From September 25th to 28th, the 2021 World Intelligent Connected Vehicle Conference was held in Beijing. The theme of this conference is "Introducing Innovation, Gathering Intelligence, and Creating a Green Future".
As an important participant in the ecological construction of intelligent connected cars in my country and a practitioner of industrial ecological innovation, Vanji Technology attended the conference with products such as lidar at both ends of the vehicle road, V2X terminals, and smart base stations. , demonstrating the company’s independent innovation capabilities from core hardware to digital middle platform, injecting momentum into the development of intelligent connected vehicles.
2020 is called the "first year" of lidar mass production, and entering 2021, lidar has become a standard feature of new smart electric vehicles.
Zhai Jun, chairman of Wanji Technology, was interviewed by Automotive Industry Network. He said that vehicle-mounted lidar technology uses a horizon as a metaphor. The current technology is below the line and requires continuous technology accumulation to improve product capabilities to meet the requirements of future car companies. It is expected that mass production will be achieved within five years.
When it comes to the company’s future competitiveness, Zhai Jun believes that Wanji lidar has a relatively long history, starting in 2011; Secondly, as a listed company, Wanji’s investment in research and development funds, etc. It is more secure; finally, Wanji lidar is profitable, in a state of fighting to support war, and has stronger hematopoietic ability.
The following is the transcript of the interview:
Media: Please briefly introduce your company.
Zhai Jun: Wanji was established in 1994, and it has been 27 years now. Wanji has been deeply involved in the field of intelligent transportation since its establishment. In 2016, Wanji was listed on the GEM of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. After its listing, Wanji laid out its strategic plan for the next ten years. Becoming the world's leading integrated intelligent transportation service provider is Wanji's overall goal.
Wanji has been engaged in intelligent transportation for 27 years. From the development of weighing and ETC to the deployment of lidar in 2012, the strategic decision in 2016 to develop automotive electronics and intelligent network business involves future perception and Internet of Vehicles. , the Internet of Everything and the current industrial layout of autonomous driving. Generally speaking, Wanji has attached great importance to research and development since its establishment. Currently, 50% of the team's R&D personnel are employed. Wanji is a R&D-oriented and professional enterprise.
Media: When you first entered this industry, there were relatively few peers. Later, more and more people entered the industry. How did you judge the industry during this process?
Zhai Jun: The transportation industry is an old industry. We are an enterprise that has developed with the development of China's transportation. We have different competitors at different times. For example, our ETC industry was relatively popular some time ago. Jiji began to carry out technical research in this area in 2007. ETC belongs to a market segment in the field of intelligent transportation. Wanji has different competitors in this field. Competition among ETC's friends has also promoted the development of ETC in the intelligent transportation industry.
Wanji lidar began to invest in research and development in 2012, and has also encountered many competitors who have contributed to the industry. Different competitors are promoting the development of the entire lidar in the intelligent transportation industry. It extends to the intelligent network connection, vehicle-road collaboration, and automotive electronics industries we are currently doing. The intelligent transportation industry is a huge systemic industry, so Wanji often devotes itself to the construction of the intelligent transportation industry together with competitors in various industries. Media: Among these industry segments, which areas do you think are the most challenging? Which futures hold the brightest prospects?
Zhai Jun: Intelligent transportation is a comprehensive system, and each business segment makes different contributions to the development of the entire transportation industry. The business that Wanji started is dynamic weighing, and this technology has been used for 27 It continues to be updated year after year. From the relatively traditional platform inspection at the beginning, to off-site law enforcement and technology-based supervision, Wanji has always used new technologies to improve the management capabilities of the entire intelligent transportation industry by integrating big data applications. The same is true for ETC. ETC technology originated in Europe, America and Japan. China's ETC technology began to gradually develop in 2005, and highway traffic efficiency has gradually been greatly improved. Currently, technological breakthroughs still face many challenges.
Similarly, lidar, as the core component of the Internet of Everything, is also making breakthroughs in key technologies. Whether they are companies with more than ten years of experience or innovative companies, they are facing huge challenges and need to overcome technical difficulties in order to achieve the application state of the lidar industry. At present, the Internet of Vehicles industry standards are also being formed, and the industry is still conducting technical discussions, establishing technical demonstrations, and looking for new business models and commercial application scenarios. Enterprises invest huge manpower and material resources in industrial research to ensure people's travel safety, improve travel efficiency, and improve travel experience and feelings.
