To break things up, here are a few fundamental questions. It’s possible the answers are already in the previous 5,013 messages—apologies if this gets a bit too basic. I haven’t followed this all that closely, but large stock price movements naturally turn heads.
- It remains unclear to me whether SM and SE also supply the cameras and infrared “infra”, or if both operate based on a solution implemented by the car manufacturer. In other words, how easy is it for a car manufacturer to switch suppliers once production has already started? There has been talk of wild scalability; I would assume that the car manufacturer handles the hardware, to which both suppliers then adapt.
- Referring to the previous point, SE talks about design wins. Is a design win = exclusivity, or can both Seeing Machines and SmartEye get a design win for the same model? As I understand it, the companies don’t specify the models in detail, making it difficult to follow whether they are talking about the same models. In some analysis, which seems to have already disappeared from the forum, it was mentioned that SmartEye’s share of Volkswagen’s volume was much smaller than expected and part of the disappointment on earnings day.
- Has anyone been following the trend in unit prices? One would imagine that as volumes grow, both are tempted to engage in price competition. How much price erosion is likely factored into the forecasts? Car companies are known for being cheapskates; the business is pretty cutthroat after all. If driver monitoring is mandatory by regulatory decree, does the car company ultimately care whether either supplier’s product is perhaps a fraction better or not? The main thing is to meet the requirement as cheaply as possible and get on with selling the product—meaning the car.