City NOA went mainstream in 2025: cars at the CNY 150k price point now typically ship with an intelligent-driving domain controller, pushing China's ADAS SoC installed base into the hundred-million era. At the same time, total-loss accident parts, retired OEM test-fleet units, and upgrade swaps moving from EyeQ to Orin are feeding intelligent-driving domain controller boards into the recycling channel. Tear down one NVIDIA Orin domain controller board and the single Orin SoC carries a harvested residual value of CNY 400-900 — a hundred times a mainstream automotive MCU — yet most accident-car dismantlers still sell the board by weight as ordinary scrap. ADAS chips are the highest-unit-value new category in 2026 automotive chip recycling, and informed buyers are already running dedicated lines.
The intelligent-driving domain controller market is highly concentrated around five suppliers: NVIDIA (Xavier/Orin/Thor — Orin delivers 254 TOPS and is used in volume by NIO, Li Auto, XPeng and SAIC IM; some vehicles carry four dies, making it the hardest currency in recycling); Mobileye (EyeQ4/EyeQ5H/EyeQ6L — the L2-L2+ volume king inside Volkswagen, Toyota and GM programs); Horizon Robotics (Journey 3/Journey 5/Journey 6 — the domestic-Chinese-platform workhorse for BYD, Li Auto and GAC); Black Sesame Technologies (A1000/A2000 — FAW, Dongfeng and Geely programs); and TI (TDA4VM/TDA4VH — the value L2 solution for traditional OEMs). Identification order: read the package marking for the platform, then the suffix for the series — an Orin and a Xavier differ by more than double; an EyeQ4 and an EyeQ5H differ by more than two and a half times, so always verify the full part number and compute suffix before quoting.
Reference Price (CNY) for autonomous driving chip recycling, graded by die health and security-lock state, 2026:
| Platform / Part | Typical Application | Reference Price (CNY) |
|---|---|---|
| Mobileye EyeQ4 | L2/L2+ entry ADAS (VW/Toyota volume models) | CNY 40-80 / pc |
| Mobileye EyeQ5H | L2+ premium ADAS (BMW iX, Zeekr 001) | CNY 100-200 / pc |
| TI TDA4VM | L2 value domain control (traditional OEMs) | CNY 60-110 / pc |
| Horizon Journey 3 (J3) | L2 domestic entry ADAS | CNY 50-100 / pc |
| Horizon Journey 5 (J5) | L2+/L3 (Li Auto L-series, BYD premium) | CNY 180-350 / pc |
| Black Sesame A1000 | L2+/L3 (FAW/Dongfeng/Geely programs) | CNY 100-200 / pc |
| NVIDIA Xavier | L3 testing / early production (XPeng P7) | CNY 200-400 / pc |
| NVIDIA Orin | L2+/L3 mainstream flagship (NIO/Li Auto/XPeng) | CNY 400-900 / pc |
| Bootable with security binding | Residual HSM data, component binding | 70-80% of good-die price |
| Burned / water-damaged / bootloader-locked | All platforms | CNY 5-20 / pc |
Note: 2026 reference ranges; complete domain controller boards bundled with eMMC/PMIC/storage add 20-40% overall.
What truly sets ADAS SoCs apart from ordinary chips is the embedded HSM hardware security module — NVIDIA, Mobileye and Horizon all ship one: keys, map data and user trip data are locked inside the security island. Compliance works in two stages: first execute a secure erase through OTP/debug interfaces to clear security keys and personal data, then issue a data destruction report, satisfying China's Data Security Law, the Personal Information Protection Law and EU GDPR requirements for vehicle-side data. Unlocked parts are bought at good-die pricing; bootable parts with residual component binding or HSM personalization buy at 70-80% of good-die pricing; parts hard-locked at the bootloader level are discounted as research stock. For OEM retired test units, we recommend the manufacturer or an authorized channel unbind the component before it enters the market — this is both a compliance requirement and the key precondition for good-die pricing.
Three basics for ADAS SoC testing: first measure the power rails for short-to-ground and check each supply to rule out burned dies; then power up and watch the UART boot log to confirm CPU and DDR initialization — units that print a boot log and pass DDR self-test price as good dies; finally verify the security-lock state (secure/unlocked). Bench testing via a domain controller board plus an adapter is the most efficient method. Whole-board testing beats die-level testing — FCBGA large-package reballing carries real damage risk, so any lot that can flow as whole boards should flow whole, bundling the SoC's residual value together with the board's eMMC, power management and interfaces.
Three directions to watch in 2026. First, city NOA makes the intelligent-driving domain controller standard equipment, so retirement volumes grow exponentially with the installed base, and Orin-family parts remain the hardest currency in harvested stock. Second, domestic platforms are taking over in waves — as Horizon Journey 6, Black Sesame A2000 and Huawei Ascend ADAS editions ramp, Journey 5 and A1000 enter an "original EOL, repair lifeline" window and harvested pricing actually strengthens. Third, tighter regulation creates certification barriers — data-security rules and export controls (EAR restrictions on high-compute chips) make compliant unlocked harvested parts scarcer. With retirement waves expanding on the supply side and research, repair and teaching institutions naming specific parts on the demand side, ADAS chips are the 2026 automotive recycling category where both ends are moving in the right direction.
ChipReclaim buys MCU/FPGA/GPU/IGBT/RF/SoC/memory and all semiconductor categories from accident-car dismantlers, OEM retired-asset channels, upgrade markets and research/teaching volume sellers. NVIDIA, Mobileye, Horizon, Black Sesame and TI families get free power-on testing, HSM-compliant erasure, graded pricing and bundle premiums — let's stop selling intelligent-driving domain controllers by the kilo.