[EV Vision Original Report] 5G, a simple two words has now become the most popular word at present. For example: "A brand launched a 5G mobile phone, a hospital did a 5G operation, a certain place to carry out 5G mountaineering live broadcast" and so on. It sounds like the news with this word has a sense of grandeur in an instant, but there may not be too many people who really understand the meaning of this word.
Of course, such a popular vocabulary is naturally indispensable in the automotive circle, and the emergence of 5G cars has become the main direction of future automobile development at home and abroad. However, in the eyes of those of us who eat melon owners, this tall "skill" may not be so important, but is this the case?
First of all, let's first understand what 5G technology is.
Since the beginning of having a mobile phone, the vocabulary of 2G, 3G, and 4G has begun to penetrate into our lives. The so-called 2G refers to the second generation of mobile phone communication technical specifications, with digital voice transmission technology as the core. Generally defined as can not directly transmit information such as e-mail, software and other information; only has a call and some mobile phone communication technical specifications such as time and date transmission. The vernacular means that you can only call and send text messages with a 2G mobile phone, and you can download a color ringtone from time to time, but the download speed is only 20kB/s.
3G refers to a communication network laid down by using lines and equipment of the third generation of mobile communication technology that supports high-speed data transmission. Compared with 2G, the most obvious change is the increase in download speed, reaching 600kB/s, basically in addition to calling and texting, chatting about a WeChat to see the web page is not under the words, but the video, or will be very stuttering.
4G is a combination of 3G and WLAN, and can quickly transmit data, high quality, audio, video and images. 4G can be downloaded at a speed of more than 100Mbps, which can basically meet the requirements of most users for wireless services. So in just a few seconds, you can download a software that is 20MB in size, so there are more applications in the phone, and there are many game applications.
What does 5G technology bring to us?
At this time, you may be thinking: "According to the previous statement, 5G is faster, right?" In fact, there is nothing wrong with this sentence. With the blessing of 5G, the download speed of 5G is indeed even better! more! more! Almost there!. According to an Internet report, the world's fastest 4G speed (Norway, average 63Mb/s) and the fastest broadband speed (Singapore, average 189Mb/s) are combined, and there is no 5G speed (theoretical speed 10000Mb/s).
But fast download speeds aren't its only advantage.
In addition to speed, 5G also has the characteristics of low latency and wide connection. The air interface delay of 5G can be as low as 1 millisecond, which is only one-tenth of that of 4G, which is much higher than the stress response of the human body and can be widely used in the field of automatic control. And 5G can have 1 million connections per square kilometer, and user capacity can be greatly increased compared with 4G, in addition to the connection of mobile terminals, it can also be widely used in the Internet of Things. In simple terms, the difference between 4G and 5G is like the difference between a one-way one-lane lane and a one-way 10 or 100 lanes.
How can 5G be applied to cars?
In the face of the development of today's automobiles, the requirements for on-board communication systems have also increased a lot. In the industry, the concept of the "new four modernizations" of automobiles has also been widely circulated. The so-called "new four modernizations" are electrification, networking, intelligence and sharing. Electrification refers to the application of new energy technologies in automobiles. Networking refers to the Internet of Vehicles technology, including but not limited to in-car entertainment systems, voice and somatosensory interaction, mobile payment, etc. Intelligence refers to intelligent driving, driving assistance and the highest stage of unmanned driving technology. Finally, sharing refers to car sharing and mobility. Among them, networking and intelligence rely more on high-speed network technology, and 5G has become the best choice for the existing implementation of this technology.
Once upon a time, the Internet of Vehicles was just emerging, and a model equipped with a large-size screen and a support for 4G connectivity was specially named "4G Interconnection Edition". But this is not a real Internet of Vehicles, at most with the meaning of "buy a car and send a 4G mobile phone". The most common application scenarios of the real Internet of Vehicles mainly include online map navigation, intelligent speech recognition interaction, online entertainment and so on.
The core of the Internet of Vehicles is C-V2X, the core of which is to connect the car with all terminals. The so-called V2X refers to the information interaction between the vehicle and various external objects, including: vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-person (Vehicleto Pedestrian, V2P), vehicle-to-network (Vehicleto Network, V2N) interaction. When these cars are connected to all these terminals, no matter how complex the traffic situation is, the correct driving operation can be made according to the location of the surrounding terminals.
Still don't understand? Maybe you can see the following two pictures and maybe you can understand some of them.
