Partnerships Reshaping the Auto ER&D Sector (Part 1)

CASE is a commonly used moniker used to summarize the radical changes automakers are tackling. It stands for Connected Autonomous Shared Electrified and succinctly captures the forces reshaping the auto landscape.

In this article, we decided to profile some interesting global companies that are riding the tailwinds of CASE. It is the second instalment of the ongoing 4-part series where we highlight the ongoing evolution of the automotive industry and reflect on its impact on tools and services for ER&D.

In part one , we spoke about how automakers and their existing vendors forged partnerships with startups through M&A, investments, and joint ventures to gain access to new technology/capabilities or to hedge their bets or both.

Mobileye

Mobileye manufactures the eyes and brain of a connected car. It started as a research project with the premise of automotive vision using only a camera and a processor.

The company has been on a vertical integration journey, moving from selling a vision SoC to a full suite of ADAS solutions, including cameras, LIDAR, mapping and a framework for AV decision making.

Its latest product, the Mobileye Drive is a turnkey self-driving solution that can turn virtually any service or vehicle autonomous.

A balancing act:

Mobileye’s business hinges on a key question, what portion of an autonomous driving system would OEMs choose to keep in-house versus outsourcing.

Their view is that they will separate the “universal” from the “unique”. The "universal" components, such as those common to all automakers, will be outsourced. For instance, the sensors (camera, lidar, radar) are universal and so is firmware and middleware like sensor fusion, data processing, basic rule engine.

Conversely, the "unique" aspects will remain under the ownership of the OEM. This includes rules for decision making and control that determine specific vehicle actions for example, how much to brake under a certain scenario, HMI (Human Machine Interface).

aiMotive

If Mobileye provides the product for autonomous driving, aiMotive aiMotive is the digital factory where the product is built and tested.

Its product suite:

aiMotive’s product journey illustrates the roadmap for autonomous driving product evolution would take:

1. aiDrive – A driving automation software platform was the first product.
2. aiSim – The company felt the need to develop a validation solution, an environment to simulate automated driving scenarios and “validate” whether the system performs as intended.
3. aiWare – This was a chip IP to enable better edge computing, custom designed for autonomous driving use cases like low memory usage, low latency image processing capabilities etc.
4. aiData – This solution manages all the data generated from get-go like generation, collection, annotation, versioning and evaluation.

Unique vs Universal

In December 2022, aiMotive was acquired by Stellantis , the fourth largest automaker in the world. Interestingly, aiMotive is free to sell all its products to third party customers, except aiDrive.

Perhaps, this strategy sheds some light on what OEMs seek to keep in house versus outsourced. The software stays in-house whereas tooling and data management can be outsourced.

Cubic Telecom

Software defined hardware needs a constant connection to the internet to be able to talk to the cloud, other vehicles and devices and receive OTA (Over the Air) updates.

Cubic describes itself as a “global connected vehicle software and real-time analytics solutions provider”.

Simply put, one might call Cubic Telecom the mobile network for IoT devices and connected hardware. And since more connectivity also leads to more data generation, Cubic has software solutions for managing and leveraging such data.

Offerings include:

1. PACE – A one-stop solution to keep the car connected, wherever it is i.e. MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator)
2. PLXOR – Insights on media/content consumption and management
3. INSIGHTS – Solution helps with vehicle/fleet data analytics

Why did this acquisition make sense for ソフトバンク ?

Softbank is one of Japan’s largest telecom companies with increasing global ambitions. Japan is also home to some of the world’s largest automakers. Cubic’s connected vehicle offering is strategic for Softbank:

• It has a leading position in the fast growing IoT connectivity market
• An enterprise solution for automakers
• Accessing a global consumer base to expand presence beyond Japan (Cubic works closely with Audi and VW).

StoreDot

StoreDot has been developing rapid charging solutions since 2012. They began with mobile phones and are now innovating for cars.

A StoreDot battery claims to provide 3x more range per each minute of charging. Their core technology is adding silicon nano particles to the anode in the battery, thereby boosting charging speed and energy density. It has many benefits like higher energy density, fast charging, low cost and environment friendly.

The challenge however is that silicon expands upon lithium insertion which causes wear and tear to the electrode.

This research is not novel, but StoreDot appears to be one of the leaders in commercializing this for the automotive battery market.

Tesla claims to use silicon in its battery.

Sila and Group14 Technologies are other leading technology providers.

The StoreDot CEO has stated that as battery tech and charging infrastructure evolves, EV owners are moving from range anxiety (how long will the charge last) to charge anxiety (how quickly will I be able to charge).

Current Status:

The StoreDot batteries are undergoing extensive testing with partners. The company claims the results are very encouraging.?

In terms of customers, StoreDot claims that Polestar (owned by Volvo Group ) may start using StoreDot batteries by 2027 and VINFAST maybe as soon as 2025.

The key challenge however, in materials science is making sure that the research works equally well at scale and under real world conditions. The market must also be ready to adopt the technology as soon as possible. For testing and commercialization purposes, partnerships are critical and StoreDot appears to have these in place.

三星电子 (battery tech), automakers like Volvo, Ola , VinFast, Mercedes-Benz AG are investors. They also have a manufacturing partnership with 惠州亿纬锂能股份有限公司 (one of the largest Chinese battery manufacturers).