BYD and Horizon Robotics recently announced a partnership involving Horizon's latest high-performance processor Journey 5 for autonomous driving. BYD said it will utilize the car chip in some of its cars as early as mid-2023.
Following its investment in the AI company last February, BYD is the first auto maker to adopt Horizon's processors in electric vehicles (EV).
Horizon was the first AI chipmaker in China that developed AI processors for vehicles, and Journey 5 is the third-generation processor with almost 128 TOPS of computing power and low power consumption, according to industry sources.
SAIC, Great Wall Motor, Chang-an Auto, and Li Auto have also reached partnership consensus with Horizon for Journey 5, the sources added.
According to the projections made by the China Society of Auto Engineer (China-SAE), 2022 is the first year where high computing power chips enter mass production in China. Black Sesame Technology (BST) CEO Johnson Shan also said recently that this year marks the beginning of mass production of high-performance auto chips in China.
Available self-driving chips now include Tesla's FSD, Nvidia's Orin and Xavier, and Mobileye's EyEQ4 and EyeQ5. Both Nvidia and Qualcomm plan to mass produce their high computing chips this year. NIO and IM Motors have adopted Orin. A single Orin could reach as high as 254 TOPS, according to Nvidia.
Horizon's Journey 5 and BST's A1000 will start mass production this year. BST's Shan pointed out that it will take longer for self-driving technologies including software, hardware, and data to substantially progress from L2 to L3.
Cambricon plans to unveil a Level 2+ self-driving chip this year and a Level 4 self-driving chip next year. SemiDrive and Huawei also have plans to develop automotive chips with high computing power. SemiDrive's head for self-driving, Tao Sheng, said Level 3 self-driving chips will enter mass production next year, and Level 4 in 2025.
Article translated by Yusin Hu
