Huawei to Carmakers: Stop Building Every Smart Driving System Yourself
A senior Huawei executive has a blunt message for China’s carmakers: stop trying to build everything in-house. In an interview with reporters on September 28, Jin Yuzhi, a Huawei senior vice president and chief executive of its smart driving unit Yinwang, pushed back against claims that Huawei is simply pocketing carmakers’ money. His counter-argument was about the other big line on an automaker’s budget — what it costs to develop a smart driving system from scratch.
Jin’s point is simple arithmetic. Smart driving software is not a one-time purchase; it demands continuous, years-long investment in engineers, data, computing power and testing. That spending only makes economic sense if a carmaker sells enough vehicles to spread the cost across a large fleet. If volumes are modest, he argues, writing your own code can end up more expensive than buying a proven system from a supplier.
That is where the division of labor comes in. Jin suggested automakers and technology suppliers should each focus on what they do best, rather than insisting on controlling every link in the chain. For many brands, he implied, the smarter move is to buy the intelligent driving stack and pour their own resources into design, manufacturing, brand and distribution.
The remarks land in the middle of a fierce debate in China’s auto industry. As electric vehicles have become more commoditized, advanced driver assistance has emerged as the headline differentiator, and many carmakers have rushed to advertise in-house systems as proof of technological independence. Huawei, meanwhile, has become one of the country’s most prominent suppliers of smart driving technology, partnering with a growing list of brands.
Critics have long complained that such partnerships let suppliers capture too much of the value created by a car. Jin’s response flips the question: the real cost may be the research budget a carmaker burns trying to catch up on its own. Scale, not pride, is what determines whether self-development pays off.
For global readers, the exchange offers a window into how China’s EV market is maturing. The first phase was about batteries, range and price. The next is about software — and about who owns it. Automakers that once boasted of doing everything internally are now weighing whether vertical integration in software is a strength or a burden.
The debate also hints at a broader shift in the supplier landscape. As intelligent driving moves from a luxury feature to an expected one, the companies that can deliver reliable systems at scale may become as important to the industry as battery makers are today. Whether carmakers accept that logic — or keep chasing full self-reliance — will shape the next few years of competition in the world’s largest auto market.