Since 2023, the intelligent driving market has entered a new cycle of L2 popularization and mass production of high-end ADAS functions (NOA), reducing costs and increasing efficiency, creating the ultimate price-performance ratio, and improving user experience, etc., have become the focus of competition.
Among them, the replacement of more cost-effective hardware platforms, sensor multiplexing, system optimization, etc. have become the main direction of cost reduction and efficiency increase. Thanks to its comprehensive advantages in computing power, cost, power consumption, security, etc., as well as the accumulation of mass production and development experience in the parking functional domain, TI's TDA4 chip has become the mainstream choice for the current cost-effective smart driving solution.
The feature of TDA4 is that through highly integrated chip design, it integrates all kinds of computing resources required for assisted driving, and realizes the ultimate compression of chip cost, but this also leads to a high application threshold. To make good use of complex multi-core heterogeneous chips requires strong engineering capabilities. In addition, most manufacturers lack key perception capabilities, making it difficult to deploy complex visual pipeline chips. Therefore, there are very few manufacturers that can provide mass production solutions based on TDA4 chips. few.
Among the well-known autonomous driving players, DJI Automotive is a cost-effective mass production solution based on TDA4, which is applied to models such as KiWi EV, and the new Lantu Free, which has just been launched, is also a smart solution provided by Baidu Apollo based on TDA4. driving system.
However, with the progress of the industry, more powerful players are also emerging. Nullmax, who focuses on the mass production of pre-installation and has a reputation for integrating travel and parking, is another senior player of TDA4. According to Gaogong Intelligent Vehicle Research Institute, Nullmax cooperates with well-known car companies such as Chery and SAIC Motor, as well as top Tier 1 manufacturers in China.
Nullmax has excellent visual perception and engineering deployment capabilities. On TDA4, the mass production delivery of perception applications has been achieved in 2022. This year, more applications including the integration of driving and parking will be implemented, involving a variety of models.
Moreover, for the fast-tiered market, Nullmax has launched diversified products and multi-level solutions based on its own full-stack capabilities, supporting mainstream chip platforms with high, medium, and low computing power, covering high-speed, parking, and urban autonomous driving. Scenes. Among them, the TDA4-based mass production plan is aimed at the entry-level and mid-end model markets, winning with perfect functions and extreme cost, and has won multiple mass production projects.
In-depth optimization and cost reduction to create the ultimate experience
According to the monitoring data of Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute, from January to June this year, 3.2435 million new passenger cars equipped with L2 (including L2+) equipped with pre-installed standard equipment in the Chinese market (excluding imports and exports) were delivered, a year-on-year increase of 37.65%; The equipped ratio was 34.90%, an increase of about 8 percentage points year-on-year.
Among them, the L2-level ADAS subdivision track has entered the market dividend period of large-scale popularization, while NOA is in a stage of rapid growth (compared to the entry-level L2), and the demand for cost performance is also rapidly emerging.
For suppliers and car companies, the next fight is no longer hardware "stacking", but the large-scale popularization of cost-effective solutions and the competition of functional experience, which obviously tests the comprehensive capabilities of suppliers.
According to the data, Nullmax's driving and parking integrated solution is based on a single TDA4, and mainstream sensor configuration solutions such as 6V5R and 5V5R, which can realize functions such as high-speed NOA, intelligent cruise, ADAS, memory parking, and autonomous parking.
Obviously, this cost-effective solution lowers the popularization threshold of practical high-end functions such as high-speed NOA and memory parking to an extremely low range.
According to Nullmax, the key lies in the deeply integrated 4.0 form of integration, through the deep multiplexing of sensors and the sharing of chip resources to achieve the effect of improving performance and reducing costs.
Nullmax regards TDA4 as the first choice chip for cost-effective mass production solutions. Using the multi-core heterogeneous and scalable features of TDA4, coupled with its own full-stack software algorithms, especially the deep visual perception technology, it can provide a series of cost-effective Customized solutions. Not only is the function very complete, but the cost is greatly reduced compared with similar solutions, which can fully meet the intelligent driving needs of mainstream models.
Cost-effective solutions are generally equipped with lower computing power and lower-cost hardware. Manufacturers need to have strong software algorithm capabilities to polish the functions well, otherwise the experience cannot be guaranteed.
