After the launch of the Ideal L9 this year, there were mixed voices of applause and ridicule. The cheers come from praise for the intelligence and comfort of its cockpit; The mockery rebukes him for only valuing the power in the cockpit and neglecting the essence of mechanical qualities such as driving.

The two voices actually reflect the same trend: the product definition of automobiles is gradually enriching, and the consumption concept of automobiles is changing. Cars are no longer just productivity tools, but also an integrated digital platform centered around consumers, a super large intelligent device. The cockpit of a car is not only carrying simple functions such as driving and carrying passengers, but is gradually evolving into an intelligent third living space.

Figure 1: Ideal L9 intelligent cockpit (Image source: Ideal official website)

Moving towards "One Core, Multiple Screens"

Looking back at the development process of automobile cabins, it can be found that they have gone through a stage of development from mechanization, to electronics, and then to intelligence. Before 2000, simple mechanical instruments and audio devices were used in the cockpit of cars, and physical buttons were often used for interaction.

From 2000 to 2015, the booming development of consumer electronics to some extent also promoted the digitization of car cabins, such as LCD instruments, video entertainment systems, touch screens, etc., which began to appear in some high-end car models. But at that time, there was usually a one car, one solution, with a high degree of customization and no market conditions for achieving scale.

Since 2015, with the emergence of domain control concepts, the intelligent development of car cabins has accelerated, and people have also gained new understanding and requirements for cabins. Display technology has rapidly evolved as an important part of intelligent cockpit applications. The evolution in display includes: replacing traditional central control with large-sized LCD screens; High brush LCD instrument and HUD replace traditional pointer instruments; Streaming rearview mirrors to replace traditional rearview mirrors; Add artificial intelligence assistants, etc. The human-computer interaction mode has also been upgraded to a hybrid natural interaction mode such as gesture operation and voice operation.

Figure 2: Evolution of Intelligent Cabins (Source: Dongwu Securities)

It can be seen that an important trend in the development of intelligent cockpit is the increase in the number and size of screens, as well as the improvement of refresh rate and resolution. According to data from Qunzhi Consulting, global car sales in the first half of 2022 were approximately 37.66 million units, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 10.7%.

However, the shipment of front mounted vehicle display panels was approximately 85.81 million pieces, an increase of approximately 5.6% year-on-year. Despite the decline in car sales, automotive display applications have maintained a significant growth rate, indicating that display technology is crucial in the current development of intelligent vehicles.

Figure 3: Global Automotive Frontend Display Panel Shipment Data for the First Half of 2022 (Source: Qunzhi Consulting)

The traditional design scheme adopts a screen by chip approach, which has many drawbacks: high BOM cost; The overall cockpit interaction experience is also relatively fragmented; There is a problem of signal delay; The coordination and debugging of solutions from different suppliers is also cumbersome and the development cycle is long; Reliability is not ideal, etc.

At the 2015 World Communications Conference, Visteon launched its first intelligent cockpit solution, SmartCore. It is on a multi-core SoC level chip