Image source @ Visual China
Text | Talking about AI, the author | Zheng drove
On November 19, the official website of the California Motor Vehicle Administration (DMV) showed that the pony Zhixing, which appeared in the list of autonomous driving unmanned test licenses for only about 6 months, has disappeared.
Regarding this matter, Xiaoma Zhixing replied to Sina Technology, "Xiaoma Zhixing has always adhered to the principle of safety first. Previously, during the daily testing of the Pony Zhixing unmanned test vehicle in California, the United States, there was a slight collision, no personnel were injured, and no other vehicles were involved. After the accident, Xiaoma Zhixing immediately conducted a re-investigation of the incident and voluntarily stopped the unmanned test of autonomous driving in California. ”
According to techChurch, California DMV told TechCrunch in a statement, "On November 19, California DMV notified Pony Zhixing that its unmanned test license has been stopped by authorities due to the October 28 collision accident." Reuters, CNBC and other media have also successively added this DMV statement in the "California DMV stops the unmanned test license of the Pony Zhixing" news.
As a result, the tone of "actively stopping the unmanned test of California autonomous driving" and the reports of foreign media "California DMV stop the unmanned test license of Pony Zhixing" seem to have staged a "Rashomon".
Let's look at it specifically, Pony Zhixing said that it took the initiative to stop the unmanned test in California after the accident on October 28, and if the statement of the California DMV introduced by foreign media is true, then on November 19, the Pony Zhixing was stopped by the California DMV to have no humanization test license. But it's not hard to see that the two things don't actually conflict on the timeline.
Tasting it, this seems to be the "Rashomon" in a word game. So if the DMV statement is true, why would The Ma Zhi behavior that has only entered the California autonomous driving unmanned test for about 6 months be withdrawn? Why would Pony Chi Heng respond with the rather ambiguous phrase "active withdrawal"?
"Being" quit a bit "wronged"?
On November 19, the California DMV list that Pony Zhixing "withdrew" was a driverless autopilot test list, and after Xiaoma Zhixing withdrew from the list, there were seven companies listed, including well-known companies in the track such as WAYMO, CRUISE and APOLLO.
However, in the list of autonomous driving road test permits with drivers present, as of press time, Xiaoma Zhixing is still on the list.
On the official website of the California DMV, there is a public section of the "Autonomous Vehicle Collision Reports", which details the accidents that occur in the actual road test of enterprises with autonomous driving road test licenses.
Judging from the current DMV official website's car crash report records, from the beginning of this year to December 8, a total of 92 accident reports have been submitted, and Xiaoma Zhixing has two accident reports, one of which is an autonomous driving road test accident that occurred on February 11 this year.
This means that the accident on October 28 was the only accident that occurred after Pony Zhixing obtained a license for autonomous driving unmanned road testing.
Let's look at the accident report data of other companies, since this year, the number of traffic accidents related to WAYMO has reached 43, accounting for almost half, CRUISE has 27, ZOOX has a total of 9, compared to these companies, the number of accidents in Xiaoma Zhixing is obviously in a very low position.
So since WAYMO and other high-incidence road test accidents can still be in the list of licenses, why did Xiaoma Zhixing, who only had an accident on unmanned road tests, stop the road test and "be" withdrawn from the California DMV autonomous driving unmanned list? Let's look at two pieces of information separately.
As early as June this year, Xiaoma Zhixing CEO Peng Jun told Reuters that the company is considering listing in the United States, according to "LatePost" understanding, in July, Peng Jun also conducted a road show listing, planning to raise 1 billion to 1.5 billion US dollars. However, Reuters reported on August 11 that Pony Zhixing subsequently shelved plans to go public in the United States through SPAC at a valuation of $12 billion.
On December 16, US time, the US Treasury Department announced that it has included 8 Chinese companies in the list of "non-SDN Chinese military complex enterprises" (NS-CMIC), restricting US investors from investing in the above companies.
