Under the shadow of the pneumonia epidemic, the national auto market is in a gloomy state, but there are exceptions, and this exception is autonomous driving.
In January this year, a large-scale COVID-19 epidemic suddenly broke out in China. To help fight the epidemic, unmanned vehicles developed by domestic companies such as JD.com, Baidu, and Meituan were quickly put into use in major shopping malls. Hospitals and isolation points are used to transport medicines and daily necessities, which not only gives autonomous driving a greater sense of presence, but also makes this technology a good verification in practical applications.
At the end of February, when many domestic car companies and parts companies were suffering from performance losses caused by the pneumonia epidemic, Chinese autonomous driving technology companies Pony.ai (Pony.ai) and Uisee Technology Relying on its leading technical strength in the field of autonomous driving, it has bucked the trend to attract funds and received investment from Toyota and Bosch respectively.
At about the same time, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) released the "2019 Autonomous Driving Takeover Report", showing that MPI (Miles Per Intervention, the average mileage between two manual interventions) In the mileage) value ranking, five companies in the top ten have Chinese backgrounds, namely Baidu, AutoX, Pony.ai, Didi, and PlusAI. Among them, Baidu Apollo? ranked first, surpassing Waymo for the first time. It once again shows that Chinese technology companies are unstoppable on the autonomous driving track.
For a long time, the disengagement and takeover situation of autonomous driving test vehicles has been considered an important indicator to measure the actual performance of autonomous vehicles. Generally speaking, the fewer times the test vehicle disengages and the fewer times human intervention takes over, it indicates that the vehicle’s autonomous driving system is more stable and the company’s autonomous driving R&D level is higher.
So to some extent, the top ten Chinese technology companies in this DMV list account for half of the country, which also reflects the significant improvement of China's overall strength in autonomous driving research and development, as well as the continuous expansion of international influence. .
Chinese autonomous driving companies are aggressively competing overseas
According to this DMV report, Baidu still only launched 4 test vehicles in California last year, but the total test mileage was higher than in 2018 A substantial increase, reaching 108,300 miles, and the *** was disengaged 6 times, with an average of one takeover every 18,050 miles. Compared with the average takeover once every 206 miles in 2018, this is a significant improvement.
Image source: Baidu Apollo
Compared with the second place Google, the average mileage traveled by Baidu between each two manual interventions in 2019 was 4,831 kilometers longer than Waymo. As a result, Baidu successfully overtook Waymo and took the top spot. In the 2018 DMV list, Baidu only ranked 7th, far behind Waymo.
But it is undeniable that Waymo is still far ahead of other companies in terms of test mileage. Last year, Waymo launched 148 test vehicles in California*** and completed 1.45 million miles of testing, accounting for about half of the total test miles of all vehicles. In 2019, various self-driving companies in California completed 2.88 million miles*** The autonomous driving test is 1.7 times that of Cruise and 13 times that of Baidu. As of January this year, Waymo's self-driving cars have driven more than 20 million miles.
With only 8 test vehicles, AutoX completed 32,000 miles of testing in California *** last year, disengaged 3 times, and took over once every 10,684 miles on average, ranking fourth and improving. Very significant. In 2018, AutoX launched 7 test vehicles in California and only tested 22,710 miles. On average, it had to take over once every less than 200 miles.
Image source: AutoX
Currently, AutoX is preparing to deploy the next stage of testing in California - fully driverless testing.
In December 2019, it was revealed that AutoX had applied for a driverless testing license in California. Once the license is obtained, AutoX will be able to deploy driverless test vehicles without safety personnel in California in the future. Previously, Waymo was the only company in California qualified to test fully autonomous vehicles.
With 22 test vehicles, Pony.ai tested 17.48 million miles in California last year, disengaged 27 times, and took over once every 6,475 miles on average, ranking fifth in the MPI ranking. In 2018, Pony.ai tested 16,356 miles in California with only 6 test vehicles, with a total of 16 disengagements and an average of one takeover every 1,022 miles, which can be described as rapid progress.
