Fully driverless minibuses provide bus services in Guangzhou Serving more than 2,400 passengers on the first weekend

Economic Observation Network reporter Li Huaqing On January 11, the Economic Observation Network reporter learned from Wenyuan Zhixing that from January 8 to January 9, the first weekend of Wenyuan minibus operation, the two routes completed more than 300 connections, serving a total of more than 2,400 people.

Previously, on January 7, Wenyuan Zhixing, an L4-level autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Guangzhou, held the "Wenyuan Minibus Robobus Operation Launch Ceremony" and announced that it would open to the public on Guangzhou International Biological Island to operate a fully unmanned minibus to provide driverless microcirculation bus services for the public.

According to the introduction of Wenyuan Zhixing, the first phase of Wenyuan Minibus opened two operating routes in the north and south, the southern line is Guanzhou Subway Station B Exit - Mulian Zhuang Hotel - Biological Island Apartment West Gate (Xinghan Avenue Station), the northern line is Guanzhou Subway Station Exit A - Biological Island Guangzhou Laboratory (Ink Garden), operating 7 days a week, Monday to Friday from 8 am to 10 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm, every ten minutes cycle operation, for the biological island enterprise employees and citizens who come to the island for sightseeing free travel.

Wenyuan Zhixing introduced to the Economic Observer Network reporter that Wenyuan Zhixing is the first enterprise to provide fully driverless bus services in Guangzhou, and there have been unmanned bus services equipped with safety officers, driver's seats and steering wheels in Guangzhou before. The realization of full unmanned driving and the removal of safety personnel are considered by people in the unmanned driving industry to be the precondition for the large-scale promotion and profitability of unmanned driving. Zhang Li, the COO of Wenyuan Zhixing, has expressed the view that if the safety officer is not removed, the driverless business model is a false proposition.

The operation of fully unmanned driving means that the safety and security work should be more stringent. Wenyuan Zhixing introduced, Wenyuan minibus by Wenyuan Zhixing and Yutong Group jointly built, no steering wheel, throttle, brake, front-loading mass production of unmanned vehicle equipped with Wenyuan Zhixing's automatic driving full-stack software and hardware solutions, the maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour, in the city open roads, expressways, tunnels, morning and evening peak congestion periods, rain and snow conditions can provide unmanned driving, during vehicle operation, Wenyuan Zhixing remote support center will be real-time intelligent monitoring of vehicles, in case of emergency emergencies, Passengers can brake the vehicle via the emergency brake button in the car.

It is understood that Wenyuan Zhixing has been operating Robotaxi commercial services in China for two years, forming three product matrices of driverless taxis (Robotaxi), minibuses (Robobus) and robovan in the same city. Before officially providing fully driverless bus services, Wenyuan minibus has completed more than one year of normalization tests in Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Nanjing and other places, and since April 2021, it has provided daily commuter connection services for Wenyuan Zhixing employees on Guangzhou Biological Island, and in June 2021, when the epidemic broke out in Guangzhou, Wenyuan minibus delivered life and emergency supplies for residents in guangzhou's Liwan sealing and control area, with a total of more than 500 departures for 20 consecutive days, transporting more than 20,000 pieces of materials, with a total weight of more than 100 tons.

Recently, in Guangzhou's Nansha District, Guangzhou's first driverless bus line officially began operation. Wenyuan Zhixing insiders introduced to the Economic Observation Network reporter that the bus and support technology of the line are still provided by Wenyuan Zhixing, but the operation of the line is not the responsibility of Wenyuan Zhixing, in addition, the buses on the line are still equipped with safety personnel.

On January 6, Wang Chunjie, a deputy to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, secretary of the party committee and chairman of the Board of Directors of Beijing Bus Group, revealed in an interview with the media that the next step of Beijing bus will strengthen digital transformation and carry out driverless bus road tests in Yizhuang, Beijing.