Visteon Corp. and Chinese internet technology leader Tencent announced they will cooperate to develop autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit solutions, initially for the Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) R&D Center in China.
Under the agreement, Visteon’s SmartCore cockpit domain control platform will incorporate Tencent Automotive intelligence (TAI) solutions to enable user interaction and control based on facial expression and voice and gesture recognition – offering a compelling new digital experience to users.
Visteon, Tencent and GAC R&D will jointly develop and share research results for intelligent technologies for an integrated cockpit project targeted for commercialization on GAC pure electric vehicles starting in 2020.
The agreement was announced at CES 2019 in Las Vegas by Sachin Lawande, president and CEO of Visteon; Zhong Xiangping, vice president of Tencent; and Wang Qiujing, deputy chief of GAC executive committee and president of GAC R&D Center.
Tencent has made significant achievements in artificial intelligence, cloud and big data. With a series of well-established service ecosystems, Tencent has become an industry leader with one of the biggest user bases in China. Its TAI solution brings together a systematic content platform, big data, ecological services and AI capabilities – providing intelligent, scenario-based, personalized social-network services.
Visteon’s SmartCore single-chip multi-core processor was designed to help vehicle manufacturers transition to the intelligent cockpit. SmartCore independently operates multiple displays and applications throughout the cockpit, keeping occupants informed and entertained. Visteon says it was the first Tier 1 supplier to supply a cockpit domain controller on a production vehicle in early 2018. The company will provide hardware systems for Tencent TAI applications.
Visteon’s DriveCore, a scalable, fail-safe and open platform for autonomous driving of Level 3 and above, was designed for automakers and partners. It consists of the hardware, an in-vehicle middleware for safe communication, and a PC-based software toolset enabling machine learning algorithms.
“We are pleased to cooperate with Tencent and GAC on autonomous driving and intelligent cockpits,” Lawande said. “In the China market, cloud-based intelligent and connected technologies are key to improving the cockpit experience. Tencent and GAC are ideal cooperative partners for Visteon in this sector, and in this very important market, as both have undergone rapid development and are committed to creativity and quality.”
Xiangping of Tencent said that the intelligent vehicle will be the next-generation platform for the mobile internet. “Mobility solutions are being redefined and Tencent smart mobility solutions have been leading the trend,” he said. “By incorporating content and service ecosystems with advanced safety features, Tencent aims to better connect people and services in the age of new mobility. This strategic cooperation with industry-leading corporations Visteon and GAC will undoubtedly accelerate the research and progress for safer, smarter and more efficient mobility services.”
Qiujing of the GAC R&D Center added that Visteon and Tencent have been committed to the innovation of automotive intelligent connectivity technology. This spirit of innovation coincides with the open innovated concept of the GAC R&D Center. “In the future, based on GAC’s independent vehicle platform, we will continue to integrate with Tencent’s mobility ecology, intelligent driving algorithm technology and Visteon’s hardware platform technology,” he said. “We are dedicated to more advanced intelligent connectivity vehicle technology.”
Visteon and the GAC R&D Center have been working under a strategic cooperation agreement since January 2018, focused on developing Level 3-plus autonomous driving solutions and cockpit domain controllers based on the DriveCore safety autonomous driving controller and the SmartCore cockpit controller.