Image source: Pony.ai
It is out of recognition of its technical strength that as early as June 2019, Pony.ai obtained the autonomous driving license issued by California. With the operating license, Pony.ai is allowed to provide self-driving travel services, namely RoboTaxi services, to public passengers. As a result, Pony.ai became the first Chinese self-driving technology company to obtain this license in California.
In November 2019, Pony.ai cooperated with Hyundai Motor to officially launch the first regular Robotaxi service for the general public in California. Users in need can use BotRide’s version of the App of the same name to use their mobile phones. Call the self-driving Hyundai Kona electric SUV and follow the app's guidance to the nearest pick-up point. Recently, Pony.ai has further expanded its robotaxi service scope in California by partnering with the City of Fremont. In the future, Fremont citizens can call Pony.ai's self-driving cars when they need to travel. These cars will be on the route between Fremont's busy Amtrak/ACE train station, City Hall and the city's development service center. travel.
Didi launched 12 test vehicles in California in 2019, running 19,279 miles, disengaging 8 times, and taking over once every 1,534 miles on average. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time Didi has submitted a California road test report since it obtained California's self-driving test qualification in May 2018. It has advanced into the top ten and won eighth place, which shows its strength.
In fact, as early as March 2017, when Didi set up its first overseas AI laboratory in Mountain View, California, it stated that Didi Chuxing was full of interest in self-driving cars. In early 2018, Didi was exposed Autonomous driving-related tests have been carried out in China and the United States. It can be seen that although Didi has little news in the field of autonomous driving, it has actually been quietly laying out its plans.
PlusAI? With 2 test vehicles, it tested 1,880 miles in California last year, disengaged twice, and took over once every 940 miles on average, ranking ninth. In 2018, PlusAI tested 10,816 miles in California with only 2 vehicles, and took over 199 times, averaging once every 54 miles. The progress is also very obvious.
Image source: PlusAI
In December last year, Zhijia Technology’s L4 self-driving truck traveled 2,800 miles (4,500km) across the United States in less than 3 days. On the east and west coasts, it provided the first self-driving freight service for the world-renowned dairy giant Land O Lakes. It is reported that this is the first commercial trial operation of an L4 autonomous truck towing a refrigerated carriage full of fresh goods across the United States. This success can be said to be a strong verification of PlusAI’s autonomous driving capabilities in safely handling various weather and road conditions.
Not only that, PlusAI has also conducted unmanned heavy truck safety tests in 17 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, etc. In some of these states, PlusAI is the first to conduct tests. An unmanned heavy truck technology company, and has successively obtained the country's first operating truck autonomous driving test license and the first unmanned heavy truck inter-provincial regional test license.
Based on existing results, PlusAI stated at CES 2020 that its unmanned testing scale will cover all permitted mainland states in the United States by the end of this year. In the testing project, it will try to use brand-new testing equipment and route trial runs to continuously improve the ability of its autonomous driving system to handle complex driving scenarios.
Autonomous driving may allow China to "come back"
For a long time in the past, China's automobile industry has been following the international trend. Even now, there is still no Take off the "big but not strong" hat. The emergence of autonomous driving has given domestic companies an opportunity to compete with multinational companies. In the past few years, although a large number of outstanding self-driving players have emerged abroad such as Waymo, Cruise, Nuro, General Motors, Toyota, and Nissan, there are also domestically-owned companies such as Baidu, Didi, Pony.ai, AutoX, Uisee Technology, Huawei, JD.com, Changan Automobile and others are actively carrying out relevant research and development and have made significant progress.
Perhaps compared with Waymo, Chinese driverless companies are still half a step behind in starting, but the efforts of Chinese companies to catch up in recent years are gradually narrowing this gap. For example, Baidu, in addition to its outstanding performance in California last year, its development in China is also booming. Especially in the second half of 2019, Baidu not only won the first batch of T4-level road test licenses and autonomous driving manned test licenses in Beijing, but also successively launched autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration with Changsha, Cangzhou, Yangquan, Yinchuan and other places. reached a strategic cooperation agreement on demonstration applications.