Media: Wanji is the earliest generation of vehicle-road collaboration technology company. Is this correct?
Zhai Jun: That’s understandable.
Media: What is the difference between the early generation of vehicle-road collaboration technology companies and the new ones entering this field now?
Zhai Jun: There should be no difference in the characteristics of enterprises. The success of each enterprise has its unique characteristics. The Internet of Vehicles is an emerging industry that has been developing for a long time. In this digital era where autonomous driving is booming and everything is connected, in the face of new technological intelligence, all companies need to maintain innovation and continue to invest in research and development. Wanji has adhered to pragmatic principles for more than 20 years, and the company has established a complete system integrating R&D, production, marketing, marketing and service. The company attaches great importance to R&D investment, and its industrialization capabilities and large-scale capabilities are its core competitive advantages.
Media: I understand what you mean is that as long as the older generation of vehicle-road collaboration technology companies maintain a pragmatic spirit and have the momentum for continuous innovation, they will remain invincible. land.
Zhai Jun: That’s understandable.
Media: If you were asked to criticize some new intelligent network companies, would you feel that they are more about creating concepts and that they lack a pragmatic spirit like yours? Do you feel that way?
Zhai Jun: Every company has different goals to pursue. I don’t think this has anything to do with old or new. It depends on the company’s internal and core strategic goals and pursuits. There are excellent companies in every era, and there are also companies that have been eliminated. They cannot be divided into old and new ones. Some new companies are pragmatic, and some old companies are creative.
Media: From the autonomous driving of bicycles to the overall realization of intelligent transportation, bicycle intelligence and vehicle-road collaboration, which link do you think is the most important? How can we quickly push this whole chess game away?
Zhai Jun: This is a big topic. Media: In the current era, I think it is probably through the creation of concepts, and then the imagination of scenes, and then practice. This is a kind of collision and integration. In this process, we definitely have our advantages. Our country, Or our entire industry has advantages. Where do you think your advantages are reflected?
Zhai Jun: Let me talk backwards. What is the image of future transportation? In fact, the Internet of Vehicles is part of the Internet of Everything, so future transportation is digital transportation. All transportation behaviors are in two parallel worlds, one is the digital world run by vehicles and computers, and the other is the real world.
In the ultimate goal of the entire vehicle-road collaboration, all vehicles can drive at will without any control, have full freedom like humans, react faster and make decisions faster than humans. More intelligent. Vehicles drive in a world without traffic signals. This is the life style in the era of autonomous driving or future vehicle-road collaboration. Vehicles are unlikely to collide wherever they go because the vehicles can quickly receive or send all surrounding information and make timely decisions. Extremely efficient.
At this stage, vehicle-road collaboration is in its infancy, technology is undergoing in-depth development, and the external perception and decision-making capabilities of autonomous vehicles need to be improved.
In addition, vehicle-road collaboration requires the integration of human information into vehicles. The development of related technologies determines the development of self-driving vehicles. Self-driving vehicles also determine how all traffic information and road test information are processed. Supportive role.
Now everyone is working hard to integrate, but there is still no integration. People and cars are still in a state of "two skins". Why? Current sensing technology capabilities, especially computer computing power, communication latency, and 5G latency are still unable to achieve the effect I just described. That requires 6G, 7G or even higher levels. 5G is only in the prelude to autonomous driving. effect.
Automobile Terminal Network: I understand what you mean. The development of the entire industry depends on the coordination and integration of industries, and cannot rely on any one of them alone.
Zhai Jun: Yes.
Media: Autonomous driving is a controversial topic now. Recently, Tesla and NIO have had some accidents regarding autonomous vehicles and new energy vehicles. It is quite controversial. What are your thoughts on autonomous driving? What do you think of the future development direction?
Zhai Jun: This question is easy to answer, but also difficult to answer.
This involves traffic safety issues. In fact, certain accidents occur every year, but some are reported and some are not. In fact, this kind of thing will inevitably happen with the development of all technologies. The reality is very cold. We have to trial and error, and technical iterations are all completed in the application. It is impossible to experiment and design things to be perfect all at once.
Media: In the process, what form of trial and error do you think should be used, such as normal driving safety, and whether it is worth it.
