle products and expands its overseas competitiveness."
Based on Amazon cloud technology to achieve a safe and highly available intelligent network platform and overseas voice vehicle platform
More car owners and more complex rules are a big challenge to the cloud service in the background. For SAIC's overseas travel with a scattered market and extensive coverage, the first thing to solve is to rely on the global infrastructure of Amazon Cloud Technology to achieve efficient interoperability and interconnection of vehicles around the world, and then use its one-stop data service to allow vehicle data to flow freely in the cloud and Unified integration, and the use of intelligent analysis to release the value of data to realize driving behavior analysis, remote status inspection, remote control, remote vehicle positioning services, etc.
When building the i-SMART overseas voice vehicle platform, SAIC Overseas Travel uses Amazon EKS clusters to deploy various components of the dialogue framework, which can easily manage and expand the system. At the same time, SAIC Overseas Travel uses Amazon EC2 GPU instances to deploy large language models. Its powerful computing and graphics processing capabilities are suitable for high-performance deep learning tasks. The system also uses Amazon DocumentDB to provide a fully managed document database, which is compatible with MongoDB and supports high scalability and flexibility.
Participate in the research and development of intelligent voice robots to achieve mutual assistance and win-win results
For SAIC’s overseas business, which has a global business and increasingly wide depth, a reliable global partner with a complete business system can greatly improve efficiency, which is also reflected in other business cooperation with Amazon Cloud Technology. For example, in the MG ASTOR voice robot project independently developed by SAIC Overseas Travel, Amazon Alexa intelligent voice interaction technology participated in the cooperation, and can seamlessly connect with the cloud-based intelligent network connection system.
High-quality music service is the standard configuration of intelligent network connection and the rigid demand of car owners
Music content service is a standard configuration for car intelligence and Internet of Vehicles, and music playback is just what car owners and passengers need. On the MG Marvel R model launched in Europe in 2021, the i-SMART intelligent network connection system is equipped with Amazon Prime Music for the first time, providing European drivers and passengers with high-quality streaming media services and bringing a new in-car music experience. In the future, Amazon Prime Music will also be launched on MG EZS, MG 5, MG 4 and other models, with a total of more than 80,000 mass-produced models, and plans to expand to Australia, New Zealand, India, South America, Mexico and other regions in the future.
In addition, Amazon Cloud Technology has also participated in the development of dynamic 3D small games for SAIC's overseas travel, bringing an excellent experience to more Internet of Vehicles users. Among these projects, in addition to the cooperation between SAIC and Amazon Cloud Technology, there is also the technology integration of many companies. This open cooperation model has also formed a win-win situation.
Business results: Nearly millions of overseas Internet users are activated, expanding overseas territory
When SAIC Motor built i-SMART intelligent network products for overseas travel, it adopted a high-reusability, single-platform software development strategy. Through cooperation with Amazon Cloud Technology, it completed the global multi-country intelligent network service coverage. At the same time, overseas vehicle voice and ecological services and other aspects to achieve multiple business innovations.
In 2017, the i-SMART system that can "understand" Thai came out, representing the original intention of the overseas travel team to help SAIC manufacture "localize". Over the past few years, the i-SMART system has mastered 12 languages and can "understand" them at the same time 35 languages. The i-SMART intelligent network connection platform realizes the three-terminal connectivity of the vehicle, network service, and cloud, and the four-screen linkage of the vehicle, App, watch, and smart hardware, providing a perfect user experience for the user scenarios of the five sub-brands, realizing human-computer interaction, Remotely control real-time traffic navigation, parking lot search, weather forecast and other cost-effective Internet of Vehicles service functions.
Today, every time a SAIC-manufactured car with an intelligent network connection function is sold in an overseas market, a new dot will light up on the background map of SAIC’s overseas travel, indicating that another active overseas network user has activated it. At present, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe have been covered, and in the future, South America, Mexico and other regions will be lit up one after another. In 2023, this territory is expected to add 300,000 small bright spots. By then, the cumulative number of SAIC's intelligent connected users in overseas markets will soon exceed one million.
As more and more intelligent connected cars go abroad and drive to the world, the overseas route of car companies has also evolved from the earliest sale of a hardware product to the provision of a complete set of software and hardware interconnection services. But to truly turn this picture into reality, it is necessary to introduce more partner resources with an open mind, and expand the ability of overseas landing and technological innovation. The cooperation between Amazon Cloud Technology and SAIC Overseas Travel provides a perfect reference model.