AI takes human-vehicle interaction to the next level
The ability of early smart vehicles to automatically dodge the obstacles they encountered was applauded. But when it became apparent that a harmless plastic bag could make the smart vehicle hit its emergency brake, it suddenly seemed not so smart, after all.
In today's era of informatization, technologies such as the IoT, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and Mobile Internet are infiltrating traditional industries. Vehicles are no different. As they have become increasingly electronic and interconnected, new technologies have prompted new developments in vehicle intelligence. Conversely, the development of smart vehicles promotes new technology applications as well as the development of automotive-support industries such as chips, software, IC, and data services.
Vehicle smartification means that the vehicle is equipped with smart photographic lenses, laser radar, and other sensing apparatuses. These are coupled with smart operating systems and artificial intelligence chips to achieve data access, data interconnection, and automated driving. With technological development and integration, especially the development of communication technology and AI, the development of smart vehicles has been accelerated. The eventual mainstream adoption of smart vehicles will not only transform the vehicle from a "vehicle-centric" means of transportation to a "people-centric" mobile space, it will also form a new ecology for cars and transportation services.
Clearly, there is still a long way to go on the road to driver-less driving. However, unlike autonomous driving, which comes with its own set of challenges, the R&D of smart cockpits is relatively simple. Since product iteration calculation is faster, and the design concept is clearer, companies can rapidly develop smart cockpits for autonomous driving. This advanced cockpit concept can be almost immediately fitted into mass-produced cars to improve passenger comfort and safety, which is one of the key reasons why so many companies are eager to develop smart cockpits.
The development of smart cockpits expedites the transformation of the smart vehicle from a vehicle-centric to a consumer-centric mobile model. By improving the performance of chips to endow products with new functions, the relationship between people and cars can be redefined with the "decoupled-but-collaborative software and hardware" model. In line with evolving industry demands, the smart cockpit system transforms the vehicle from an ordinary transportation tool into an ecosystem that integrates travel, life, and entertainment.
What is "passive"? What is "active"?
Most people are familiar with the type of conversation known as "passive interaction": the human tells the machine to perform an action, and the output is fed back to the human. However, this kind of interaction is not suitable for a car. When the driver or the device moves, the eyes are likely to move away from the road, causing both safety hazards and inefficiencies.
Imagine a scenario where the car "proactively" provides services when the passengers need them, rather than passengers scrambling to access services while driving. This scenario is called "active interaction." Active interaction allows the device to actively output results or provide suggestions. At the same time, the device can actively input information from the outside world and make decisions and judgments, without passengers needing to input and execute instructions.
A car that can realize unmanned driving not only needs to communicate with the passengers inside the car, but also actively communicate with pedestrians, other cars, and road conditions outside of the car. The external environment is subject to distance, noise, temperature, humidity, wind speed, etc. The car’s decisions and judgments will be determined by multiple factors, thus posing one of many challenges for the industry.
Who benefits?
Building on the advent of the smart phone, the smart vehicle has achieved an excellent integration of smart technology, network connectivity, and automotive products – it may even become the Mobile Internet terminal of the future. Smart vehicles are equipped with a hardware sensing system in the cockpit, which acts as the “five senses” of the car. With the help of AI recognition technology, the car has the ability to listen, speak, see, and think – just like people. Studies have found that in driving scenarios, human hearing is relatively less engaged, which means that voice is the main information output method. The visual interface is merely used as an auxiliary to improve the efficiency of information transmission.
In the future, industrial competition in smart vehicles will change from complete “bumper-to-bumper” vehicle manufacturers to companies that can integrate mobile ecological capabilities, driving the automotive industry to develop from unidimensional product quality and performance competition to competition that integrates industrial resources and service systems. The smart vehicle industrial chain can be roughly divided into three categories. The first category is the industrial chain of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) – it includes upstream component and chip companies, midstream car manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, software platform developers, downstream system integrators, communication service providers, platform operators, and content providers. The second consists of advanced sensor manufacturers capable of developing and supplying advanced machine vision (MV) technologies, including laser range-finding systems, infrared cameras, and radars. The third includes automotive electronics suppliers that can provide R&D and the integrated supply of smart driving technologies.
In short, manufacturers with support capabilities for the core components of smart driving, computer host manufacturers that actively upgrade technology for smart transformation, and cross-discipline Internet suppliers proficient in the R&D of the algorithm data layer will all be in an ideal position to contribute to and capitalize on the development of smart vehicles.
A "people-centric" ecosystem, and a consumer experience that is gradually becoming more transparent
The mobile and social consumer revolution has brought radical transparency to the customer experience. A company's brand is more about the experience it offers than marketing expenditure, and the customer experience is the number-one driver of purchases. As the pace of change accelerates, the future looks bleaker and bleaker for companies that are not customer-centric. Companies must understand, measure, and improve every aspect of experiential behavior in order to become more competitive, because the cost of failure is too high.
Advances in digital and mobile technologies have increased the volume, variety, and complexity of customer experience data. In addition, social media platforms are amplifying the impact of positive and negative experiences of companies, thereby increasing the experience economy of enterprises. Subsequently, experience management has become key to success. In the future, the direction of vehicle companies will not only be driven by practicality and durability, but also by their ability to become Mobile Internet terminal suppliers that integrate safety, practicality, aesthetics, comfort, entertainment and experience.
