China- Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng Motors is now looking into making its own semiconductors for autonomous driving for staying ahead in the competition.
Xpeng had now assembled a smaller team for developing semiconductors. The vice president of autonomous driving at Xpeng, XinZhou Wu mentioned that the company is currently looking out for the various technologies that involve autonomous driving chips.
Wu said to the news reporters, “Well, I cannot say too much about that … the competition in China market is fierce … so we are looking at all options. What are the best ways to keep our advantage in the competition? So, far we are doing very well in software. But moving forward we are looking at all possible options: how to keep us … winning this competition.”
When Wu was asked that whether it involves in-house chipsets, he said, “That’s one of the directions, yes.”
Wu didn’t mention anything in detail further. Currently, Xpeng has launched the new electric sedan called the P5 on Wednesday. Well, the vehicle is well equipped with Light Detection and Ranging technology that makes utilization of lasers for mapping the car’s surroundings.
It is very much critical to permit some of the P5’s autonomous driving features which are well built-in. Recently, the P5 makes use of the chips which is from Nvidia for autonomous driving and Qualcomm for its in-car digital cockpit.
By perfectly designing its own semiconductors may give Xpeng more control over the assimilation between the hardware and the software.
Moreover, the company highly focuses on developing technology that is in-house and a way to differentiate it from the rivals in China’s crowded electric vehicle market. Other than Xpeng competition with the traditional automakers and start-ups which is now increasing the number of technology companies like Baidu and Xiaomi has also jumped into the fray.
Wu has claimed that P5’s hardware and software and “usability of the overall features are much more advanced” than its competitors and which might give the company an “edge.”
Chinese technology companies are now putting an increasing focus on developing their own semiconductors. In the last month, Baidu has raised money for its chip business and Xiaomi has now revealed a new chipset for the camera of its latest flagship smartphone.
