Shulou(Shulou.com)12/24 Report--

Recently, the joint venture between Volkswagen and Horizon, after a year of preparation, was finally established in Beijing.

The new company, called Kuicheng CARIZON, is co-financed by Volkswagen's software subsidiary CARIAD and Horizon Horizon. CARIAD and Horizon's official account announced the landing of CARIZON at the same time.

The new company will develop full-stack self-driving and ADAS (Advanced driving Assistance system) based on Horizon's combination of software and hardware technology in the field of intelligence and CARIAD's experience in the integration of intelligent body and software systems.

Horizon is a Beijing-based provider of smart driving computing solutions founded by founder Yu Kai in 2015.

The range series intelligent driving chips independently developed by Horizon have been mass-produced for three generations: journey 2, Journey 3 and Expedition 5, and are widely used in the products of major mainstream car companies sold in the Chinese market.

According to public data, the sales volume of top10 announced by the Automobile Association in mid-2022 has mass production cooperation projects with the Horizon, with more than 150 designated models and more than 50 models.

The horizon provides these models with full-stack smart driving options from high to low. For example, journey 3, journey 5 two products, have the level of NOA mass production.

At present, the total shipment of journey chips has exceeded 4 million, and the next-generation chip journey 6 series is also under way. Last month, Horizon just announced the first list of intended partners for Expedition 6, including CARIZON, BYD, GAC and Bosch.

It is worth noting that the horizon also has strong software capabilities. In a speech, Yu Kai said that Horizon is in a sense a software company under the cloak of chips.

Horizon not only provides corresponding development kits and reference designs, including development boards, SOM boards, computing accelerator cards, but also creates a rich and complete tool chain for customers and partners.

Huang Chang, co-founder of Horizon, will be the CTO of the new company, and Alexis Trolin (Chuli), head of E3 Architecture, CARIAD's core business, will be CEO. The new company plans to recruit more than 300 employees by the end of 2023.

In terms of future product planning, CARIAD China CEO Changqing has disclosed that the new joint venture's L2 + and L2 driver + products in the field of advanced driving assistance are expected to be gradually introduced to the market in 2025 and 2026.

Editor's note

Volkswagen wants to quickly launch models that are more in line with the Chinese market, so this year it has launched a series of partnerships with local suppliers to make their cars competitive in China. Of course, the most expensive partnership with Horizon, worth 2.4 billion euros, attracts the most attention.

It is widely reported that Volkswagen chose to set up a joint venture with Horizon in the hope of making use of its leading strength in intelligence to facilitate its own electric and intelligent counterattack in the Chinese market.

In particular, Horizon has technical reserves in software and hardware, and the response speed and openness of its cooperation are also in the forefront of the industry.

According to reports, ideal ONE, ideal L8, Roewe RX5, Changan UNI-T and other popular models, the horizon delivery time cycle is less than 10 months, while in Europe, the United States and Japan, the typical delivery cycle will be more than 3-5 years.

It is worth noting that CARIZON is positioned as Tier1 to provide products and solutions to the public, while Horizon will still stick to Tier2 positioning, which is also in line with Horizon's long-term strategy.

Horizon has always stressed that, as a supplier, to supply the overall smart car solution based on "chip + tool chain" to the market, do not do software bundling, do not do closed scheme, and work with partners to build an open software and hardware ecology.

At present, with the gradual deepening of software-defined vehicles, the vehicle architecture has entered a new stage from hardware driver to software + hardware collaborative definition, and the cooperation between software and hardware suppliers in the industry chain is also increasing.

Excellent computing solution providers should not only provide them with sufficient convenience at the level of development tools, but also support downstream manufacturers to develop differentiated solutions in the business model.

At present, relying on the open software and hardware ecology, Horizon proposes "abundance and thrift by people", which can provide various types of business cooperation models according to the actual needs of partners. Different mainframe factories and Tier1 rely on this open ability to achieve mass production.

For example, ideal, Light Boat Zhihang, Pony Horse Zhixing, Fretek, Heduo Technology, MINIEYE and other enterprises have successively launched NOA mass production solutions based on journey chips.

In addition, the international Tier 1 giant Zaifu and Amber also announced this year that they have reached a deep strategic cooperation with the horizon to create a smart driving solution. The mainland formally established a joint venture with Horizon in 2022.

Since the opening of the BPU IP license last year, the horizon has initially successfully verified this capability. According to public information, it has been confirmed that two car factories have reached cooperation with Horizon in this regard, and other interested car companies are in the process of promoting it.

It can be said that Horizon's rich experience in differentiated cooperation and mass production enables it to deal with the resource deployment of the new joint venture company calmly.

Based on the open strategy, by the end of 2022, Horizon has connected more than 100 upstream and downstream industrial partners, including hardware and software Tier1, ODM, IDH, chips, graphic vendors, sensors and so on.

At present, the industry is generally positive and optimistic about the news of the landing of the joint venture company.

It has been commented that the most influential automobile group in the world has partnered with a Chinese start-up technology company and invested the largest investment in 40 years since it entered China, a move that declares that the zero-whole relationship in the automotive sector is being broken and reconstructed. the trend of smart electric is promoting the landing of a new cooperation model.

It is also pointed out that the mature technology, mass production experience and response speed of Horizon will provide sufficient intelligent power for Volkswagen's transformation in China, and Volkswagen's strong production capacity and market position will provide a new huge growth point for Horizon calculation program shipments.

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