Autonomous driving solutions developer Mobileye and China-based automaker FAW announced on September 14 that they have established a strategic partnership. Mobileye's SuperVision and Chauffeur platforms will enable advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) on FAW's vehicles starting at the end of 2024.

Tesla's Mexican plant is under construction. Besides the EV giant, emerging US carmakers like Lucid and Rivian and veteran General Motors and Ford all plan to set up a production base at the US-Mexico border. Monterrey and Juarez City host most of the companies.

Qualcomm announced several partnerships centered on automotive technologies at IAA Mobility 2023. It will collaborate with two-wheeler makers like Gogoro and deepen ties with Mercedes-Benz, JLR, BMW and other leading carmakers. Qualcomm will also work with Amazon AWS on self-driving technologies and software-defined vehicles.

Bosch, the global leader among Tier 1 automotive suppliers, recently announced its exit from the development of high-end autonomous vehicle LiDAR sensors and that it is reallocating its resources toward mmWave radar and other sensing technologies.

The MEMS and Sensors Forum, part of Semicon Taiwan 2023, was held on September 5. Keynote speaker Prashanth Doreswamy, president and CEO of Continental Automotive Components (India) Pvt., said the primary catalyst of automotive technology development has shifted from horsepower to chips. Next-generation cars rely on electronics to enhance their performance.

China-based autonomous driving chip developer Horizon Robotics is showcasing solutions for smart driving and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) powered by its Journey chip series at IAA Mobility 2023. The company said deliveries of the Journey chips are approaching four million units.

China-based EV company Xpeng announced that it will acquire the smart EV project of Didi Global, a local ride-hailing leader. Xpeng also said it aims to launch a new vehicle model priced around CNY150,000 (US$20,582) in 2024 under a strategic partnership with Didi.

The technology of Taiwan-based AutoSys is based on automotive vision algorithms. Its software expertise helps customers reduce the use of chips, making it NXP's third-party software partner.

Electrical vehicles (EV) and autonomous vehicles (AV) will be the two largest semiconductor applications in the future. However, there is still no unified specification for EV/AV semiconductor components so far.

China has been aggressively developing level 3 vehicle autonomy in recent years. According to local media reports, the country has formed a shared opinion that the driver of an L3 autonomous car will claim responsibility first under any circumstances in an accident caused by their vehicle. The consensus will likely be applied to accidents caused by vehicles with L4 and L5 autonomy in the future.

Both Mercedes-Benz with its level 3 automated driving and Tesla have actively approached China with their full self-driving solutions (FSD). Despite not yet receiving formal approval for entry, Chinese media highlights Tesla's ongoing deployment of an on-site FSD team within China.

A recent official statement from Tesla discloses the establishment of a data center in China, intended to house all data generated by its vehicles in the country. This strategic move is believed to play a pivotal role in Tesla's establishment of its FSD team in China. This also indirectly signals the activation of Tesla's supercomputer within China.

Chinese automaker Nio will be able to mass produce its in-house developed autonomous driving (AD) processors within one to two years, according to company hardware Vice President Bai Jian.

California regulators voted in favor of robotaxi operators expanding their paid driverless services in the city of San Francisco, a major milestone toward commercializing the technology.

Samsung Electronics will start offering China-based SemiDrive automotive memory chips. As China has partly banned US-based Micron's products sold in China, whether South Korean-based companies will gain more opportunities accordingly has attracted the industry's attention.

As wireless technology evolves and grows ever more seamlessly into the fabric of our daily lives, there remain significant problems to solve. Discrepancies in connection speed, known as latency, may only seem like a nuisance when on a video call, but can have major ramifications for emerging applications. Industrial IoT solutions require a near-instant and uninterrupted flow of data for optimal efficiency; autonomous vehicles will need to communicate with each other with minimal delay in order to guarantee safe operation; telemedical surgery absolutely calls for low-latency communication as human life hangs in the balance. LatenceTech, a Canada-based startup, aims to serve this growing market through novel analytics software.

Automotive tier-1 supplier ZF enjoyed steady growth in the first half of 2023. The company said it is on track to reach its annual sales target of EUR45 billion (US$49.5 billion). In addition, it just opened an R&D center and started to build another automotive electronics factory in China, aiming to gain its market share in the country.

Recently, there were rumors that Wu Xinzhou, head of Autonomous Driving Center at XPeng Motors, would be leaving the company and joining Nvidia in the United States. This news caused a sensation in both the Chinese autonomous driving industry and the semiconductor industry. Subsequently, XPeng chairman, He Xiaopeng, and Wu Xinzhou himself confirmed the news.

Generative AI is expected to gain more exposure in future cars. Tesla and some China-based car companies are trying to integrate AI into their technologies. While commercialization is yet to come, Chinese automotive suppliers have started making efforts to create a stable supply of high-performance computing chips.

The development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), self-driving cars and smart cockpits is closely related to AI. Although the chip war between China and the US has not stopped the technologies from progressing, automakers and governments already realize that they need to act proactively to secure specific chips for future development.

Tesla has started allowing transfers of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology in China within a limited time to encourage customers to buy a new car. However, many FSD features have not been activated in the country. Tesla is not the only case. Most foreign carmakers have hit roadblocks when developing their AI expertise in China.

Foxconn has developed multiple partnerships as it scales up its semiconductor and EV businesses. The company recently announced a collaboration with US-based semiconductor company Analog Devices (ADI). The pair signed an MoU about jointly developing a new-generation digital cockpit platform and high-performance battery management system.

Audi hopes to gain EV market share in China as its collaboration with Shanghai-based SAIC Motor grows deeper. SAIC confirmed on July 20 that the pair will further its partnership and speed up the development of Audi EVs in one of the world's largest automotive markets.

Vehicle price reductions continued to affect Tesla's margins in the second quarter of this year while it reached record production and deliveries. At an earnings call on July 19, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is willing to license its Full Self-Driving to other carmakers.

Passive components sector is poised for substantial growth as the transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles (AVs) gains momentum. The updated specifications for passive components, known as AEC-Q200, are reported to pose no disruption to this growth trajectory.

There is a popular joke in India that Bangalore is a city where techies travel two hours in harrowing traffic to develop apps that will deliver food and groceries in eight minutes. It may sound funny, but it's a fact – Bangalore is only second to London in the list of slowest cities in the world.