Zhai Jun: Sometimes it can be avoided, because simulation technology is relatively advanced now, and tests can often be completed in the laboratory. Autonomous driving is now called L2.5, not L3. L2.5 is Assisted driving, some drivers rely on 2.5 to 3 after buying a car. The current technological development has not yet reached the level of instant response. The two core points between people and cars are space and time. Space is the distance between two cars, and time is the reaction time.
At present, front-end sensing technology has not reached the level where all objects can be sensed. Tesla has a problem, that is, visual perception is interfered by sunlight, while lidar is not interfered by sunlight. At present, lidar and vision have not yet achieved perfect integration, and further technical investment is needed to solve the problem. Therefore, accidents will definitely exist. If you can safely drive fully autonomously at this time, problems will definitely occur when you encounter special situations.
In addition, there is also computing power. Even if the vehicle senses someone passing by very quickly, but does not make a timely decision to brake or avoid, accidents may occur.
Media: One is that there is no perception, and there is also the evaluation standard for autonomous driving. Each car company is different. Nowadays, the cars on the market are generally L2 level, or L2, which is equivalent to assisted driving. It is quite For semi-automatic vehicles, the most important thing is to rely on humans to drive. This is a common misunderstanding among many people, and it is also the cause of potential safety hazards.
Zhai Jun: Why is the country now promoting cart-road collaboration? The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is also working on the assessment standards, and the Ministry of Transportation is also working on it. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is making cars, and the Ministry of Transportation is making roads. Everyone is formulating standards. . After the formulation of the standard, everyone has a clear research direction, and everyone should follow this direction to form a unified normative behavior, including the unity of technical standards, so in this area, I think it is still a process.
Now the industry basically agrees that when autonomous driving reaches L5 level, it must be a comprehensive management system, that is, not only the bicycle, but also the roadside. It’s just that vehicle-road collaboration has not yet reached a state of complete integration.
Media: Nowadays, new energy vehicles may place more emphasis on intelligent interconnection. What do you think the future development direction of intelligent interconnection will be for new energy vehicles?
Zhai Jun: I will have a forum to talk about on the 27th. I am specifically talking about this issue. I will briefly explain it to you.
Future autonomous driving must be intelligently interconnected, that is, realize future intelligent communications. In fact, whether it is the Internet of Autonomous Driving Vehicles or the Internet of Everything, it is a systematic project that requires sensing, communication, integrated algorithms and computing power, as well as a series of new technologies such as big data, and is a comprehensive system.
Vehicles driving on the road in the future must have vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-road communication, and vehicle-to-human communication, that is, communication interconnection. 5G is the main channel, like the human central nervous system. Front-end perception is actually peripheral nerves. It is the process of information being distributed downwards under the main channel. The future world is like the human body. All vehicles are part of the cells. They can perceive and think about the outside world, receive information, and send information, forming a state of true interconnection of all things and autonomous driving.
Communication is the throat of autonomous driving, the process of transmitting information. The perception part is the human eyes and ears, and the algorithm part is the brain. So real artificial intelligence is not big data analysis, it is actually a real person. The entire society is a large organism, controlled by the brain and capable of communication. For example, before there were mobile phones, people could only communicate in person or through fixed lines, which was very inefficient. Now we use the mobile Internet to communicate efficiently because The most basic thing of mobile Internet was formed after the advent of mobile phones. The communication you just mentioned is also the most basic thing for future autonomous driving. Only when the technical framework matures will future autonomous driving be mature.
Media: According to what you said, is it still people-oriented in the end? People are the main body. There is no saying that robots will replace people.
Zhai Jun: Lifestyle is based on human beings. People are creators, including the mobile phones we created, which are the model of life. We should enjoy what we create. The same is true for autonomous driving. We must enjoy the progress that artificial intelligence brings to the entire society. So it’s not about who is the subject, it’s about different lifestyles in the new technology and digital age. Have you watched "White Deer Plain"? Their way of life was a way of life in the industrial age, and it is another way of life in our information age. The development of technology brings about the improvement of the quality of human life.
Media: Hello, Mr. Zhai Jun, many investors will compare our company with Hesai Technology. What do you think our advantages are?
Zhai Jun: Everyone always likes to ask this question. We definitely have advantages. We need to be confident in this.
First, Wanji lidar has a relatively long history. We started making lidar in 2011 and started using lidar in the transportation industry in 2012. Our industrial technology capabilities are very strong.
