To build a good car, ZTE confirms the establishment of a smart car electronic product line

As an ICT company with a certain degree of technology accumulation in vehicle-road collaboration and in-vehicle communication, ZTE’s involvement in the field of automotive electronics is not surprising.

On the afternoon of March 3, ZTE responded to the rumor that it would set up an automotive electronics product line: 'The news is true.' In line with the automotive electronics product line, ZTE will set up an automotive electronics team, which is part of the system. Product Technology Planning Department is responsible for unified business planning and operation in the field of automotive electronics. Currently, the leader of the business system has not yet been clarified.

Image source: ZTE

According to information, ZTE’s “car building” is quite similar to Huawei’s goal and vision, both of which started for communications. Both want to empower traditional car companies and help traditional car companies build good cars.

But in comparison, ZTE's plan seems to be more focused. ZTE wants to build a real-time, safe, and open operating system solution in the field of smart cars relying on its technology accumulation in the operating system, and intends to treat it as a new fulcrum industry to provide important support for the construction of the entire smart car and application scenarios.

In fact, in the field of automotive operating systems, ZTE has successfully incubated related products.

The predecessor of the intelligent software and hardware service provider 'InBev Supercomputing' is the ZTE Automotive Electronics Product Line (BU). In December 2018, InBev Supercomputing was separated from ZTE Corporation and established InBev Supercomputing (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd. The product has been installed on the Chery New Energy Antagon model.

At the just-concluded MWC World Congress, ZTE also demonstrated its self-developed C-V2X module and system-level solutions of OBU, RSU and remote cloud control platform, and released the global The first typical scenario of intelligent transportation based on 5G end-to-end slicing was launched. ZTE said that it will work with industry partners to create a vehicle-road synergy ecosystem. It has participated in many vehicle-road synergy projects such as Changsha Pilot Zone, Xiong'an Pilot Zone, Hainan Pilot Zone, and Wuxi Pilot Zone.

Application test of '5G+Intelligent Transportation' based on network slicing, picture source: ZTE Corporation

From the above landing projects, it is not difficult to find that ZTE’s current technological entry point for smart cars is mainly smart transportation. Through 5G and high-precision maps and other technologies, roadside smart sensing devices and smart vehicles collaborate to explore the network. Connected autonomous driving. For ZTE, which has been deeply involved in the communications field, this is also the direction it is more adept at.

According to data, ZTE has entered the field of smart cars much earlier than we thought.

In 2008, Yang Lei, then deputy general manager of ZTE IOT, once stated that ZTE launched the first 3G front-mounted module based on LGA packaging in China that year, and provided it to Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, etc. Many customers have opened up the in-vehicle information terminal market. Subsequently, in 2012, the company began to get involved in the automotive field, doing wireless charging technology, has deployed 13 wireless charging commercial lines, and signed strategic cooperation agreements with 38 provinces and cities nationwide.

In 2016, ZTE successfully acquired Zhuhai Guangtong Bus and established a wholly-owned subsidiary, ZTE Intelligent Automobile Co., Ltd. It is understood that the company is mainly focusing on the research and development, design, production and manufacturing of new energy vehicles, system research and development, construction and operation of Internet of Vehicles applications, big data, autonomous driving, and cloud computing centers to create a new industry sector. At that time, ZTE executives also said: 'We are recruiting relevant talents, and smart cars will be a very important business for ZTE in the future.'

As the market changes, ZTE has gradually shifted its business focus to the passenger car market for mass consumption, and gradually established a wide circle of friends.