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Automobiles are accelerating the transformation from manually controlled mechanical products to intelligent products controlled by intelligent systems, and intelligence and networking are important trends in the development of the automobile industry. In February 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 11 ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation Development Strategy", which pointed out that intelligent vehicles have become the strategic direction of the development of the global automobile industry, and put forward the strategic vision of "safe, efficient, green and civilized intelligent automobile power will be gradually realized, and intelligent vehicles will fully meet the people's growing needs for a better life".
With the upgrading of models and the improvement of users' acceptance of intelligence, the penetration rate of intelligent networked vehicles in China has been improved. According to the data released by the CAICV Alliance, from January to August 2021, the penetration rate of China's L2-level intelligent networked passenger cars reached 20.9%, which was a significant increase compared with the data in the same period of 2020.
Under the background of the rapid development of China's automatic driving industry, this paper briefly analyzes the classification of automobile driving automation, the construction of intelligent network test demonstration areas, core technology links, scene application development, and trend prospects.
Figure 1: Proportion of L2-class intelligent networked passenger car sales from January to August 2020 and 2021
Source: CAICV Alliance
01
Automotive driving automation grading
The recommended national standard of GB/T 40429-2021 "Automobile Driving Automation Classification", proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and centralized by the National Automobile Standardization Technical Committee, is approved and issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China (National Standards Announcement [2021] No. 11 document), which will be implemented from March 1, 2022. The standard divides the level of autonomous driving into level 0 driving automation (emergency assistance), level 1 driving automation (partial driving assistance), level 2 driving automation (combined driving assistance), level 3 driving automation (conditional automatic driving), level 4 driving automation (highly automated driving), and level 5 driving automation (fully automated driving). The release and implementation of this standard will standardize the development and publicity of enterprises, improve consumers' understanding of products, and further standardize the level of domestic use of autonomous driving.
Table 1: Driving automation level in relation to the division factors
Source: National Recommended Standard for Automobile Driving Automation Classification (GB/T 40429-2021)
02
Construction of intelligent network connection test demonstration area
By the end of 2020, the relevant departments have cumulatively awarded 16 intelligent network test demonstration areas (fields), more than 3,200 kilometers of test roads have been opened in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, and a total of more than 70 enterprises have applied for nearly 700 road test licenses and manned test permits, etc., with a safety test mileage of more than 5.3 million kilometers. The institutions participating in the intelligent and connected vehicle test demonstration zone include not only vehicle enterprises, but also technology enterprises, start-ups and scientific research institutions. From the perspective of the distribution pattern of the intelligent network test demonstration area, the current distribution of the intelligent network test demonstration area is related to the development pattern of China's automobile industry, and the overall distribution is relatively balanced, and it is distributed in the three major economic zones of the east, central and west and the seven geographical divisions of east China, south China, north China, central China, southwest China, northwest China and northeast China.
Table 2: Distribution of intelligent connected vehicle test demonstration areas
Source: Flint Creation is based on publicly available information
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the distribution of the intelligent networked vehicle test demonstration area
Source: Standard Map Service System of the Ministry of Natural Resources
03
Core technical links
In terms of perception system, in the first half of 2021, a number of mass-produced intelligent vehicles with front-mounted lidar, such as Xiaopeng P5, Weilai ET7, and Jihu Alphas Huawei Hi Edition, were released centrally, and the application of lidar in mass-produced models will enter a new stage. In terms of lidar enterprises, Hesai Technology, Sagitar Juchuang, Beike Tianhua, Radium God Intelligence, Beixing Photon, etc. represent the rapid growth of lidar emerging companies, and technology giants Such as Huawei and DJI have also entered the lidar market, each mastering unique technical characteristics.
