Rongli said in an interview that Zhijia Technology plans to further expand the application scope of its PlusDrive supervised high-level assisted driving function from the main highway road (the current application range that can be opened for autonomous driving of mass production vehicles) to further expand from toll stations to toll stations in the next 1 or 2 years.
On March 25-27, the 8th China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum was held in Beijing, with the theme of "Greeting a New Stage of Market-oriented Development of New Energy Vehicles", focusing on hot issues and exploring the development trend of new energy vehicles. During the forum, EV Century and other media interviewed Rong Li, general manager of Zhijia Technology China, on the development of autonomous driving heavy trucks.
Founded in 2016, Zhijia Technology is a start-up company focusing on autonomous driving technology for commercial vehicles, which has the research and development capabilities of L4 level full-stack autonomous driving technology. In 2021, FAW Jiefang J7, a front-loading high-grade auxiliary driving heavy-duty truck jointly developed by Zhijia Technology and FAW Jiefang, has been mass-produced and launched into the domestic trunk logistics market through partners such as Manbang Group to carry out commercial operations. This heavy-duty truck enables high-grade assisted driving on the main highway, including lane centering, automatic lane change, traffic congestion assistance, adaptive cruise control, geo-fencing, and fine-tuning obstacle avoidance. According to the official website of Zhijia Technology, this car is the world's first front-loading vehicle-level L3 autonomous driving heavy truck.
Rong Li, General Manager of Zhijia Technology China
Rongli said in an interview that Zhijia Technology plans to further expand the application scope of its PlusDrive supervised high-level assisted driving function from the main highway road (the current application range that can be opened for autonomous driving of mass production vehicles) to further expand from toll stations to toll stations in the next 1 or 2 years. According to the evolution route of this technological development, by 2025, the goal of Zhijia Technology is to achieve warehouse-to-warehouse (warehouse-to-warehouse) trunk logistics advanced driver assistance.
In this process, whether it is between toll booths to toll booths, or warehouse-to-warehouse advanced driver assistance implementation, it is necessary to continuously improve the performance of sensors, the use of chips with greater computing power, and the improvement of autonomous driving algorithms. Because whether it is the transition between different highways, the up and down ramps, or the entry and exit of toll stations, including the more complex roads to the warehouse after leaving the toll booth, etc., the continuous improvement of autonomous driving software and hardware technology is required.
Yung-Li said that the realization of this high-level assisted driving still requires supervision (that is, the vehicle still has a cockpit), as well as the support of regulations. As for when truly driverless in the field of trunk logistics (vehicles without cockpits), he believes it will be a long process that will not happen overnight.
Regarding the commercial value of advanced assisted driving to trunk logistics, Rongli said that there are three main aspects. The first is fuel saving, equipped with the Zhijia Technology PlusDrive system FAW Jiefang J7 heavy truck operation data from Shandong to the Yangtze River Delta route shows that its fuel saving rate has reached 10%. Moreover, tests currently underway have shown that the route from the Yangtze River Delta to the Pearl River Delta has a more significant fuel saving effect due to more mountain roads. Because when driving on mountain roads, heavy trucks with advanced driver assistance functions can judge the road conditions more accurately than human drivers, whether it is slope or curves, the system can control the throttle and brake more precisely, so as to achieve better fuel economy than human driving.
Fuel saving means reducing transportation costs and increasing the profitability of logistics companies, although equipped with advanced driver assistance features increases vehicle costs, but Rong Li said that from the perspective of fuel saving effect, under normal operating conditions, the fuel costs saved by logistics companies in two years can offset the increased cost of carrying auxiliary driving functions (hardware includes 1 lidar, 5 millimeter wave radar, 7 cameras and NVIDIA Xavier chips).
The second point is to improve driving safety, due to the use of multiple sensors, heavy trucks with advanced driver assistance functions can help human drivers better perceive road conditions, such as avoiding safety hazards such as blind spots in vision, and can also provide assistance when changing lanes and cruising vehicles, so as to make driving safer. Finally, it can also reduce the work intensity of heavy-duty truck drivers, which is confirmed by the subjective feelings of drivers of several logistics companies that cooperate with Zhijia Technology, compared with traditional heavy trucks without auxiliary driving functions, drivers are more willing to drive models with auxiliary driving functions, because driving is more labor-saving and more comfortable.