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  • 7 months ago
Si Luo, Chief Technology Officer of Banma, spoke to CGTN Europe about the company’s expansion. Banma, a provider of smart vehicle operating technology, is planning a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise additional funding. The company, a spin-off from Alibaba’s ecosystem, has developed multiple technologies for the automotive industry and aims to create a smart cockpit for cars with three layers of services: a reliable operating system, natural voice interaction, and access to various services such as navigation and entertainment. According to Si Luo, Banma’s strength across all three functional layers sets it apart from competitors in the rapidly growing Chinese smart and self-driving car market. Alibaba will remain a significant stakeholder following the IPO.

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00:00Alibaba will spin off Banma Network Technology for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
00:06Banma is China's biggest provider of operating technology for smart vehicles.
00:10Its systems are installed in around 2.3 million cars.
00:15Alibaba says it will continue to hold over 30% of stock following the IPO,
00:20which is aimed at boosting funding.
00:23Sir Luor is Banma's chief technology officer.
00:26Banma Network Technology actually is a spin-off from Alibaba ecosystem.
00:34And Banma and the corresponding BU under Alibaba
00:39has developed multiple technologies for auto industry for a long time.
00:45Actually, in the very beginning,
00:48Banma was developing the operating system solution for auto industry.
00:55And then, about two years ago, or like one and a half years ago,
01:00we changed our strategy.
01:02And we changed our strategy with the new strategy,
01:05AI in O and O in AI, especially for auto industry.
01:10And besides providing operating system support,
01:15we are also developing AI platform for smart cockpit in cars.
01:20Mr. Sir, can you help us understand in layman's terms how your system operates?
01:26In smart cockpit, there are three layers of services.
01:31The most foundational layer is the operating system.
01:35We need to operate the car in a reliable, secure, and efficient way.
01:40Today, we want to interact with the cars in natural voice.
01:45We do not want to touch the screen because that's not safe for driving.
01:52And we need to use voice, not just like comments.
01:56And we need to use voice in a very natural way
01:59that we can speak whatever we want in whatever way.
02:02The AI platform can call for the corresponding service to provide that service
02:08so that we will be able to do more efficient car control, navigation, entertainment,
02:16like listen to different music, and even other food from cars.
02:20So that's three different layers of what we can do in smart cockpit.
02:25And Banma has provided technologies in all three different layers.
02:29So technically, your cockpit will become smarter.
02:32When looking at the broader market, how do you assess the current landscape for smart and self-driving cars?
02:39Is there a risk of the markets being over-saturated?
02:42You have many competitors domestically and beyond Huawei, Baidu, Tencent, and Google.
02:49In China, smart cockpit technologies are developing very, very fast.
02:55And as you said, I mean, it's a pretty, I would like to say, intensive competition.
03:02And there are many major players in the market.
03:08But on the other side, I think Banma has its unique strengths.
03:12As we talked about, there are three important layers of functionalities,
03:18operating system, AI platform, and AI applications or agents.
03:23And all of them are super important to provide a great experience for car owners.
03:30Banma is strong in both three layers.
03:34And that's very unique.
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