Huawei is no longer a single player, but a multi-party participant.

Huawei’s Wanjie series (in partnership with Saic Motor) has delivered over 10,000 vehicles in the past three months, reaching a total of 57,800 this year, causing fear among competitors.

Huawei’s Hongmeng cockpit, known as the “best in the world,” is coming to reality, landing or planning to land in various car models, such as the BAIC Magic Cube SUV, Geometry, and Hongqi EHS6.

Huawei Inside is entering the fast lane. The all-new HI version of the Jihou Alpha S will be pushed to cities in NCA, Shenzhen in September. Although the quantity is not significant, it will set the pace for entering and parking in the city with assisted navigation. In addition, the Avita 11 received high praise in a recent test drive in the high-speed NCA, and is expected to open up the cities’ NCA in the first half of next year.

The crucial components, such as the Lidar and MDC computing platform, are empowering the NETA S, Mechadragon, and other future autonomous high-end intelligent car models. Moreover, the Wuling Baojun KiWi and the high-end pure electric SUV brand “Interstellar,” which cooperates with BYD, have announced that they will be built based on MDC.

Huawei’s electric drive system, especially the electronic control part, is reportedly used by more than ten mainstream car manufacturers.

In fact, Huawei’s significant progress in the field of smart car components and smart car cloud services has been remarkable. Support for Hicar-enabled car models exceeds 120, and Huawei has introduced more than 30 soft and hard products of varying sizes in the automotive field. Huawei’s transformation of the automotive industry is not only a test of the future but also a bold gamble against a challenging destiny.

In November, Huawei’s first intelligent car lamp solution showed that smart car lighting is finally on the stage. Unlike the previous focus on automotive innovation, Huawei’s intelligent car lighting has targeted the antique that has been hanging on cars since 1898.

With Huawei’s entry into the car lamp industry, who will be overturned, where are the opportunities, and most importantly, what does Huawei aim to achieve in this perhaps more solidified automotive component racetrack than the car itself?

## Huawei’s intelligent automotive lighting, the legacy of light

Currently, the main products of automotive lighting, in addition to headlights, include AR-HUD, such as the hexagonal warrior on the FlyFun R7 with a 70-inch large-format ultra-high-definition, ultra-bright, full-color overlaid map POI recommendation system that theoretically can even watch movies, as well as other secret products that have not yet been released.

They are all coordinated by one department, as they are all based on Huawei’s legacy of optical communication and optical capabilities.

Huawei’s veteran of optical communication and president of the optical application division responsible for leading the department, Huang Zhiyong, has been with Huawei for 22 years, and has been involved in optical communication for 20 years. Optical transmission and optical access are both Huawei’s flagship products that are starting from scratch.

Optical transmission mainly connects fiber optic equipment used for 5G and transoceanic communication. Huawei ranked first in the world in 2008 and has maintained this position for a long time. Optical access, such as optical cat devices, accounts for 30% of Huawei’s terminal market, which means that nearly 1/3 of the world’s population accesses the Internet through Huawei’s optical communication.

Although communication and lighting are completely different in functionality, the underlying technology is light. As a result, Huawei has accumulated a large number of patents and standards in areas such as optical display chips, freeform mirrors, spatial optics, light source capabilities, and perception algorithms, with deployments of over 7,000 people and a “fierce” investment of $1 billion per year, making it an “absolute leader.”

Two years ago, Huawei began to create intelligent automotive lighting by extending these optical technologies to cars and focusing on scene-based needs around the human eye. With some technical overflow, the difficulty is greatly reduced.

AR-HUD is the first product of automotive lighting. Originally, in the field of optical communication, crossing thousands of waves for scheduling, dozens of optical reflections, and micron-level optical accuracy control were required. In comparison, the beam control and imaging control of AR-HUD are much simpler, and according to Huang Zhiyong, “AR-HUD is basically the industry leader in less than a year.”

Huawei achieves small size and large format (this is the criterion for overlapping virtual images onto actual road conditions) by integrating reflection and high-precision lenses, and ODP optical engine, which is independently developed, is precise to pixel point control, achieving a resolution of 1920×730. Combined with distortion correction and other algorithms, it ultimately achieves high-quality imaging.The headlight, as the second product, has also been empowered by many optical self-developed technologies. Huawei believes that a decent car headlight must be intelligent, pixelated, and laser-based. Originally, one of the most core modules for optical fiber communication was the laser, which laid the foundation for laser headlights and projection headlights. By the way, this is also the technical preparation for Huawei to build a laser radar and provide core light sources.