Therefore, some voices believe that in today's increasingly heated sino-US confrontation, Xiaoma Zhixing withdrew from the California DMV unmanned road test list, one may indeed have security considerations, on the other hand, it may also be due to the risk intervention of international political factors. But Baidu APOLLO, which is still on the list, has put forward a counter-argument for this conjecture to some extent.
An industry insider who did not want to be named told Tan Qing that AI said, "Although Xiaoma Zhixing has appeared very few times in the accident reports of the California authorities, accidents such as WAYMO are mostly accidents that occur when there are safety officers or non-driving vehicles. ”
"The peculiarity of the accident on October 28 is that, on the one hand, the accident of the test vehicle of Xiaoma Zhixing occurred during automatic driving and moving, on the other hand, the accident report submitted by Xiaoma Zhixing did not point out that there were external factors on the road at that time, that is, the car itself deviated from the route, which put a question mark on its automatic driving ability."
However, before the official further investigation report is made public, the specific reason why Xiaoma Zhixing was "stopped" by the California authorities for autonomous driving unmanned road testing is still a layer of fog.
Why did the pony "lie"?
At present, Xiaoma Zhixing has related business in the United States and China, and the company has been favored by the North American capital market many times.
According to the information of Tianyancha, in the financing process of Xiaoma Zhixing, the relevant investors in the North American capital market account for a certain proportion, including IDG Capital, Sequoia China, which invested in its angel round, as well as a number of investment institutions and funds originating in North America such as Comcast Ventures, DCM, and Ontario Teachers.
In the second half of 2021, Xiaoma Zhixing has suffered setbacks in the United States, in addition to the aforementioned listing shelving, in terms of business structure, Xiaoma Zhixing officially released the independent brand of truck business "Xiaoma Zhika" in March this year, according to the "Late Post" report, after the adjustment in September, the domestic truck road test is still in progress, but the US truck road test has been suspended, and some technical backbones have also left or started another business.
Two months after the suspension of the US truck business road test, Pony Zhixing once again faced the suspension of the unmanned road test of passenger cars in California, and unpleasant news followed in the second half of the year, which may affect the investment enthusiasm of the North American capital market in Pony Zhixing.
Although news such as the departure of technical backbones will also affect the domestic market, the current domestic business of Xiaoma Zhixing is still developing steadily, and no accidents have occurred in domestic road tests, which is obviously calmer than the multiple setbacks encountered in the United States.
This means that from the perspective of public opinion dissemination, especially the suspicion that the accident is caused by technical ability, Xiaoma Zhixing promptly declared his active withdrawal after the accident and explained the original intention, and before the incident was conclusive, he could avoid the risk of excessive interpretation on the Internet, thus playing a certain role in maintaining the domestic business and market.
According to Auto Byte, a foreign media reporter recently questioned on overseas social platforms, "Why do all the Chinese reports I see say that Xiaoma Zhixing is 'voluntary (active) suspension' of its unmanned testing?" ”
(Source: Auto Byte)
"The scale of road testing in the (autonomous driving) industry is getting bigger and bigger, but in fact, everyone's technology has not yet reached a very good level." So in marketing PR, it's important to have an honest attitude. A marketer in the autopilot industry told Tan Qing that AI said, "Especially in the car accident that occurred in Weilai this year, it has actually brought a lesson to the industry." ”
"For example, most of the technology of large-scale on-the-boarding of OEMs on the market before is still in L2, and the confusing concept of marketing has always existed before, blowing L2 into L3 or even L4, and eventually causing an accident is actually a huge blow to the brand and even the technological development of the entire industry."
As he said, if what the foreign media says is true, then Xiaoma Zhixing seems to have evolved this into a text "Rashomon" that avoids the heavy and light.
The original intention of "voluntarily withdrawing due to security considerations" has now become a bit confusing.
As for whether Pony Zhixing's unmanned road test license is indeed suspended by the California DMV? We will also follow up with further responses from Pony Chi Heng.
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