According to Nullmax, the single TDA4 mass production solution can perform quite well in scenarios such as zigzag curves, large curvature curves, stationary or slow-moving vehicles ahead, and intersection traffic, and its processing capacity is on par with human capabilities. In memory parking, it can also accurately identify obstacles such as pedestrians, vehicles, and obstacles, and deal with situations such as ghost probes, surpassing most solutions on the market.
Since the beginning of this year, the integration of lightweight travel and mooring has been mentioned many times by the industry, and it is now on the eve of the outbreak. The cost-effectiveness of the TDA4-based mass-production solution is unquestionable, especially the single-TDA4 integrated driving and parking, which is likely to become a benchmark solution for intelligent driving in the future.
For autonomous driving companies, developing a mass production solution based on TDA4 is a typical difficult but correct thing. The difficulty and workload are obvious to all, but the value is also obvious. Because the companies that are the first to complete the implementation of the plan are expected to make more profits in the entry-level and mid-end markets that are really moving.
Industry-leading mass production process
Under the new competition cycle centered on "scale mass production", suppliers are tested not only by the differentiated advantages of product solutions, but also by the speed of mass production.
At present, the rapidly stratified market also presents a very diversified demand. Based on their own planning and self-research capabilities, OEMs have different plans. Model plans in different price ranges require different smart driving solutions, and they have different requirements for computing power platforms, configuration solutions, and costs.
For intelligent driving system suppliers, building a flexible product portfolio and diversified solutions based on different levels of chip platforms to cover all levels of the ADAS market is the key to expanding the scale. Excellent players will implement flexible cooperation models based on full-stack capabilities, not only capable of providing complete solutions, but also able to meet the needs of OEMs for customization and in-depth development.
In the field of mass production of passenger cars, Nullmax has successively launched the intelligent driving solution MaxDrive and the visual perception solution MaxVision, respectively providing a complete intelligent driving system and key visual perception modules to meet the technical needs of different customers. On TDA4, these two different sets of products have received mass production orders and entered the stage of large-scale delivery.
In addition, Nullmax has also completed the designation and development of mass production solutions based on the Orin chip, and meets the needs of different market segments by matching with TDA4.
The above two chips are representative chips in the cost-effective market and high-performance market, and their market share and market recognition are very high. After the Nullmax solution based on these two chips is actually delivered, the demonstration effect of the mass production project may be huge. It is very clear that a large number of orders are expected to follow.
In the automotive industry, due to the scarcity of visual perception capabilities and the huge market demand, MaxVision has also received multiple mass production project orders, including TDA4-based mass production perception modules such as front view, side view, and surround view. The development requirements of embedded platforms are relatively high, and it is extremely difficult to deploy algorithms on low-power chips. As one of the few sensing solutions that can be applied to TDA4 chips, MaxVision is also very popular in the industry.
It is worth noting that in addition to OEMs, Nullmax’s mass production partners also include local top Tier1 suppliers, as well as chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments and Nvidia.
In the automotive industry, Tier1 plays a pivotal role, and reliable Tier1 partners are of great help to the mass production of software algorithms. The same is true for chip manufacturers. Chip selection has an important impact on project designation. In-depth chip cooperation can fully tap the potential of chips and create benchmark applications for both parties. With the help of solid industrial cooperation, the commercialization of Nullmax is expected to be further accelerated.
Looking back, Nullmax, which is eyeing the autonomous driving to B market, has become the leader in the mass-produced autonomous driving field after completing a series of mass production projects, especially after completing the delivery of the iconic integrated driving and parking solution based on TDA4. player. At the moment when L2 is becoming popular and the demand for high-level assisted driving is exploding, Nullmax can be said to have entered a rapid development track.
In the past, due to the long onboarding cycle, it took a long time for mass-produced autonomous driving companies to produce results, and little attention was paid to them. However, after completing the breakthrough from zero to one, the complexities of pre-installed mass production have been clarified. We have gone through all kinds of difficulties and hardships, and we will basically enter a new stage, and expanding mass production will become the new melody.
The smart driving industry is still developing rapidly, and we look forward to more players successfully qualifying!