Exclusive interview with Tsinghua University’s Zhao Fuquan from Tengxing Think Tank: In the future of travel, ecological expansion and service will be king

In 2020, China's automobile industry is about to begin a new decade. In the past 10 years, the automobile and travel industries have ushered in a technological revolution. New energy is rising along with the trend, autonomous driving continues to advance, shared travel is accelerating in popularity, new car-making forces are entering the market one after another, automobile companies are embarking on digital transformation, and Internet companies are deploying in the travel field. In the past 10 years, China's automobile production and sales have always ranked first in the world, but it has also declined for the first time in 28 years. In the past 10 years, China's travel industry has made great progress, but there are also ups and downs, and competition has become increasingly fierce. Looking back is to look forward. Standing at the starting point of the next 10 years and facing the prospect of the Internet of Everything, how can the automotive industry break through? How to carry out the digital transformation of car companies? What changes will happen in the travel field? How should related companies evolve? With these questions in mind, Tengxing Think Tank recently interviewed Professor Zhao Fuquan, Chairman of the World Federation of Societies of Automotive Engineers and Dean of the Institute of Automotive Industry and Technology Strategy at Tsinghua University, and discussed with him the evolutionary direction of future travel and the development of the automotive and Internet industries. The way to get along. Zhao Fuquan, Chairman of the World Federation of Societies of Automotive Engineers and Director of the Institute of Automotive Industry and Technology Strategy at Tsinghua University. The following is a summary and interpretation of Zhao Fuquan’s views by Tengxing Think Tank: How will the travel field evolve in the next 10 years? From the long history of human development, we can clearly see that every major change in travel methods will bring huge changes to the entire society. From saddles to car cockpits, from wooden carriages to sophisticated machinery, people may have never imagined that travel tools would become so efficient, convenient and comfortable. And this evolution has never stopped, and we today may not be able to fully imagine how smart or even considerate future travel tools will become. There is no doubt that travel in the future will be very different from today. So, looking forward to the next 10 years, what will the travel industry be like? Characteristics of future travel: large travel platform, information sharing, service is king. In the high-end dialogue column of Phoenix Automobile's "Zhao Fuquan Research Institute", Zhao Fuquan has interviewed nearly 60 industry authorities. He feels that the industry has formed a certain understanding of future travel. consensus. And his own judgment is: future travel must be connected to large platforms, information is fully shared, and service is king. "Future travel must be a seamless connection between various travel modes and means of transportation, which will give rise to a large travel platform that integrates various travel elements. This large travel platform will be supported by network technology, so Internet and communications companies It will also play an important role in it. The large travel platform may develop relatively slowly in the early stage, which requires a process of changing concepts and ideas, as well as the advancement of travel tools and platform means, but the evolution speed in the later stage will continue to accelerate. "Zhao Fuquan emphasized. Eventually, a series of travel platforms will be interconnected, continuously integrated, and will form a large travel platform that can effectively combine various travel methods and tools. On this large travel platform, all travel-related information will be fully shared and applied in real time to ensure that users are provided with the best travel solutions. This is also a major feature of future travel. At the same time, Zhao Fuquan believes that future travel will also lead to another change that cannot be ignored, that is, the automobile industry will shift from "product-centered" to "people-centered", so companies must rely on services to win. He pointed out, “Although the basic attributes of vehicles moving from point A to point B have not changed, vehicles will increasingly emphasize services and user experience during the movement. In fact, this is also the development goal of intelligent connected cars. That is, from 'helping people' to 'liberating people' and then to 'understanding people'. In other words, future car travel is not just about realizing autonomous driving, but also about providing people with a full range of the best travel services. "The boundaries are blurred and the ecology is larger." Currently, after experiencing the 1.0 stage of one company building cars and the 2.0 stage of one industry building cars, the automobile industry has entered the 3.0 stage of multiple industries. The era of "fighting alone" is over." Zhao Fuquan believes that the original structure of the industry will be completely broken, and more forces from different industries will flood into the travel field. As a result, the automotive travel ecosystem will gradually take shape and become increasingly larger. "In the future, the boundaries of the automobile industry will become increasingly blurred and the scope will become wider and wider. The simple structure of vehicle companies connecting upstream suppliers and downstream dealers is no longer applicable. The linear and vertical automobile industry chain will transform into a network-like intertwined one. The travel ecosystem continues to evolve." In addition to cars, Zhao Fuquan judged that the following areas will also play an important role in future travel. Ultimately, all parties will work together to support an increasingly intelligent and personalized travel experience. First of all, "people-centered" travel services mean not only building good cars, but also using them well. This will make vehicle operations, services