Based on the optical capability, Huawei has also planned a series of products. For example, modules that fuse infrared perception and laser perception for headlight, which can still penetrate rain and fog under extremely poor visual conditions and then project road information onto the HUD. The next-generation holographic HUD will turn the entire windshield into a lift display, providing a real IMAX big screen viewing experience. In addition to the windshield, there are also skylights and side windows. Huawei can make very small optical engines, which are far smaller than the current projection facilities, making it easier to be installed on cars and allowing projection displays on any glass surface.

Moreover, Huawei is also considering using optical fibers to replace the electrical cables inside the car. The cables of a car currently have a length of more than 20 kilometers and a weight of more than 90 kilograms. The use of optical fibers can reduce car weight and cost and is expected to further improve the cruising range.

Huawei does not create something out of nothing by loving to create lights; instead, it extends reasonably and controllably around its original core capabilities, without crossing boundaries. “Bringing digital technology to every car is the philosophy of our entire company,” said Hu Zhongyong. “For my small department, my idea is to bring the best light technology to every car.”

In the field of car lights, Huawei’s optical technology can bring many comparative advantages. First of all, downsizing is more easily achievable, and the smaller it is, the easier it is to create the desired shape. Nowadays, many car lights prefer to be made into “big eyes”, which poses extra requirements for volume and integration. Huawei uses a 2.6 million-pixel module that is both high-definition and miniaturized, just like Liu Yifei and Shu Qi – difficult, but doable.Huawei achieves small volume and supports customized openings to adapt to different automakers’ designs by folding the space optical path and highly integrating the heat dissipation and light sources.

According to Huang Zhiyong, Huawei’s upcoming laser headlights will be smaller than current LED lights and completely merge with the daytime running lights.

Miniaturization is also vital for Huawei’s entry into the field of AR-HUD. With a small volume of 10L, Huawei has achieved a large viewing angle of 13°*5°, reducing the limitations of car space on the arrangement of the AR-HUD.

The smaller the module, the less likely automakers will face adaptation difficulties or high costs, leading to rapid commercialization and more widely adopted car models.

Secondly, the light source provides high definition brightness, comparable to an Audi passing by that makes all the chickens in the village think it’s daylight and start screaming, creating both envy and annoyance.

Brightness is not just about aesthetics or quality, but also technology. For instance, the industry currently uses LED light sources, and there are still differences in brightness. Luminance depends on the lumen value, which is directly related to power.

One problem with high-power LEDs is heat dissipation. In addition to the portion converted into visible light, LED’s other energy is converted into heat. Coupled with increasingly smaller packaging volumes, it is difficult to dissipate heat through convection and radiation, resulting in the accumulation of a large amount of heat. High temperature can cause light attenuation and affect the light output.

Huawei enhances thermal conductivity through the heat pipe phase-change technology, creating a wider safety threshold for heat dissipation. This enables Huawei to make the low beam stronger, see through the night without turning on the high beam, and maintain a clear sight.

At the same time, Huawei’s self-developed optical system achieves higher optical efficiency through optical path multiplexing, matching high-definition lenses and high-pixel chips, making the projected image clearer. For example, the following welcome scenario.The clearer the picture, the more complex entertainment design it can support; while the more entertaining it is, the more demanding it is for clarity. For example, Huawei car lights can support karaoke projection, and lyrics and simple atmospheric images can be projected onto the wall. Standard definition can’t compare to your talent.

It is worth noting that this also involves light control, which is very important, because accurate fitting of two lights with a million pixels, especially aligning the pen strokes of characters, is as challenging as aligning left and right just like the Left-Align Movement, and the algorithm is difficult to handle. Currently, some high-end car models that use projection headlights either need to be manually adjusted or present cool patterns in a limited linear fashion without requiring special fitting.

Huawei still has some surprises.

Thirdly, it is hardcore intelligence. Compared with in-car entertainment, Huawei’s intelligent in-car lighting emphasizes more on the design of safety and driving assistance scenarios.

For example, the light carpet, which assists in centering on narrow roads, accurately enhances the cruise light carpet that closely fits with the stop line, and the interactive light carpet or graphic projection that can remind pedestrians.

The experience is quite challenging for algorithms because the car is inevitably shaking as it moves, not to mention going up and down hills and turning, involving many following algorithms. In addition, sensing during the traveling process, including front car alerts, lane departure, turn signals, etc., needs to be closely linked with ADAS and vehicle posture data.

Therefore, the intelligence involved in this step tests the software capabilities of the lighting factory and its cooperation with ADAS backend. This is Huawei’s forte.Combining ADAS, radar and cameras, Huawei now offers glare-free high beam, which can intelligently identify “humans” as shown below, feedback to headlights, and precisely remove the pixels above human shoulder to prevent direct shining into the face, as well as support tracking moving people and superimpose the shake of the vehicle during driving.

Fourth, it is necessary to become the butcher of the price.

