Regarding the revolution and new business opportunities of the traditional automotive industry brought by the futuristic automotive new technologies, the domestic ICT industry established the Taiwan Advanced Automotive Technology Development Association (TADA) last year to build a communication platform between the ICT industry and the automotive industry that improves the mutual understanding of the business model of each other to jointly develop advanced automotive-related products and create the business opportunities of the global market. In the afternoon of 5th December, the Auto Future editorial team came to its headquarter located in Taipei City to interview with the secretary general - Dr. Sam Shen to discuss about the current operations and future goals of the Association.
Dr. Sam Shen (Middle), the secretary general of Taiwan Advanced Automotive Technology Development Association (TADA), had an interview with Jeff Lee (Left) and Seven Tseng (Right), the editors of Auto Future.
Although the Association had been established for just one year, the members accrued are quite influential The core members include PSMC, AUO, Pegatron, TSMC, ITRI, Taipei Computer Association, Taiwan Telematics Industry Association, etc.; And one-third of them came from automotive-related industry. Plus the former minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology - Prof. Chen Liang-Gee, the resources are abundant in terms of 4 aspects - the industries, the authorities, the academia, and the research institute. The Association’s early stage of the operation focuses on 4 branches…
- Automotive semiconductors: The types and specifications of automotive chips are getting more complicated and diversified with the development of intelligent BEVs in recent years. Especially the development of high-end AI chips needs more professional talents to make it possible for technological breakthroughs. Originating from the Institute for Information Industry, Dr. Sam Shen assumed that the Taiwan R&D resource is sufficient, but the first and most important step of the association is to let potential clients and markets around the world recognize and understand Taiwan. As for the issue of chip shortage in recent years, Dr. Sam Shen assumed that the chip demands of the cellphone industry and the computer industry are decreasing that it should be good news for the supply of automotive chip. And in my opinion… the supply of low-end chips might go back to normal status gradually by the end of next year, but it might take years to solve the supply issue of high-end chips.
- Smart cockpits and intelligent driving: Focus on the application of touch panels in the cockpit in every aspect. The role of cars will be transformed into a mobile platform as the autonomous driving technology is introduced in the future that car users can take their time to conduct business or entertainment activities in the cabin, so part of the car including windows will be transformed into interactive panels. The current “The Big Five of electronics” in Taiwan had successively entered these territories. Taiwanese ICT industry has lots of room to explore for business opportunities in this territory.
- Power source / electricity / electric controls: Taiwanese industry already delivered good performances in these territories that their clients include Tesla and many electric bus manufacturing companies. In addition, 2-wheel and 3-wheel electric vehicles are also the targeted markets that the association needs to put efforts to develop.
- Cross-industry communication branch: Starting from the ICT industry, the association further enforces the cross-industry communication with auto industry. The association signed the MoU with Taiwan Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers Association last year, and keeps close relationship with several government departments, and also keep cooperation with important research institutes including ITRI, ARTC, Institute for Information Industry, etc..
For the demonstration of the cooperation between the ICT industry and the automotive industry in the future, Dr. Sam Shen took the COMPUTEX that held by Taipei Computer Association in recent years for example… it will take “smart application” as the main theme that include automotive technologies in the future such as BEV, C-V2X, ADAS, charging infrastructure, and automotive sensing components, etc.. The secretary general also assumed that the IT industry will evolve from trading software/hardware in the past to the application and service, intellectualization and connectivity, and the integration of transportation and IT, so that B2B buyers around the world can come to experience Taiwan’s down-to-earth capabilities in system integration (SI) and proposing solutions in the automotive future world. In addition, the association also positively contacts foreign offices in Taiwan to recommend extraordinary companies, hoping it might not necessarily be Made in Taiwan in the future, but it could be Made by Taiwan that expands the technology capabilities of the ICT industry in Taiwan to all around the world, so to smoothly enter the supply chain of the automotive industry.