Second, as a listed company, Wanji has guaranteed investment in R&D funds.
Third, the application of lidar autonomous driving requires continuous capital investment, and Wanji lidar is profitable. We fight with war. Last year, our revenue in transportation intelligent manufacturing exceeded 100 million yuan. Strong ability.
Fourth, I don’t really like this comparison, because we each have our own advantages, and it has its own advantages, because it is an innovative company focusing on autonomous driving and has strong vitality. Our layout is the entire The laser industry has been in business for ten years now. This industry is actually not a new industry, because lasers are widely used, but it is a new concept in autonomous driving, and there are many new technologies in autonomous driving, which require more stability, cost and technical capabilities for lidar. Strong, the challenge is greater.
Media: There are still some companies doing this business in the market, such as Huawei. Do you think it is necessary for this industry to be more concentrated? How many years will it take to concentrate?
Zhai Jun: This is a big track. Now I think it can attract more companies. The more companies, the faster the technology investment and iteration speed, and the faster the development of the industry. , look at the overall capabilities during development, your organizational capabilities, including a series of industrialization capabilities in R&D, technology, and business management.
In my personal opinion, start the industry first. After you start the industry, enough capital investment will inevitably lead to rapid technological development of the entire industrialization, and the entire support will serve users. capabilities, the entire market is expanding. Because lasers are the core component for the perception of the Internet of Everything, not only for autonomous driving, our mobile phones and Apple also use lasers for detection. As long as it is sensing, it will be used. I think this industry has not yet emerged. Many innovative companies and traditional companies still need further investment.
Media: How is our position in the international technology echelon?
Zhai Jun: It is too early to talk about the echelon. I will only say one thing. The biggest challenge now is the abbreviation of OPA. We started doing this in 2016. This is the biggest challenge. After this product comes out, one is that the cost has dropped significantly. In addition, it is a full chip level. Now it is mechanical or semi-mechanical. The power consumption will inevitably decrease because the power consumption of car companies will decrease. This is a product that basically meets the requirements of car companies in terms of cost, power consumption, and detection capabilities. Now there is a big head on top, and its third part is a mechanical rotation, which is difficult to meet the car manufacturer's car-level requirements, including its safety and reliability requirements.
We started doing this in 2016 and have been doing it for 6 years now. Our plan is to invest for 8 years. In 2018, our project received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Think about it as a Enterprises and the National Natural Science Foundation of China all support universities and academies of science. To support an enterprise shows that our technical research has reached an internationally leading level. We plan to have two years for industrialization, and we will release short-range products first next year, which is currently underway. Once this matures, this product should be a disruptive product in the laser industry.
Media: Will it be released next year?
Zhai Jun: It will be released next year and will be released with a 30-meter range.
Media: The previous rumor was October.
Zhai Jun: October is 128 lines, and it is still mechanical. Car companies require 150 meters, and reaching 150 meters requires breakthroughs in key technologies.
Media: Hello, Mr. Zhai, what is the current market performance and ranking in this industry?
Zhai Jun: Intelligent network connection is still in the stage of technical discussion and practice. We are confident that Wanji’s technology is at the forefront of this industry, and the solutions proposed by Wanji can actually solve the problem. Application issues for some owners, including the government.
For example, the country is in the midst of a wave of construction of smart network demonstration pilot zones, such as Yizhuang in Beijing and Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing. During the exploratory period of this industry, they were all built through demonstration pilots. to promote the development of the industry.
First of all, we are actively participating in the construction of various demonstration pilot areas in our country, such as the 5G Internet of Vehicles projects in which we participate in Chongqing Liangjiang New District, Xiongan New District, and Suzhou High-speed Railway New City. Secondly, when autonomous driving and the Internet of Everything have not yet become industrialized, we use more advanced Internet of Vehicles technology to solve current pain points, including existing traffic problems in smart highways and smart cities. The concerns on the highway are safety and traffic efficiency, as well as the ability to serve car owners. We have been involved in highway construction for a long time and have a deeper understanding of the demands of highway owners. In the past two years, Wanji has been engaged in the digital transformation of the Guangming Qifu Tunnel in Guangzhou and the Qinling Tunnel of the Xihan Expressway. We also brought the overall solution to the exhibition at this exhibition. lt;p style="text-align：left