In terms of decision-making system, the current on-board computing platform is mainly dominated by foreign companies such as Intel, Nvidia, NXP, and Mobileye, but at the same time, Huawei, Horizon, Black Sesame, Superstar Future, Guoqi Intelligent Control, Hongjing Intelligent Driving, ZTE, Hengrun, Puhua, Neusoft and other enterprises have made some progress in the bottleneck breakthrough of the in-vehicle intelligent computing platform. In December 2020, Hongjing Intelligent Driving released the Gemini vehicle specification-level high-level autonomous driving computing platform; in February 2021, Sinocchi Intelligent Control released the iVBB1.0 version of the intelligent driving computing basic platform for mass production; in April 2021, Huawei released the intelligent driving computing platform MDC810; in May 2021, Superstar Future released a new generation of high-level autonomous driving on-board computing platform NOVA30P; and in July 2021, Horizon launches the Matrix 5, an all-scenario intelligent driving computing platform.
In terms of execution system, wire control chassis technology is an important component of autonomous vehicle technology, of which line control and steer-by-wire are the two core products. In terms of line control dynamics, Bosch line control dynamic products occupy a dominant position in the market pattern, and Seiko Chassis, Bethel and other enterprises have been carrying out technical research on line control dynamics. The technical route mainly includes EHB (electro-hydraulic braking) and EMB (electro-mechanical braking) two schemes, of which EMB schemes are likely to become the main direction in the future. The steer-by-wire as a whole is currently in the initial stage of development, the technical route of the electronic control system backup redundant steering (SBW) will likely become the leading direction in the future, the market pattern is still dominated by bosch, Wandu and other foreign companies, the domestic honeycomb easy to create and other enterprises have begun to exert efforts in this field.
HIGH-precision maps and high-precision positioning have achieved certain development results at present. HD map is the car's "long-term memory", for autonomous vehicles to provide road prior information, the current 28 companies have obtained the navigation electronic map Grade A qualification, NavInfo map, AutoNavi map, Baidu map, Yi Tutong and other enterprises have high-precision map mining capabilities, from the high-precision map landing scene, the current landing scene is mainly highways and parking lots.
In terms of high-precision positioning technology, based on China's Beidou satellite communication real-time dynamic differential positioning technology, it has realized sub-meter positioning on the open road, and domestic enterprises have made good progress, such as China Mobile's release of 5G + Beidou high-precision positioning system, Liufen Technology has provided high-precision location services for a number of OEM mass production projects, and Sinan Navigation has also created a smart driving car Beidou high-precision dimensional position perception solution.
The ecology of the Internet of Vehicles industry has been initially established. In terms of technology, the current C-V2X technology based on 5G is the forefront of the development of the Internet of Vehicles. In terms of the ecology of the Internet of Vehicles industry chain, Huawei and Datang have released Car Networking chips, Quectel Communications and Gaohong shares have commercial terminal modules, Nebulas Interconnection, Qianfang Technology, Genvict Technology, etc. can provide roadside units, and fawc, Changan, Geely and other automakers have actively expressed their support.
04
Scene application development
The scene is an important part of the realization of autonomous driving from technology to application, and self-driving taxis, autonomous logistics, autonomous sanitation, and autonomous buses are currently the more popular automatic driving scenarios.
Self-driving taxis have entered the stage of "unmanned development" of technology. At present, the domestic self-driving taxi business is mainly led by Baidu, Wenyuan Zhixing, Xiaoma Zhixing, AutoX, Didi and other enterprises. On July 10, 2020, Wenyuan Zhixing became the first autonomous driving enterprise in China and the second in the world to carry out fully unmanned road testing. On October 15, 2021, the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone issued the "Unmanned Road Test Permit" to Baidu and Xiaoma Zhixing, and Beijing officially opened the unmanned test stage of automatic driving with "no safety officer in the main driver's seat", and enterprise testing and technology research and development were pushed to a new stage, laying a new foundation for the commercialization of self-driving taxis.
