Shipments of Sensing Camera in Automotive OE Market Will Grow by 63% YoY in 2018 Driven by the Establishment of Regulations for Vehicle Safety, says TrendForce

According to the latest research by TrendForce, the demand for sensing camera in automotive OE (Original Equipment) market will see considerable growth in 2018, driven by the development of smart vehicles in high-end market and the establishment of regulations in the U.S., the EU, Japan and China. The shipments of sensing camera in automotive OE market are expected to reach 121 million units in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 63% compared with 74 million units in 2017.

“The soaring demand for sensing cameras is attributed to the development of autonomous driving”, says Yvette Lin, analyst of TrendForce. Driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, communication and sensing technology, many technology companies and traditional car makers have invested in the R&D of autonomous driving. Consumers also show increasing concerns for active safety, which push the demand for advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and sensors.

Currently, car makers adopt different ADAS sensing solutions, including millimeter-wave radar, ultrasonic radar and automotive camera, etc. Particularly, camera-based solutions are gradually accepted by car manufacturers since breakthroughs have been made in image recognition algorithms and capabilities of image processing chips. Camera-based solutions, which can detect the traffic around vehicles through image recognition, are now applied in both cars with ADAS and autonomous-driving vehicles in testing.

According to Lin, current mass produced cars with ADAS carry an average of 4 to 8 cameras per car. After the launch of highly-autonomous vehicle in 2020, the number of cameras embedded in each car will increase to 10 to 12. In this trend, major camera manufacturers across the world have been actively deploying in the automotive market, including Chinese companies Sunny Optical and Sunex, Taiwan-based Asia Optical and Calin, and Korean manufactures Sekonix, who have been shipping products to the first-tier car makers.

In addition to the development of smart vehicles in high-end market, the establishment of regulations for vehicle safety in the U.S., the EU, Japan and China also drives the rapid expansion of market. Since 2016, forward collision warning (FCW), lane maintenance system (LDW), automatic emergency braking system (AEB), and blind spot detection system (BSD) have been mandatory for vehicles or included in the New Car Evaluation Standard (NCAP) in areas like the United States, the European Union, and Japan. Particularly, China has for the first time included a number of evaluation criteria for active safety in the 2018 version of NCAP. As the largest market of cars in the world, China witnesses increasing demand for sensing camera, which will boost the global market for automotive sensing camera. TrendForce estimates that the shipments of automotive sensing camera will reach nearly 124 million units by 2020.