Digitalization empowers China's auto industry with more opportunities

BEIJING -- Digitalization has provided China's automobile industry with more opportunities to strengthen its resilience, battle risks, and identify growth potential.

Electrification is the first phase of the automobile revolution, while digitalization and intelligent connectivity form the second phase, said Chen Qingtai, president of China EV100, an electric vehicle industry think tank.

Chinese tech giant Tencent has recently announced its newly upgraded "Vehicle-Cloud Integration" strategy and launched the "Tencent Intelligent Automobile Cloud," a one-stop cloud solution tailored for the intelligent automobile industry.

The integrated vehicle-cloud strategy which connects the vehicle, mobile phone and cloud terminal can make digital connections more effective, create a data-driven closed loop, and improve the productivity of the entire chain.

It will also apply cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, AI and big data to offer the automobile industry easy access to customizable platforms and toolkit, in order to make cloud a new production force for intelligent automobiles, said Dowson Tong, senior executive vice-president of Tencent and CEO of the Cloud and Smart Industry Group.

Tencent is not the only tech company to tackle industrial challenges with intelligent empowerment.

Telecom giant Huawei's intelligent connected vehicle strategy provides the automobile industry with a complete set of solutions from the operating system to automatic driving platform, from self-developed chip to lidar, from the intelligent cockpit to the battery, motor and electric control system.

"The market is broad enough and full of opportunities," said Wang Jun, chief operating officer of Huawei Smart Car Solution BU. One percent increase in both intelligence and electrification level would expand the complete auto parts market by more than $6 billion.

Cars have become the new terminals in the era of intelligent automobiles, and enhancing vehicle data security and network security is a new task.

Targeting the security problems, Tencent's integrated security solution provides a thorough security system covering the cloud, channels and terminals, as well as expert-level security services and a closed-loop security operation, to comprehensively guarantee the security of the user's journey and the vehicle, according to a report jointly released by global research and advisory firm Gartner and Tencent.

"In this era of intelligent automobiles, we need to redefine the standards of automobile safety, creating an all-encompassing, multi-dimensional safety system covering cloud, vehicle and mobile devices," said Li Bo, vice-president of Tencent Intelligent Mobility.