Intelligent connected vehicles enter a critical period of transformation Industry: Sharing cars will be an important scenario for its commercialization

With the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, 5G and the automotive industry, intelligent and connected vehicles have become an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry.

Recently, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" National Informatization Plan, which clearly proposes to accelerate the construction of road infrastructure for intelligent and connected vehicles, the construction of 5G-V2X vehicle networking demonstration networks, and improve the "people, vehicles, roads, clouds, and networks" collaboration capabilities of vehicle-mounted intelligent equipment, roadside communication equipment, road infrastructure and intelligent control facilities, so as to achieve advanced automatic driving applications above L3 level.

According to industry insiders, in order to truly realize the landing of intelligent networked vehicles, it is necessary to take into account both "intelligence" and "networking", that is, both intelligent cars and in-vehicle equipment networking, as well as vehicle-vehicle collaboration and vehicle-road collaboration.

Vehicle-road synergy is the technical path advocated by China

What is an intelligent connected car? In August this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out in its interpretation of the "Opinions on Strengthening the Access Management of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" that intelligent connected vehicles refer to devices equipped with advanced on-board sensors, controllers, actuators and other devices, integrating modern communications and networks, artificial intelligence and other technologies, realizing intelligent information exchange and sharing between vehicles and X (cars, roads, people, clouds, etc.), with complex environment awareness, intelligent decision-making, collaborative control and other functions, which can achieve "safe, efficient, comfortable and energy-saving" driving. And eventually a new generation of cars can be operated by replacement people.

Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, said in an interview with the Central Broadcasting Network reporter that the intelligence in intelligent networked vehicles usually includes technologies such as automatic driving and speech recognition, and the networking involves 5G communications and the Internet of Vehicles.

The reporter learned that the Internet of Vehicles is based on the moving vehicle as the information perception object, with the help of a new generation of information and communication technology, to achieve the network connection between the car and X (that is, car and car, people, roads, service platforms).

Liu Gang, chief economist of China's New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy Research Institute and director of the Institute of Economics of Nankai University, told the Central Broadcasting Network reporter that intelligent networked vehicles usually have two technical paths, one is bicycle intelligence, and the vehicle completes the driving work through intelligent technologies and equipment such as cameras and millimeter-wave radar. The second is vehicle-road collaboration, that is, the combination of intelligent vehicles and vehicle networking.

"For example, when driving a vehicle to turn a corner, there may be a blind spot, and the network can enable the driver or the car to understand the road conditions in the blind area, thereby improving the safety of the vehicle." Liu Gang said, "Another value of vehicle-road collaboration is reflected in the fact that the control system of the vehicle can be controlled by the cloud during operation, and the cloud can take over multiple cars according to real-time road conditions, so that the unexpected situation encountered by the vehicle during driving is more controllable." ”

Li Keqiang, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Vehicles and Transportation and chief scientist of the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, once said that intelligent connected vehicles are a new stage of autonomous driving, which requires the use of mobile Internet to integrate vehicles, infrastructure and clouds.

(Figure from CFP)

Industrial development has shifted to multi-scenario demonstration applications

"At present, the development of the intelligent networked automobile industry is shifting from testing and verification to multi-scenario demonstration applications, and technology, capital, talents and other aspects need to be deeply integrated and coordinated." At the 2021 International Intelligent Connected Vehicle Test demonstration and development forum (ICVTP 2021) held this month, Guo Shougang, deputy director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.

In July this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the "Management Specification for Road Testing and Demonstration Application of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Specification"). According to reports, compared with the "Intelligent Networked Vehicle Road Test Management Specification (Trial)" issued by the three departments in 2018, this time, the "Specification" added a demonstration application on the basis of road testing, allowing safe and reliable vehicles to carry out manned demonstration applications after a certain period of time or mileage road testing; and extended the test demonstration road to highways, urban roads and areas including highways. At the same time, special work vehicles have been added to the scope of test vehicles to meet the needs of unmanned sweepers, and the requirements for network security and data security have been added to the test demonstration subjects.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 27 provinces (cities) across the country have issued administrative rules, built 16 intelligent networked vehicle test demonstration areas, opened more than 3,500 kilometers of test roads, issued more than 700 test licenses, and the total mileage of road testing exceeded 7 million kilometers.

According to the "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Open Road Test Report (2020)" released by the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission on March 11 this year, by the end of 2020, Shanghai has opened a total of 243 test roads and 559.87 kilometers of test roads, and issued road test or demonstration application qualifications to 22 enterprises and 152 vehicles. In 2020, the effective test time of the open road test of Shanghai intelligent connected vehicles was 11,700 hours, and the effective test mileage was 397,000 kilometers.

In April this year, Beijing municipality issued the "Overall Implementation Plan for the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone", relying on the high-level automatic driving demonstration zone to establish the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone (hereinafter referred to as the Policy Pilot Zone). On October 15, the policy pilot zone officially opened the unmanned test scenario.

The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Self-driving Office said that at present, cities with autonomous driving demonstration applications at home and abroad are basically carrying out road test verification of the main driver, and unmanned is a necessary stage of the intelligent networked automobile industry, and it is also the commanding heights of technology research and development and the focus of scientific and technological competition.

As of July 2021, the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Changsha) Test Zone supports Changsha to issue a total of three batches of 55 open road test licenses for autonomous vehicles, covering four types of vehicles: smart buses, smart driving passenger cars, smart driving sanitation work vehicles, and autonomous heavy trucks.

Industry: Car sharing will be an important scenario for commercialization

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that intelligent networked vehicles are the strategic direction of the development of the automobile industry, and are in the early stage of commercialization of rapid technological evolution and industrial accelerated layout.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed that the market penetration rate of L2 intelligent and connected vehicle passenger cars will reach 15% in 2020, and will increase to about 20% in the first half of 2021, and L3 autonomous vehicle models will be tested and verified in specific scenarios.

The "Intelligent Connected Vehicle Industry Development Report (Shunyi Index 2021)" released by the China Electronics Information Industry Development Research Institute predicts that the scale of China's intelligent and connected vehicle industry will exceed 400 billion yuan in 2021, and this figure will reach 900 billion yuan in 2023.

Zhang Xiang believes that from the perspective of car companies, car companies selling on-board software is one of the paths for the commercial landing of intelligent and connected vehicles in the future. "At present, most passenger cars are equipped with L2-level automatic driving technology, and a small number of car companies represented by Tesla, Xiaopeng, And Weilai have charged for software."

Zhang Xiang also pointed out that for logistics companies, taxi companies and other operators, they will achieve profitability by charging service fees.

Liu Gang also said that one of the important scenarios for the commercialization of intelligent networked vehicles will be shared cars. "This is also of great significance for energy conservation and emission reduction."

On November 25, Beijing Yizhuang residents used Baidu's self-driving travel service platform "Radish Run" to complete the first commercial payment, becoming the first paid order since Beijing launched the pilot of autonomous driving commercialization. According to Baidu Apollo, in the first half of 2021, Baidu Apollo's autonomous driving travel service operations covered an area of more than 600 square kilometers, obtained more than 410 test operation licenses, and served more than 400,000 people.