No V2X
There is V2X
See the difference? Vehicles with V2X can determine the information of the vehicle in front of them, and control their driving state according to the driving action (steering, braking, acceleration, etc.) of the vehicle in front or in the opposite direction, so as to achieve a safe driving form. In addition, V2X can also obtain the signal light information in front, will actively guide the speed of the car, give an early warning when running a red light, and pass the traffic light section smoother and safer. So a simple summary: from the perspective of the vehicle itself, you can get more perceptual information about the vehicle, the road, the pedestrian, and the environment to help the automatic driving make decisions. From the perspective of traffic management, it can improve traffic efficiency and reduce road congestion.
In terms of intelligence, 5G technology is more used in the automatic driving of auxiliary vehicles. Here is a little mention of the composition of vehicle autonomous driving.
Autonomous driving is divided into 6 levels (Level 0-Level 5), and we have reached a maximum level 3 in actual driving, mainly based on the sensors on the local side of the car to make decisions by data fusion. However, this has certain limitations, because in the case of an extremely complex road environment, local sensors such as cameras and lidar are limited by factors such as line of sight and environment, and cannot achieve a high degree of safety. Especially in the detection of moving objects, because not only to detect the object, but also to determine the trajectory of the object, that is, the next position of the object to reach. For example, when a car is traveling at a speed of 130 km/h, the camera and radar cannot safely detect a stopped vehicle in front of it that exceeds 120 m, which is obviously very dangerous.
In addition, to reach the L5 level of autonomous driving, ultra-high and reliable low latency indicators are required. When the car is driving at high speed, the mobile phone signal will become unstable, and the delay at this time will become very high, perhaps reaching 100ms or even higher. Imagine if emergency braking is required on the highway and the car receives instructions after a delay of 100ms... According to 28m/h, 100ms is 2.8m. Therefore, 5G provides consistent low latency and high-speed service guarantee, which is of great significance for driverless driving with extremely high safety requirements, and when the car is driving in a network congested area, it can still obtain network communication guarantee.
It can be seen from the comprehensive that the automatic driving system under the blessing of 5G is like an "old driver" who can grasp the road situation in front of you at any time, and with the cooperation of high-precision maps, plan a faster and safer driving route. Of course, it also has more functions, and the space is limited, so I will not go into detail here.
What are the 5G cars?
If the front is to let you know what a 5G car is, let's take a plate of existing or upcoming mass production of 5G models.
SAIC R Car MarvelL R
At the 2020 Guangzhou Auto Show, which opened last year, the second model of SAIC R Automobile, marvel R, was officially unveiled and announced a pre-price of 220,000 yuan. The new car is equipped with R Auto's self-developed 5G intelligent driving system, equipped with a triple perception system, with high-level automatic driving capabilities, basic assisted driving and 5G V2X remote sensing intelligent driving capabilities.
MARVEL R adopts visual perception + radar perception + 5G V2X triple perception system, with 11 visual perception hardware (2 forward view cameras, 4 circumferential cameras, 4 surround view cameras, 1 real scene camera), 17 radar perception hardware (5 millimeter wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radars); With the super computing power provided by mobileye EyeQ4H chip and Huawei 5G Baron 5000 chip, it leaves enough space for continuous upgrading and iteration of software and hardware in the future.
GAC Aeon 5G version of AION V
On December 24, 2020, an AION V equipped with 5G and V2X modules rolled off the production line of GAC Aean Intelligent Ecological Factory, marking the official landing of the world's first mass-produced 5G car. The new car is equipped with China's first integrated 5G+C-V2X vehicle intelligent communication system independently developed by GAC BJEV, equipped with Huawei's new generation of 5G vehicle modules, equipped with a Baron 5000 5G chip, with three absolute advantages of high speed, low latency and wide connection, with a transmission speed of more than 4G 100 times and a delay of only 1/50 of 4G.
In addition, Aion V is also equipped with the FindAUTO high-precision positioning service provided by Qianxun Location, Qianxun Location is based on the basic positioning data of beidou satellite system, using beidou ground-based enhancement station and positioning algorithm, through internet technology to carry out big data calculations, Aian V in the open area positioning accuracy of up to 20cm, to achieve lane-level positioning.
NIO ET7
According to Qualcomm's official news, Qualcomm Technologies and NIO announced not long ago that they will cooperate to bring the latest next-generation digital cockpit technology to NIO's first flagship sedan, THEO ET7. The 2022 mass-produced NIO ET7 will use the third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Auto digital cockpit platform and the Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive 5G platform.
