Facing an aggressive push by Chinese automakers to launch new models at short intervals and rapidly seize market share, major automakers in Europe, the US, Japan, and South Korea are confronting a new trade-off between R&D speed and quality control. Renault Group CEO Francois Provost said the French automaker will not blindly follow suit at the expense of quality and will not bring a new model to market if its development cycle is under two years.
At the 2026 China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE), Luxshare and its lens module unit Luxvisions jointly showcased multiple optical and sensing technologies, including automotive camera modules, robot vision modules for autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), as well as tracking modules and waveguide display components for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR) wearables. The display underscored the group's push for vertical integration in optics.
China's intelligent driving market continues to surge, with Black Sesame Technologies and Horizon Robotics both reporting solid top-line revenue growth for the first half of 2026. Highlighting the rapid commercialization curve, Horizon Robotics announced on September 3 that cumulative mass production of its Journey series smart driving processors surpassed 15 million units—signaling that competition in China's automotive IC sector is shifting from raw computing battles to large-scale mass deployment and market penetration.
Taiwanese IC design house Sunplus Technology expects its automotive orders to strengthen further in the third quarter of 2026, but warned that rising memory and component costs could weigh on overall market demand and dampen customers' willingness to place orders.
China has introduced five automotive chip certification and accreditation industry standards aimed at easing a key obstacle to domestic semiconductor adoption: getting locally designed chips qualified for production vehicles.
Horizon Robotics is preparing its next-generation Journey 7 (J7) automotive AI chip family for mass production in 2027, aiming to extend its lead in China's L2+ assisted-driving market into the higher end of autonomous-driving computing.
Global PMX said its semiconductor business is emerging as the main growth driver and is expected to continue expanding through 2027, while automotive sales remain steady and are expected to improve as the global auto market recovers. The company also said its workforce is still rising, reflecting stronger shipments from Vietnam and Zhejiang plants.
