Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash
Automotive has always been an integral part of day-to-day life. Worldwide, billions of people drive vehicles, and the goal is the same: reaching the next destination safely and on time. Achieving this goal is only possible due to the different features and components that come together to enable an end product that can zoom safely.
A lot of effort goes behind the scenes to meet customer demand and automotive safety requirements. Any given vehicle demands thousands of tiny parts procured (or manufactured) from different vendors. Eventually, all these components need to work synchronously to provide the safest ride possible.
Safety: Silicon products enable real-time decision-making, a must-have feature for maintaining the standard of automotive safety.
Autonomy: Autonomy focuses on assisting safe rides, and it requires error-free silicon products that can work in any conditions.
In this line, one of the vital part, whose share in automotive products have increased steadily year on year, is a semiconductor. Semiconductors are part of every vehicle out on the road. These tiny devices (packaged as silicon chips) enable different features.
In the last decade alone, the number of semiconductor products in modern vehicles has increased by 10x. Such a drastic increase in demand is majorly due to new features apart from the need to make every ride a safe and enjoyable one. It is also evident from the growing demand for automotive-focused semiconductor solutions, which will increase further with the adoption of more alternate-fuel solutions that will increase the share of semiconductors in next-gen vehicles.
One of the drastic changes in the automotive industry is the centralization approach. CAN-based solutions were already available for decades. However, the availability of more reliable XPU based solutions has pushed the centralization towards a new era and is transforming automotive into a computer on the wheels. Thus, opening up the market for companies that never focused on automotive segments.
It also implies that the thermodynamics of automotive products is changing and slowly becoming semi-dynamics. In the semi-dynamics world, the decision is driven by silicon products while also working alongside the traditional thermodynamic system. Such reliance will grow further, already has, with alternate-fuel, hybrid, and electric approaches.
Centralization: Automotive products are getting loaded with high-performance computer chips, which are more centralized than ever before.
Features: New features require new silicon products that focus on improving customer experience by enabling highly reliable products.
Even though automotive semiconductor demand is increasing, it will not be easy for emerging companies to make the most of the growing market. The reason is the safety, quality, and reliability standards that automotive products demand. It is not only time-sensitive but also capital intensive. Still, there are promising upcoming automotive semiconductor-focused emerging companies making the mark in the market. However, such companies will face stiff competition from the existing established players.
The next decade will be an exciting one for automotive semiconductor companies. The focus will be on highly dynamic, safe, and reliable semiconductor-driven products that will enable a new ear of transforming mobility.