Image source: Baidu
Among them, in September 2019, Baidu’s self-driving taxi fleet Robotaxi officially launched a trial operation for the public in Changsha, taking the first step towards marketization. In early November, Baidu launched China's second self-driving taxi trial operation project in Cangzhou, further bringing the distance between ordinary citizens and self-driving cars closer, allowing this technology to truly enter the market from internal research and development. In December, Baidu Apollo was tested simultaneously in 23 cities including Beijing, Wuhan, Cangzhou and Changchun. The cumulative test mileage in just one month exceeded 3 million kilometers, which accumulated rich experience for Baidu in the research and development of autonomous driving related technologies. Throughout 2019, Baidu Apollo completed 754,000 kilometers of testing in Beijing alone with 52 test vehicles. Baidu therefore became the company with the largest number of test vehicles and the longest test mileage among all testing companies in Beijing in 2019.
It is based on these early explorations that during the pneumonia epidemic at the beginning of this year, Baidu was able to bring many partners such as Neolithic, King Long Bus, Zhixingzhe, Qingdao Wuniu, and Zhongke Huiyan to We quickly joined the anti-epidemic front line and used unmanned vehicles to deliver daily necessities, medicines, etc., so that this technology can be truly applied in practice and benefit mankind.
Image source: Baidu Apollo
In addition to testing in California, AutoX also plans to conduct self-driving manned tests in China this year. At CES 2020, AutoX and FCA reached a cooperation. This year, the two parties will build an unmanned car, Pacifica , AutoX plans to launch 100 driverless taxis for trial operation. In the longer term, AutoX will also join hands with FCA to deploy self-driving cars throughout the Asian market.
It is also understood that AutoX will deploy the first batch of RoboTaxi on a large scale in Europe by the end of this year. In July 2019, AutoX reached an exclusive strategic partnership with Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer National Energy (NEVS). The two parties will integrate AutoX's autonomous vehicle technology into National Energy's next-generation vehicle architecture, thereby expanding the cooperation between the two parties in 2020. The self-driving new energy vehicles developed are put on public roads in Europe.
Didi also has clearer plans for autonomous driving in 2019. In August 2019, Didi announced that it would officially upgrade its autonomous driving department to an independent company to carry out autonomous driving research and development, product applications and related business expansion.
Just a month later, Didi obtained the first batch of manned demonstration application licenses issued by Shanghai. The other two licensed companies were SAIC and BMW.
According to the plan, Didi will launch self-driving travel services in Shanghai early this year and invest 30 L4-level self-driving vehicles on specific public roads. At that time, Didi’s ride interface will have a new The "autonomous driving" option is juxtaposed with the existing ride options such as "express train", "private car" and "taxi". If the starting point and end point of the ride selected by the passenger are within a specific area, Didi will dispatch an autonomous vehicle to pick up the order. . However, perhaps due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, Didi’s self-driving travel service has not yet been launched.
It can be said that whether it is autonomous vehicles fighting the epidemic, Chinese autonomous driving technology companies receiving blessings from giants in the automotive industry, or the outstanding results in the DMV autonomous driving report, it all shows that domestic companies are currently in the field of autonomous driving. Its technological strength and global influence are in a stage of rapid improvement. Perhaps at present, China is still facing multiple difficulties such as immature supply chains and imperfect policies and regulations in terms of large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving. However, from the perspective of market segments, the implementation of advanced autonomous driving technology in closed scenarios is still just around the corner.
Picture source: Uisee Technology
Uisee Technology, which has just received investment from parts giant Bosch, proves this point. After more than two years of R&D testing and trial operation, unmanned logistics vehicles were launched at the Hong Kong International Airport on December 30, 2019 to provide luggage transportation services for passengers. This is the world's first actual operation environment in an airport. It is also the first unmanned freight commercial service. In the future, as more similar projects are gradually implemented, domestic driverless driving is expected to usher in a real spring!
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.