Just yesterday, a big thing happened in the autonomous driving industry: Beijing issued a notice of unmanned manned demonstration application.
This will be another milestone for the entire autonomous driving industry.
Let's talk about it first.
Beijing issued a notice of unmanned manned demonstration application
On April 28, Beijing issued a notice of unmanned manned demonstration application, and Baidu and Xiaoma Zhixing became the first batch of enterprises to obtain unmanned manned demonstration application notices. The first batch of 14 vehicles, including Baidu 10.
At the same time, the unmanned open area will be expanded from 20 square kilometers in the previous period to 60 square kilometers in the core area of the economic development zone.
The first thing to make clear is that this "unmanned" is not "completely unmanned" as we understand it, but moves the safety officer from the main driver to the co-driver.
That is to say, there are safety officers in the car, which is not really driverless.
After explaining this concept, we will talk about it in depth.
What does this matter mean for driverless companies, for the industry as a whole?
Technical level: further automation
In the beginning, the automatic driving technology was immature and could not be responded to in time in some scenarios, which required the main driver safety officer to take over more frequently.
Now, the safety officer is transferred from the main driver to the co-driver, and there will be less intervention for automatic driving.
In the case of Baidu Apollo, unmanned vehicles will add foot brakes to the co-driver and a red button (with a one-button toggle manual/autopilot mode function). Only in cases of particular urgency will the driver take over.
To some extent, this is also a recognition of the improvement of corporate autonomous driving capabilities.
For related enterprises, this will be a new beginning, the next thing to do is to accumulate a large amount of relevant data, feed back the technical model, continue to optimize the algorithm, improve the ability of automatic driving, and lay a solid foundation for full automation.
Application level: one step closer to commercialization
The first thing to clarify is that if Robotaxi is to achieve real profitability, then "unmanned vehicles" is a necessary condition.
The continent's design steps for driverless cars are as follows:
The safety officer is in the main driver
The safety officer is transferred to the co-pilot
The security officer is transferred to the back row
Remove the safety officer in the car & remote control.
Today, the first step in unmanned driving is officially taken by taking the safety officer from the main driver to the co-driver, and it also makes Robotaxi one step closer to commercialization.
For self-driving car companies, on the one hand, this is a verification of their own autonomous driving capabilities1, on the other hand, they can also better tell the story of autonomous driving to capital, get new financing, improve technology, and expand business.
Policy level: Unbundling autonomous driving
The failure of L4 autonomous driving to land is largely due to three aspects: imperfect policies, immature technology, and excessive costs.
But now, Beijing is setting an example. In terms of policy, the "Implementation Rules for the Management of Unmanned Road Testing and Demonstration Application of Passenger Vehicles in the Pilot Zone of The Policy of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles in Beijing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Rules") and its supporting technical specification documents "Technical Specifications for the Unmanned Demonstration and Application Testing of Intelligent And Connected Passenger Vehicles in the Pilot Zone of the Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Technical Specifications") were issued.
In addition to policy, Beijing is also expanding the right of way for driverless operations. The test area was expanded from the previous 20 square kilometers to 60 square kilometers in the core area of the Beijing Economic Development Zone, which covers multiple subway stations to Yizhuang, public facilities such as parks and sports centers, as well as key business districts and residential areas.
This move provides a richer scenario for the verification of driverless technology, so that enterprises can better polish driverless technology.
Now, Beijing has fired the first shot of unmanned driving, and other cities will respond in the future, and in the next period of time, we will see more companies carry out unmanned trial operations of passenger cars.
Unmanned: Obstructive and long
But even so, I would say that the commercialization of Robotaxi is long and difficult.
At this stage, Robotaxi is a gold-devouring beast, technology research and development, product iteration, testing and operation require a lot of capital investment, and it is a long-term investment, short-term unprofitable project.
Even if some companies have begun to pay for operations, they are still a drop in the bucket.
So for these self-driving companies, my advice is to actively expand the boundaries, step out of their comfort zone, and seek more opportunities and variables.
There are many typical cases here:
In an interview with the media, Wei Dong, vice president and chief safety operation officer of Baidu's intelligent driving business group, said: "From the end of 2020, Baidu will open the manned test of the main driver in Beijing; at the end of 2021, the fee will be charged. Yizhuang Management Association is studying the management method of fully driverless, and we have the opportunity to realize the full unmanned use of self-driving taxis by the end of this year or early next year."
If it is true as Wei Dong said, at the end of this year / the beginning of next year to achieve a full unmanned autonomous taxi, for the entire industry, it will trigger a new round of change.
Finally, to say one more thing, now that the L4 driverless policy has been relaxed, the liberalization of the L3 autonomous driving policy will not be too far away.