Exploring the "China Solution" for Autonomous Driving

Autonomous driving is currently the focus of the global technology community. Previously, European and American companies occupied a certain first-mover advantage in this field. In the past two years, under the guidance and support of the state, the mainland's local autonomous driving companies have taken the lead and given a "Chinese solution" for autonomous driving that is better than that of European and American companies.

At present, the first city-level autonomous driving intelligent transportation project in China has been landed in Hengyang City, Hunan Province. On January 13, 2022, the 2022 Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation and Application Summit Forum, with the Mushroom Car Alliance City-level Intelligent Transportation Project as a sample, was held in Hengyang. Li Yizhong, president of the China Federation of Industrial Economics and former minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the forum that Hengyang has strengthened the construction of new road infrastructure for many years, realized vehicle intelligence and urban transportation cloud construction, or will become the first city in the country to have city-level autonomous driving services, forming a city-level transportation digital base. Li Keqiang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, professor of the School of Vehicles and Vehicles of Tsinghua University, director of the State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy Conservation, and chief scientist of the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, said that Hengyang has a good start in the intelligent and networked integration applications of intelligent and networked vehicles and the city-level large-scale demonstration applications.

On Hengyang Hengzhou Avenue, Cailun Avenue and other urban trunk roads, there are often a number of self-driving buses and online ride-hailing cars printed with the words "Mushroom Car Association" driving by, and some staff on the side of the road continue to detect and record various data, and make corresponding debugging of intelligent equipment on street lamp poles. This is part of the "Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration" intelligent transportation system provided by Mushroom Car Union for Hengyang. These staff hope that through their own efforts, hengyang and even China's smart transportation will "run".

It is reported that the project signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Hengyang City in March 2021, with a total design mileage of 200 kilometers and a total investment of nearly 500 million yuan.

The "Hengyang model" is taking shape

According to previous media reports, Mushroom Car Union is one of the first enterprises in the industry to achieve practical landing on the "vehicle-road-cloud integration" automatic driving program. According to the relevant calculations of mushroom car association, its safety has been greatly improved, which can reduce the cost of autonomous driving bicycle transformation by 90%. And promote urban governance, transportation operation, public services and other multi-level cost reduction and efficiency.

Experts expect that after the implementation of the whole set of plans for the Hengyang project, there will be a huge improvement in the overall digital transportation construction of Hengyang City. With the steady advancement and increasingly form of the Hengyang smart transportation project, a set of smart transportation "Hengyang model" from the construction of new infrastructure projects for urban smart transportation, the landing of large-scale autonomous vehicles to the normal operation of urban fleets has also begun to take shape.

It is understood that the local multi-department has jointly formulated the standard for intelligent driving on the road operation that meets the local norms, and issued relevant operating licenses to ensure that the operating vehicles of the Mushroom Car Union are legal and orderly on the road. The project will also bring new kinetic energy and new formats to Hengyang, and help the high-quality development of this sub-central city in Hunan Province.

Tang Junhua, director of the Industrial Development Bureau of Hengshan Science City, the owner unit of the Mushroom Vehicle Union Hengyang Project, said in an interview: "The project is the first large-scale landing project at the autonomous driving city level in China, and the safety of the entire system is very high, and there is currently no accident failure." At the site of Hengshan Science City, a park staff member said in an interview: "Recently, the mushroom project is very famous, and many people have come to visit. Some people even rushed to the front of the vehicle many times and tried multiple angles to stop the product. However, the vehicle behaved very steadily and there were no accidents. ”

It is reported that Mushroom Car Union Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mushroom Car Union") is the world's leading automatic driving full-stack technology and operation service provider, creating the first city-level autonomous driving commercial landing project in China, and has the industry-leading "vehicle-road cloud integration" intelligent transportation system solution.

The company has the operational capability of a city-level large-scale L4 level autonomous public service fleet, including autonomous buses, shuttle buses, taxis, sweepers, patrol cars, logistics vehicles, tractors, etc., covering the whole scene of urban open roads, parks, scenic spots, ports, airports, highways and so on.

The company's core members are from the world's leading technology companies, including Apple, Google, BMW, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, etc., with more than 10 years of R & D operation and management experience in related fields. The company's R & D personnel accounted for more than 70%, including dozens of top doctors from Peking University, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with more than 500 core technology patents such as autonomous driving, vehicle-road collaboration, and intelligent transportation, setting a number of firsts in the industry.

At present, the cumulative signed amount of the mushroom car autonomous driving project has reached billions of yuan, and it has been tested and operated in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hunan, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Yunnan and so on. Related products serve 32 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country, covering more than 350 cities, and the company has been supported by large industrial companies such as Tencent, SF, JD.com, CITIC Capital and a number of state-owned industrial funds.

"China's Solution" for Autonomous Driving

In the high-level global competition where the technological revolution and industrial transformation meet, autonomous driving, China is at the forefront in a very intelligent way. Li Keqiang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chief scientist of the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center and professor of Tsinghua University, said in his speech that the system of integrating vehicles, roads and clouds is the future development direction. He believes that the development of a new generation of intelligent cars and intelligent transportation is bound to be integrated with local attributes. To achieve a new generation of autonomous driving, China also needs to have a "Chinese solution" that integrates it.

In fact, China's technological advantages and institutional advantages determine that the Autonomous Driving China Solution must be realized through multiple measures. Auto industry experts said that in addition to the advantages of technology, China's accumulation in mobile Internet, artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud computing and other fields also needs to be connected with the industry to release the technology dividend. In addition, the integration of vehicles and roads requires top-level design, multi-departmental coordination, and industrial linkage, and Chinese city managers have innate mechanism advantages, which is also an important guarantee for the coordinated promotion of vehicles and roads.

Many people believe that 2021 is the "first year of automatic driving landing". Innovative enterprises are moving forward at full speed, rapid iteration of technology, strong support of national policies, and favored by the capital market, there is no doubt that the mainland driverless industry is in an exciting and rapid development stage. "This industry is the best opportunity for generations in the next 30-50 years." Zhu Lei, founder and CEO of Mushroom Car Union, previously told the media, "The best soil for autonomous driving is in China."

As experts say, the innovative solution for autonomous driving in China is the integration of vehicles and roads. It is reasonable to look forward to the fact that the "China Solution" for autonomous driving, with Hengyang in Hunan As the landing model, may be applied on a large scale nationwide, ultimately supporting the realization of the grand vision of a transportation power and digital China.