You will find that Audi has played with all the above functions. Mercedes-Benz is slightly inferior in literary talent, and IM Gahe is slightly inferior in style. These are not new things, which means that Marelli, Valeo, Hella and other world lamp factories have no technical problems. The common problem is that they are expensive. Laser headlights and projection headlights are still only installed on a small number of high-end car models.

Huawei’s current cost is not cheap. Huang Zhiyong pointed out that the unit cost is relatively high, and the result is that it can only be provided in high-end car models or equipped as an optional feature in high-end versions.

The problem brought by high price is not only the obstacle to achieving scale, but also difficult to become an established trend rooted in the industry.

For example, Xenon headlights were very popular a few years ago, and they were the hot cake after halogen lamps. However, the cost could not be lowered, and they were quickly replaced by LED, which was a flash in the pan. LED was also exclusive to BBA at the beginning, but due to the low cost, the penetration rate quickly increased, and it has now comprehensively radiated high, medium and low-end car models.

The risk of innovative products is that they are not necessarily the direction of industry development. This gives the opportunity for technology to enter, and ultimately depends on the market share to stand firm.

Therefore, Huawei must cut the cost. In addition to hardcore cutting, Huawei is also considering lowering prices through innovative models, such as launching lite version headlights, benefiting more entry-level car models, and future new intelligent components may achieve hardware and software decoupling, and provide charging through software package OTA upgrades.

Using low prices as the driving force, the cake needs to be made bigger first, and the future of the products and routes that have been gambled on must be determined. “There is an iron rule in the automotive industry. Once a good thing drops to a certain price, many automakers will make it standard equipment.”

Huang Zhiyong believes that just like the wireless communication field from 4G to 5G to 6G, the entire industry needs orderly development, and the headlight industry also needs a generation.

Newcomers may think so. If not destroyed in the generation, an explosion in the generation is inevitable. If the generation follows Huawei’s expectations, then Huawei will be the industry leader and even the standard setter in the next generation of lighting, which is the racing position that Huawei is expected for the layout of lift displays, back displays, and even the entire MDC.

Huawei is here to help again

Car lights are also a high-quality race track.

As a segmented component, it can surpass the increase in the entire car. On the one hand, the upgrade of technology brings value-added; on the other hand, the consumer willingness to pay a premium for intelligent car lights is expected to increase, because car lights are no longer just for beauty or lighting, but have become a carrier for output of car information, starting to carry “expression”. This is a different value-added compared to the past.

It is worth noting that Huawei has defined its business boundaries and does not do Tier1 but Tier2. From this, we can also feel the coldness of Huawei in its new way of fighting for survival:

First, more emphasis should be placed on the benefits of platformization.

Huawei does not do Tier1 and does not do whole lamps. Because lamps are the components with the most changes in appearance, there is no platformization. The industry does not lack good companies for shells and injection molding. Likewise, corner lights and fog lights, which are already very mature, will also be handed over to Tier1’s partners to do. For example, in February this year, the domestic car lamp assembly manufacturer Xingyu reached a strategic partnership with Huawei.

Huawei only provides core modules, such as built-in lamp heads, projection modules, controllers, chip algorithms, and provides root technology for different lamps, to avoid entering into low-value-added or zero-sum games. Huawei’s understanding is very clear. Every host factory has a lamp factory, and Huawei does not pick a lamp factory but “helps the lamp factory build good lamps”.

Second, deeply involved in the industrial chain, value the value of being an industry foundation. Huawei helps lamp factories build good lamps, which is almost the same as how to help car factories build good cars. Whether it is intelligent driving or cockpit, Huawei is building hardware and software foundations, and leaving the application to ecosystem partners.

This is Huawei’s epitome. After being forced to shrink its mobile phone and telecommunications business, it seeks to build foundations in various fields. It is producing sensors to connect cows to the Internet, achieving health management and precision cultivation of cows; its enterprise business department is building data centers everywhere and building IaaS cloud computing businesses; it is also constructing clean power generation systems.The foundation is everlasting. Just as Ren Zhengfei positioned Huawei in The Economist three years ago, “We do not know what the future social structure will be like, how to adapt to it, and how to control it. Various new ideas and technologies are booming. The interdisciplinary “chain reaction” is the new feature of this wave of technological innovation.” For example, information technology has become the foundation of scientific research and innovation in all fields, just as it has become the foundation of all industries.

In the past, Huawei took information technology as the starting point and became the big foundation of various industries. Today, the geopolitical game forces it to vigorously grow into small foundations in various segmented fields.

This has led to changes in Huawei’s operation mode. In the past, the huge R&D output technology became several core products, sold to telecommunications and electronics customers. This one-way closed loop is being replaced by a more open model, and Huawei needs to cooperate with first and second parties from all walks of life to develop products.

They are breeding a series of new business activities and redefining Huawei’s future.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.