The Snapdragon Automotive 5G platform is the automotive industry's first announced vehicle-grade 5G dual-pass platform, with comprehensive and industry-leading 5G connectivity capabilities, with advanced features such as C-V2X and high-precision positioning, which strongly supports automakers, including NIO, to develop faster, safer and differentiated in-vehicle connected products for the next generation of connected vehicles.
WM W6
On January 19, 2021, WM Motor's third new intelligent pure electric SUV, WM W6, officially rolled off the production line. It is reported that the new car is developed and built by WM Motor in-depth and Baidu Apollo platform, which is the first 5G intelligent new energy vehicle under WM, equipped with the world's first Qualcomm Snapdragon third-generation intelligent cockpit chip, which can achieve L4 level automatic driving.
Hardware, WM W6 will be equipped with Qualcomm 8155 chip and integrated 5G baseband, in conjunction with WM Motor's self-developed autonomous driving domain controller, and deploy 22 sensors in the whole vehicle, including 5 77GHz millimeter wave radar, 5 cameras and 12 ultrasonic radars. In terms of power, the car is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous motor with a maximum power of 160 kW and a peak torque of 225 N·m.
BYD Han EV 5G version
BYD Han EV's 5G technology is provided by Huawei technical support, equipped with Huawei's 5G module MH5000, which is based on Huawei's 5G multi-mode terminal chip Baron 5000 development, it is reported that the module can enable the vehicle terminal to have high-speed, low-latency 5G mobile communication capabilities, but also has the C-V2X communication capabilities of vehicle-to-road collaboration.
Especially in terms of automatic driving, 5G has enabled HanEV's DiPilot autonomous driving technology to reach the speed of the "network version". Through the latest technical algorithms, it greatly improves the communication speed and capacity, connects the car as a terminal, connects with the surrounding environment, further optimizes the response speed of the car, fully realizes the effective coordination of the human and vehicle roads, and uses the strength to ensure the safety of the user.
In addition, the application of 5G technology also involves remote driving technology. In connected autonomous driving, one of huawei's earliest features is remote autonomous driving (TOD: Tele-operated Driving). The so-called TOD means that the driver does not sit in the car, but uses the image signal transmitted back from the car to drive the vehicle remotely through the local console. Zhao Changjiang, general manager of BYD Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., introduced the car's 5G function and said, "I am here in Beijing, I can remotely visualize my car in Shenzhen through my mobile phone, and I can remotely control it." However, this function is still under development, and it is believed that it will be used in vehicles in the near future.
Polar Fox ARCFOX α T
ARCFOX αT has the world's first commercial 5G technology equipped with IMC (Intelligent Module Criterion) intelligent module standard architecture, a collection of intelligent driving, intelligent interaction, intelligent electric drive system, based on the IMC architecture, ARCFOX α-T equipped with Huawei's new generation MH5000 5G chip T-BOX, under the support of technology, ARCFOX αT will realize the corporate vision of intelligent transportation. It will take 5G, ETC, cloud platform, and edge computing as the core of multi-network converged communication technology to open up vehicle-road collaboration and achieve true automatic driving.
In addition, through the transmission of 5G technology, it can provide users with a peak network speed of about 850~ 880M through WiFi, allowing you to play games more smoothly by brushing videos during the journey. In addition, the V2X will play the advantages of networked automatic driving and assist bicycle intelligence. For example, when we are blocked by the vehicle in front of us at a traffic light, ARCFOX αT can connect the traffic light information and feedback it to the consumer.
Conclusion: You can imagine that at some point in the future, when you are driving from one city to another, this car equipped with 5G technology allows you to fully do what you want to do during the driving process, just like sitting in a mobile "Internet café", the driving right is handed over to the vehicle itself, maybe some people will think that this is an impossible thing in the early years, but under the technical support of 5G or longer 6G and 7G, this is no longer an empty talk in science fiction. Therefore, the choice of 5G cars is more to bring a new way of life to us old drivers, which is bound to become the mainstream of future development.
However, although the popularity of 5G networks at this stage is boiling, some limitations have also slowed down the speed of its promotion. First, because 5G networks are millimeter wave communication technologies, they are less penetrating than 4G networks and have short coverage distances. Moreover, the early investment in the construction of 5G base stations is large, compared with 4G, to ensure the user experience, more 5G base stations must be built, which also represents more hardware equipment input costs.
Finally, the power cost of 5G networks accounts for 20% of the operator's network maintenance costs, while 5G power consumption is 3 times that of 4G, so the overall maintenance costs increase a lot. However, it is believed that with the strong support of the state, the future 5G network technology will tend to be more normalized. At that time, vehicles with 5G technology may become close partners of ordinary people's homes.