and related content an important part of the travel field. "The automobile industry will transform from 'manufacturing' to 'manufacturing + service'. Therefore, in the future, companies must think more about how to let consumers make good use of automobile products. This includes not only who will use it and how to use it, but also who will serve it and how. Service issues. Therefore, operators and service providers will become crucial in the travel field. This is one. Second, operations and services need to be supported by content, which revolves around the operation and operation of the car during the travel process. Providing a variety of suitable services and content according to people's needs is an indispensable and important part of future travel services." Zhao Fuquan said. Secondly, the energy industry will be deeply integrated into future travel. He believes, “On the one hand, the energy revolution has brought new changes to the automobile industry. The great development of new energy vehicles means that batteries, motors, electronic controls, etc. have become new core technologies and industrial chains in parallel with traditional powertrains. It not only changes the automobile products themselves, but also deeply introduces energy into the automobile industry. On the other hand, as a mobile energy storage and energy supply carrier, as the number of electric vehicles continues to grow, they will be combined with networked and intelligent technologies to play a more important role. The important role of effectively balancing the load of the power grid and promoting the introduction of clean renewable energy has become a key part of the future energy Internet, which in turn will profoundly affect the energy industry." Finally, infrastructure support is crucial to future travel. "To truly realize smart travel, we must not only have smart cars, but also smart roads. The so-called 'smart cars must run on smart roads', which cannot be separated from the guarantee of information transportation infrastructure. Therefore, for For information and communication technology companies, there are a lot of opportunities in the automotive and travel fields in the future." How to get along with the automotive and Internet industries At present, cloud platforms, AI, 5G and other technologies continue to make breakthroughs, and software, data, and computing power have become a must-have for military strategists. In this country, Internet companies have entered the field of automobile travel. Under this circumstance, how can Internet companies help automobile companies improve their capabilities? How to work together with car companies? How will the "double" model composed of the two develop? Digitalization and dataization capabilities are the key to the transformation and upgrading of automobile companies. "The Internet helps the automobile industry by providing two kinds of capabilities: one is digitalization capabilities, and the other is dataization capabilities. The two informatizations ultimately help the automobile industry develop comprehensively intelligently, which is also The key to the future transformation and upgrading of car companies." Zhao Fuquan summarized it this way. Under the trend of comprehensive changes in the industry, major car companies have already embarked on the road of "digital transformation". Intelligent networked technology has become a hot spot for development; super accounts can open up all the scenes before users get on the bus, in the car and after getting off the car, providing seamless services online all the time; ecological boarding, services to find people, through the car Services realize "thousands of people, thousands of faces"... All of these are important areas where the Internet can help car companies improve their digital capabilities. "Digitalization is the prerequisite. Without digitization, there will be no data." Digitalization comes first, and dataization comes later. In the future, cars must first become digital products, so that data can be continuously collected and accumulated from the user end. This data will continue to feed back to the enterprise to support the continuous optimization of car design, production and services; at the same time, the functions and performance of the product, including its digital The capabilities themselves will also be continuously iteratively upgraded during this process, ultimately making automotive products and travel services more humane and personalized. Automotive products that are continuously optimized based on data will continue to evolve in terms of intelligence, making it possible to have "thousands of cars and thousands of faces". Zhao Fuquan believes that the easiest and most suitable place to enter the Internet industry is the user end, which has great potential in terms of consumer and market big data. “My basic judgment is that Internet companies are more suitable to start from the user end or from the vehicle use link and continue to deepen it, and ultimately help automobile companies to truly open up the entire chain of design, production, procurement, service, etc., and realize online and offline Full sharing, rapid transmission and effective application of information. A very important point is consumers’ experience feedback on products. It is based on the Internet that consumers’ experience can be quickly and accurately fed back to enterprises in the form of data, so that they can By making product iterations faster and better, the overall service capabilities of the automobile industry will also reach a higher level." Zhao Fuquan explained. In other words, the automobile industry understands cars better, and the Internet industry understands people better. Therefore, in order to truly be "people-centered" in future smart travel, the Internet industry should work closely with the automobile industry to maximize its unique advantages and capabilities on the user side, and help the automobile industry truly do a good job in B2C (enterprise connection). consumer) model. In fact, in the era of industrial Internet, data in every aspect is essential, and networking is the prerequisite for obtaining data. Therefore, Zhao Fuquan believes that Internet companies can help car companies