We are a leading provider of advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”) and autonomous driving (“AD”) solutions for passenger vehicles, empowered by our proprietary software and hardware technologies. Our solutions combine algorithms, purpose-built software and processing hardware, providing the core technologies for assisted and autonomous driving that enhance the safety and experience of drivers and passengers. We are a key enabler for the smart vehicle transformation and commercialization with our integrated solutions deployed on mass scale. We are the first and have consistently been the largest Chinese company providing integrated ADAS and AD solutions in terms of overall solution installation volume since the mass deployment of our solutions in 2021, according to CIC. We ranked the fourth among all global ADAS and AD solution providers in China by overall solution installation volume in 2023 and the first half of 2024, with a market share of 9.3% and 15.4%, respectively. We act as a tier-two supplier and have a large, global customer base of industry-leading OEMs and tier-one suppliers for vehicles manufactured in China. Our business has achieved significant growth at scale over the past three years as we capitalize on the mega industry tailwind as a market leader. As of June 30, 2024, a total of 25 OEMs selected our ADAS and AD solutions for implementation in at least one of their vehicle models, by directly engaging with us or through our tier-one supplier customers.
Smart vehicle transformation is a mega trend that has been reshaping the estimated US$13.0 trillion global automotive, mobility and road freight industries in 2023. ADAS capabilities are increasingly common in cars nowadays, thanks to the rapid technology advancement and higher consumer demand in recent years. This is demonstrated by the ADAS penetration rates of over 50% in both the global and Chinese markets in 2023, according to CIC. Meanwhile, industry participants continue to make ongoing, inexhaustible efforts to march towards broader adoption of AD with increasing level of automation. We believe the demand for driving automation solutions will continue to grow significantly in the years to come. According to CIC, the global ADAS and AD solutions market presents a RMB61.9 billion opportunity in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 49.2% through 2030 to reach RMB1,017.1 billion. Despite our rapid growth, we were loss-making during the Track Record However, a few core challenges need to be addressed to realize mass adoption of smart vehicles enabled by ADAS and AD. ADAS and AD systems are highly complex, requiring high processing capacity, high reliability, low latency and low energy consumption, and need to be produced at affordable costs. Therefore, ADAS and AD solutions require the co-design of software and hardware to achieve the necessary system-level performance and reliability of driving functions. Deployment of such solutions on vehicles also requires optimal energy efficiency while guaranteeing application performance. In addition, mass adoption of ADAS and AD needs an open platform approach where value chain participants can all join and continuously leverage the enabling technologies to develop functions and features that suit their needs while reducing time to market.
By architecting our solutions to address these fundamental challenges, we build the core enabling technology for smart vehicle revolution. Our solutions enable the full spectrum of driving automation functions for passenger vehicles from mainstream assisted driving to advanced levels of autonomous driving. Built through nine years of development, testing and iterative improvements, our integrated solutions have been successfully validated, commercialized and deployed on mass scale. With our product maturity, technological advantage and commercial success, we have established ourselves as a clear market leader. The comprehensiveness and uniqueness of our solution matrix, as summarized below, allow us to rapidly penetrate the market, achieve high customer stickiness and capture a significant portion of the value chain.
We offer a comprehensive portfolio of ADAS and AD solutions, namely Horizon Mono, Horizon Pilot and Horizon SuperDrive, to address different customer needs from mainstream assisted driving (Level 2) to advanced level autonomous driving (Level 2+ in China for regulatory compliance). According to CIC, as of the Latest Practicable Date, there is no mass-produced passenger vehicle at autonomous driving Level 3 or above in China.
‧ Horizon Mono. Horizon Mono is our active safety ADAS solution designed to improve daily driving safety and comfort. It enables basic functions such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and intelligent high beam (IHB) to improve passenger and road-user safety, as well as comfort functions such as adaptive cruise control (ACC) and traffic jam assist (TJA) to improve driving experience. We embed Journey 2 or Journey 3 processing hardware in Horizon Mono currently.
‧ Horizon Pilot. Horizon Pilot is our highway navigate on autopilot (NOA) solution, categorized as an AD solution, that provides safe and efficient driving experience. In addition to enhanced active safety features, Horizon Pilot performs more advanced tasks such as automatic ramp on/off, autonomous merge-in and exit during traffic congestion, automated lane change, highway autopilot and more. These functions improve driving and riding experience for end users, especially in long-distance commute. At the same time, Horizon Pilot provides advanced parking functions such as auto parking assist (APA) and automated valet parking assist (VPA). We embed Journey 3 or Journey 5 processing hardware in Horizon Pilot currently.
‧ Horizon SuperDrive. Horizon SuperDrive is our cutting edge AD solution equipped with our most advanced processing hardware. It is designed to achieve smooth and human-like autonomous driving in all urban, highway and parking scenarios. It is expected to tackle a comprehensive range of complex road conditions with more assertive and interactive driving style, featuring smooth execution of obstacle avoidance, gentle and human-like braking, dynamic speed control, smooth execution of unprotected left turns, and more. We plan to embed Journey 6, our latest processing hardware, in Horizon SuperDrive.
Our ADAS and AD solutions are built on a comprehensive stack of technologies, including algorithms for driving functions, the underlying processing hardware, as well as various tools to facilitate software development and customization.
‧ Algorithm. Our algorithms play an important role for our proprietary software- hardware co-designed solution. They are purpose-built and optimized for a wide spectrum of driving scenarios. Our full spectrum of algorithm capabilities range from perception, environmental modeling, planning and control to driving automation functions, fulfilling the development requirement for all levels of ADAS and AD solutions.
‧ Brain Processing Unit (BPU). BPU is our proprietary processing architecture tailored for automotive applications, including ADAS and AD functions. We incorporate our deep understanding of advanced software and algorithms into BPU architecture to empower the processing hardware with outstanding performance, high energy efficiency, low latency when running automotive algorithms.
‧ Horizon OpenExplorer. Horizon OpenExplorer is our flexible algorithm development toolkit that encompasses a series of ready-to-use modules and reference algorithms. With a user-friendly interface and abundant auxiliary tools, OpenExplorer enables the users to accurately and efficiently deploy algorithms and software on our processing hardware.
‧ Horizon TogetheROS. Horizon TogetheROS is a safe, simple and user-friendly autonomous driving embedded middleware. TogetheROS provides standardized automotive grade services and tools to help accelerate development, integration and verification efforts to boost mass production readiness.
‧ Horizon Automotive Intelligence Development Instrument (AIDI). Horizon AIDI is our software development platform, designed to accomplish automatic iterative improvements of models with enhanced efficiency. By offering various tools and application interfaces, as well as streamlined workflow, AIDI helps software developers optimize the entire software development process from deployment, training, verification, evaluation, to iteration.
Source: Horizon Robotics-W (09660) Prospectus (IPO Date : 2024/10/16) |