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CARIAD, a software company owned by Volkswagen Group, has announced that it will set up a joint venture with Horizon to speed up the development of advanced driving assistance systems and self-driving systems for the Chinese market. It has been revealed that Volkswagen plans to invest about 2.4 billion euros in the partnership, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. In response, horizon founder and CEO Yu Kai lamented on the social platform: "after long efforts and waiting, we can finally announce a major cooperation between Horizon and Volkswagen Group!"

From the content of the press release, the cooperation between the two sides focuses on full-stack advanced driving assistance systems and autopilot solutions-improving system stability, cost savings and energy consumption by integrating multiple functions on a single chip. This can be described as a "professional counterpart" for the horizon, which is engaged in smart chip development.

Referring to this cooperation, Baird, CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), said that China is the most important business region of the group in the world, and cooperation with Horizon is the core cornerstone of the group's strategic transformation in China and strengthening its business in China. Local R & D will give the group more autonomy and further consolidate its leading position in the Chinese auto market.

Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of CARIAD, said, "as the global automotive software and technology innovation center of the Volkswagen Group, CARIAD is an important force in transforming the Group into a software-driven mobile travel service provider. Through the establishment of a joint venture with Horizon and further investment in self-driving technology, we will further establish the Group's position in the new wave of innovation and modernization in the Chinese auto market. "

Data show that CARIAD, formerly known as Car.Software Organisation, the Volkswagen software division established in 2020, was initiated and established by Herbert Dis, former CEO of Volkswagen Group, with the aim of creating a self-developed on-board operating system VW.OS, in order to strengthen Volkswagen Group's software capabilities, and to apply its different versions to all group car brands in the future. The first model carried is Volkswagen ID.3. However, Volkswagen's management was outraged because various BUG led to mass production plans, forcing Volkswagen to abandon plans to list ID.3 in the summer. Later, the then Volkswagen Group CEO Dis further increased its investment in software, even turning the division into a CARIAD, avoiding interference from within the Volkswagen Group, and setting up subsidiaries in a number of countries around the world, including China.

Why the horizon? According to the data, Horizon, founded in July 2015, is a brand of Beijing Horizon Robot Technology Research and Development Co., Ltd., which is mainly engaged in the research and development of intelligent chips. According to SkyEye survey, the horizon has completed 15 rounds of financing, including BYD, Great Wall Motor, GAC GROUP, Dongfeng Motor, China FAW, Chery Holdings and so on, which also means that Horizon may become their supplier in the future. In terms of products, Horizon has launched four autopilot chips, which have provided autopilot chips to Changan UNI-V, self-swimmer NV, Ruihu 8 PRO, Roewe RX5, ideal L8 and other models.

Why does the public attach so much importance to software capabilities? Because the sense of experience is so poor, the problems mainly focus on intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving. Not long ago, ID.6 owners reported that an ad popped up in the navigation interface while using in-car navigation, which just obscured the navigation information while driving, resulting in the navigation function not working properly. According to the exposed pictures, the pop-up window advertisement reads: "it is courteous to recommend buying a car, and you can get 12000 points for a bicycle transaction, starting from September 30," with buttons of "view" and "cancel". Pop-up ads occupy almost half the area of the navigation interface, which may pose a threat to driving safety. In addition, some ID.4 owners reported that the central control screen suddenly went black in less than two weeks while driving, and it would not help even if the power was off and restarted. There are signs that Volkswagen's performance in intelligence is really not good enough.

Given that Volkswagen already has partnerships with US chipmaker Qualcomm and European Italian Semiconductor, the Horizon partnership means Volkswagen has major suppliers in North America, Europe and China, Reuters said. it will also help Volkswagen gain more share of the Chinese electric car market. With Volkswagen's current software research and development strength, it really needs to be purchased from the Horizon, and the realization of Horizon products on Volkswagen's products in China can undoubtedly change the public's impression of the lack of intelligence on Volkswagen's vehicles, and the most important thing is to be available immediately. To buy time for follow-up research and development of truly proprietary technology.

In recent years, many German enterprises have been increasing their investment in China. According to data released by the German Economic Research Institute, German investment in China reached an all-time high of about 10 billion euros in the first half of the year. In July, German auto parts maker Hella announced that it would expand its production capacity in China and build a new plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. In June, BMW Group officially opened a new plant in Shenyang at a cost of 15 billion yuan, which is also BMW's largest single investment in China.

On the 11th of this month, German Chancellor Schultz expressed his opposition to "decoupling" when attending a meeting, stressing that "decoupling would be a completely wrong path." Schultz also said that not only can Germany and the EU "decouple" from individual countries, but also "must trade with many countries, including China, with emerging countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America."

Industry insiders said that in the trade relations between China and Europe, China is currently Germany's largest trading partner, but Germany's trade weight with China is not high by comparison, which means that if Germany is forced to "decouple" from the Chinese economy, it will seriously affect Germany's current unstable economic foundation, further deepen its risk of economic stagflation, and will do no harm but no good to maintaining the political and economic stability of the EU and improving the well-being of the people.

The same applies to the general public. Volkswagen's global sales fell 6 per cent year-on-year to 8.58 million vehicles in 2021, with sales in China falling 14 per cent to 3.3 million vehicles, according to the data. Even so, the Chinese market is still Volkswagen's largest single market in the world. Volkswagen China has a 38% market share in the global market, meaning that for every 100 Volkswagen models sold in the world, 38 of them are from the Chinese market.

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