form corresponding capabilities not only in 2C, which is connecting the user side, but also in 2M, which is connecting the manufacturing side (such as machines, factories, etc.), and 2I, which is connecting infrastructure. Only in this way can the entire automobile industry chain be completely opened up. The "double" combination of the automobile and Internet industries: making the integration of "manufacturing + service" truly possible. Traditional car companies are "craftsmen" who have come from the era of the industrial revolution; Internet companies are "craftsmen" who have emerged in the era of the information revolution. Make the trend”. One is a skilled craftsman on the product supply side, who strictly adheres to the process and technology in product development and manufacturing; the other is comfortable on the user demand side and can provide assistance for the ultimate optimization of product functions and services. The "double" combination of the two will make "manufacturing + service" possible. Of course, this combination is not a simple addition, but a multiplication of deep integration. It requires fully thinking about "use" in the process of "making", fully tapping the potential and giving feedback to guide "making" in the process of "making", so as to truly realize The combination of "manufacturing + service" into one. In addition, Zhao Fuquan also talked about the challenges of integrating the automobile and Internet industries. "When traditional car companies and Internet companies cooperate, each other is often very powerful1, but if the running-in is not good, the result of the combination of the two may be only 1+1=1.5. Therefore, traditional car companies and Internet companies must integrate deeply Strengthen efforts and meet each other halfway." When talking about some new car companies with Internet genes, Zhao Fuquan believes that "if these companies have well-established internal systems, they may have a better integration foundation in the initial stage and have the ability to achieve 1 +1>2 potential. However, due to limited foundations, most new car companies have relatively weak initial capabilities in both car manufacturing and the Internet. When their capabilities in both aspects are not strong, the absolute value of the final combination may not be to 1.5, or even less than 1. Therefore, new car companies must accelerate their growth and improve their basic capabilities." From a product perspective, "Internet cars" are the product of the integration of two major industries and the combination of two capabilities, representing the future Development direction; from an industrial perspective, although the essence of "Internet + Automobile" is the same, the content and scope involved far exceed "Internet Automobile" itself. This will be an effective division of labor and tacit collaboration among multiple industries and enterprises in the future travel ecosystem. In this regard, Zhao Fuquan emphasized: "This includes not only the complementation of capabilities and the synergy of operations, but also the cooperation of capital, the sharing of resources, and the integration of concepts. It is easier said than done. Everyone may understand the truth, but If you want to win in the end, it depends on who can truly implement the principles you understand." Since the beginning of fast horse passing of books, travel and information transmission, the two main lines of human technological progress, have been intersecting repeatedly in history; and today the two major industries of automobiles and the Internet are intersecting again Yes, this will be an unprecedented in-depth integration of the two main lines. This time, perhaps the two main lines will merge into one and sail towards a better future together. Let us wait and see in the next 10 years. Think tank Weiyan In the past 10 years, China's travel industry has developed rapidly. Especially in recent years, the integration of automobile companies and Internet companies has become increasingly close, including autonomous driving, Internet of Vehicles, vehicle-road collaboration, artificial intelligence, 5G communications, digitalization, etc. In the ascendant, all this seems to be gathering momentum for the next 10 years. The wave of industrial development is surging, and industrial transformation is rushing forward. The future of travel will bring unprecedented challenges, but at the same time, there will also be unprecedented opportunities! As Zhao Fuquan said, the automobile industry will comprehensively transform from "product-centered" pure "manufacturing" to "people-centered" "manufacturing + service." Under this general trend, Internet companies can form a "double team" with automobile companies to give full play to their respective advantages and jointly promote the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry. At the same time, many other industries will also enter the automobile travel ecosystem and play an important role. As a result, the boundaries of the automobile industry will gradually become blurred, and the scope of the travel ecology will continue to expand. In the next 10 years, the story of smart travel will surely be more exciting, and Tengxing Think Tank will continue to be a "pathfinder" in the travel field.[About Tengxing Think Tank]Tengxing Think Tank is a value sharing platform that integrates industry, academia and research in the field of smart travel. It brings together well-known experts and scholars at home and abroad in the field of smart travel, as well as industry elites such as top technology companies, automobile companies, and travel company leaders. Through In-depth communication activities such as industrial forums, themed salons, academic seminars, talent training, corporate visits, and expert face-to-face activities record the evolution of travel, accumulate the essence of industry opinions, output systematic industry thinking, and build an industry-wide value sharing for industry development and corporate decision-making. The ecological platform provides strategic reference and consultation, cultivates industrial digital management talents, promotes ecological resource docking and cooperation, and plays the role of Tencent's "digital assistant".