On January 18, Canon signed a memorandum of cooperation with automatic driving company tier IV. the two sides will jointly develop L4 level automatic driving technology, and Canon will also produce special on-board cameras for tier IV. After Sony, another camera manufacturer announced to enter the automobile industry. Although it is not making cars, it is also related to cars. At this stage, car making and automatic driving are quite hot industries, and many manufacturers enter the automobile market with expectations for the future. As a famous camera manufacturer all over the world, Canon's entry into the automotive industry will be quite unexpected. Canon has also encountered some bad things recently. Engaging in automobile related business is probably a signal to seek growth opportunities. Some time ago, affected by the shrinking global camera market and the epidemic, Canon had to close its 32 year old Zhuhai company. Now the way and habit of taking photos have changed greatly compared with the past. Many people prefer to take photos with mobile phones. In the field of no anti camera, Sony has always been the industry leader. Although Canon's Micro order is also good, it is not Sony's opponent in terms of sales or share. In order to seek a breakthrough, Canon can only leave the front battlefield of the camera and find another way. As we all know, many cars with auxiliary driving system are equipped with at least a few cameras for detecting the surrounding environment. As a famous camera manufacturer, it can be regarded as a professional counterpart to provide cameras and sensors for automatic driving solutions. The computing power of vehicle computer and the quality of sensor will affect the judgment accuracy of automatic driving. Since it is L4 level, the requirements for relevant components will naturally be much higher. Conventional vehicle camera suppliers need to spend a lot of money on R & D and production in order to improve the camera quality, but Canon may think it is just a "small thing". In addition, new energy vehicles and automatic driving schemes are becoming more and more popular, and there is still considerable demand and development space in the future. For this camera giant, lighting and heating in the automotive industry will be a correct choice. In addition to the special camera for automatic driving, Canon also plans to participate in the development of driving monitoring system (DMS), which is used to monitor the driver's behavior, physical state and a variety of auxiliary driving functions in real time. In fact, Canon also has experience in network camera solutions, and it is also a professional counterpart to engage in driving monitoring system. Xiao Lei doesn't think Canon's entry into the automotive industry is a manifestation of "recognition". Strong optical strength plays a very important role in promoting the auxiliary driving system based on visual perception. To some extent, it can be described as "dimension reduction attack". He believes Canon can become famous in the automotive industry with solid optical foundation. (Xinhua News Agency)