Trunk logistics and terminal distribution are two important links in the current autonomous logistics application. Autonomous driving logistics mainly includes trunk logistics and terminal distribution, of which trunk logistics refers to the use of the main trunk line of the road, for large-scale, long-distance cargo transportation, is currently regarded as the largest cake in the field of automatic driving applications, with greater commercial value. Since 2016, start-up companies such as Tucson Future, Mainline Technology, Xidi Intelligent Driving, Yingche Technology, and Zhijia Technology have been looking for landing in the field of trunk logistics; in terms of terminal distribution, enterprises with their own logistics and distribution businesses such as Meituan and JD.com have accelerated the transformation of unmanned distribution technology dimensions by adopting self-research + cooperation; start-up technology enterprises such as Zhixing, Xingshen Intelligence, Neolithic, White Rhinoceros, and Yiqing have entered the terminal distribution market through technology to strengthen the technical level development and commercial application of unmanned distribution. During the epidemic, the public's awareness of the operation methods and advantages of unmanned distribution has been improved, which has indirectly promoted the development of such products.
The application of autonomous sanitation vehicles has accelerated. From the perspective of cities, dozens of cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha, Chengdu, and Xiamen have begun trial operation of unmanned sanitation projects. From the perspective of enterprises, enterprises are accelerating technological breakthroughs and applications in this field. In 2019, the intelligent driving sweeper developed by Xidi Intelligent Driving began to work in the Meixi Lake and Baxizhou areas of Changsha City; in December 2020, the Gaoxian unmanned sanitation vehicle landed on Guangzhou International Biological Island; in April 2021, the Xidi Intelligent Driving Intelligent Sweeper achieved breakthrough front-loading mass production; in June 2021, Country Garden Manguo Environmental Technology Group sold unmanned sanitation vehicles for the first time in batches for the market, and the vehicle driverless technology and software and hardware were provided by Wanzhi Driving.
The field of autonomous buses has entered the stage of demonstration operation route construction. In April 2021, Golden Dragon Bus helped L4 self-driving buses to be put into commercial operation in Yongchuan District, Chongqing, marking a new breakthrough from closed parks to open roads; in July 2021, the first L4-level autonomous bus experience line in northern China was opened in Cangzhou, and the self-driving bus put into use this time was developed by Golden Dragon Bus and Baidu Company; in September 2021, the executive meeting of the Guangzhou Municipal Government deliberated and passed the "Guangzhou Bus Group Autonomous Driving Convenience Line Project Operation Plan". The plan proposes to open 6 autonomous bus convenience demonstration lines in the Zhujiang New City CBD, Pazhou Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy Pilot Zone, Guangzhou Tower, Yuzhu Software CBD Headquarters, International Biomedical Value Innovation Park, Tianhe Software Park and other places in stages, which will become the largest bus autonomous driving project in China.
Table 3: Classification of some autonomous driving scenarios and typical enterprises
05
Trend outlook
The autonomous driving industry will be placed in the context of the integration of the automotive industry and multi-industry development. Under the development trend of intelligence and networking, the automobile industry and information and communications, transportation, Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and other industries will be integrated and developed, and the development of the automatic driving industry will be promoted and restricted by multi-dimensional factors in related industries.
The restructuring of the automotive industry chain pattern. The lidar, high-precision map and high-precision positioning required for the automatic driving system, and the Internet of Vehicles technology will become an important part of the future automotive industry chain, and the significance of the development of the autonomous driving industry is not only the upgrading of automotive products and technologies, but also the reshaping of the automotive and related industrial formats and value chain systems.
Commercialization of scene applications. Application scenarios such as autonomous buses, autonomous taxis, trunk logistics, and terminal logistics will continue to advance with the evolution of technology and the improvement of the system, and the application scenarios of automatic driving will be further developed.
bibliography:
CAICV Alliance, "China Intelligent Connected Passenger Car Sales Report for January-August 2021"
Intelligent Connected Car Magazine Public Account, "Unmanned Sanitation: Autonomous Driving Makes Cities Cleaner"
Intelligent Connected Car Magazine Public Account, "Trunk Logistics: The First Commercial Base area for Autonomous Driving"
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Author | Flint created By Zhang Zhiheng
Audit | Flint stone creation Shao Qian, Yin Li
Operational | Flint created Huang Shuping
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