In Deqing, Zhejiang, bus drivers turn on autonomous driving mode. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wei Yijun
Xiangyang Daan Automobile Testing Center Intelligent Networked Vehicle Proving Ground. Profile photo
Editor's note
Intelligent transportation is becoming the driving force of industrial innovation. As an industry deeply integrated with new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, and an industry in which the country vigorously promotes collaborative innovation, smart transportation continues to innovate new scenarios, new models and new capabilities in the rapid development of digital technology. This kind of industrial innovation not only deeply taps the potential of integrated technologies, but also opens up the imagination of future transportation and explores broader and more sustainable industrial prospects.
The construction of the national Internet of Vehicles pilot zone has achieved many results
In April, at the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, new technologies such as the Internet of Vehicles became a hot spot; In May, Tianjin held the World Intelligence Conference and set up an intelligent networked vehicle experience area; In June, the 2023 Jiangxi Province Internet of Vehicles Security Conference was held... Since the beginning of this year, the society's attention to the Internet of Vehicles industry has been increasing, and various places have accelerated the layout of related industries.
In April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology explicitly supported the establishment of national IoV pilot zones in Hubei (Xiangyang), Zhejiang (Deqing) and Guangxi (Liuzhou), and so far, seven places across the country have been approved to establish national IoV pilot zones. How is the construction of the three places progressing? What other aspects do we need to make efforts to promote the application and promotion of the Internet of Vehicles industry? The reporter made a field visit.
The pace of construction of the IoV pilot area has accelerated
Deqing County, located in the north of Zhejiang, hosted the first United Nations World Geographic Information Conference. The reporter boarded a pure electric bus at the Tashan Forest Park bus station in the county, and saw the driver slowly drive the vehicle away from the station, turn on the automatic driving mode, and then leave the steering wheel with both hands. According to the road conditions, the vehicle will automatically drive according to the road surface markings, signal lights, etc., and when turning and encountering the sidewalk, it will actively stop and give way.
"The vehicle is equipped with a variety of autonomous driving perception equipment such as lidar, millimeter-wave radar and vision camera, which can achieve accurate perception of the surrounding environment and has L4 autonomous driving capabilities." Qian Jiangfeng, project manager at the Huzhou branch of China Mobile Zhejiang Co. Ltd., said the line will serve the public during the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The reporter walked into the Xiangyang City Vehicle Network Operation Center, and an electronic large screen viewed the traffic at the intersection in the central urban area, the operation of intelligent public transport vehicles, and the progress of intelligent transformation of intersections. With the click of the mouse, the intersections in the central urban area that have completed intelligent transformation are connected into lines and gathered into pieces. Zhang Xiaohui, deputy director of Xiangyang Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said that it is expected that by the end of 2023, Xiangyang will complete the transformation of 448 intelligent intersections in the central urban area to achieve full coverage of intelligent network connected equipment.
The Internet of Vehicles industry is a new industrial form that deeply integrates automotive, electronics, information communication, road transportation and other industries. In recent years, Hubei, Zhejiang and Guangxi have taken the transformation of IoV functions and the improvement of core system capabilities in key areas, the cross-border integrated development of "geographic information + Internet of Vehicles", and the large-scale and in-depth application of the Internet of Vehicles as the goals, and have a good foundation for industrial development, thus joining the ranks of creating a national-level IoV pilot zone.
At present, 7 places have been approved to establish a national-level IoV pilot zone, covering the eastern, central and western regions, and the exploration results are varied: Wuxi took the lead in promoting the introduction of local regulations for the development of the Internet of Vehicles; Tianjin Xiqing District has developed a "5+3" vehicle-road collaborative operation platform; Changsha is planning to build an intelligent networked vehicle innovation application demonstration zone.
Accelerate industrial development based on its own advantages
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requires relevant provinces to accelerate the improvement of the collaborative work mechanism in accordance with the Action Plan for the Development of the IoV (Intelligent Networked Vehicle) Industry, accelerate the implementation and promote the application and industrial development of the Internet of Vehicles.
Liuzhou has four major automobile group production bases: SAIC, Dongfeng, FAW and Sinotruk. Zheng Zhen, head of the industrial section of Liuzhou Big Data Development Bureau, said that the local area fully combines the needs of local car companies to build "low-cost, wide-area coverage" vehicle-road collaborative roadside infrastructure. At present, 125 intersections in major urban areas have been upgraded, and 241 sets of C-V2X roadside equipment and 1566 sets of roadside perception computing equipment have been built.
"Focusing on the two characteristics of 'geographic information' and 'global openness', Deqing is actively planning the cross-border integrated development of 'geographic information + Internet of Vehicles'." Yu Xin, a staff member of the Dixin Development Center of Moganshan High-tech Zone in Huzhou, said, "The Deqing Intelligent Networked Vehicle Test Ground, which covers an area of 172 acres, is the only public testing ground in Zhejiang Province that meets the requirements of both bicycle intelligence and intelligent network testing. Since the completion of the test site, 28 autonomous driving test licenses have been issued to 20 companies. ”
Xiangyang is accelerating the development of intelligent networked vehicles and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry to electrification, intelligence and networking.
In Xiangyang High-tech Zone, the reporter saw that a 33.4-kilometer public test road for intelligent networked vehicles has completed construction and equipment installation, and entered the stage of equipment joint commissioning; an intelligent networked vehicle science and technology innovation town integrating intelligent networked development and testing, production support, demonstration application, incubation and innovation, and industry-university-research education base is stepping up construction, and the service platform of the whole industry chain of intelligent networked vehicles is accelerating the construction in Xiangyang.
The shortcomings of the industry need to be filled urgently
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by 2022, Mainland China will sell 7 million new intelligent connected passenger cars equipped with assisted autonomous driving systems, a year-on-year increase of 45.6%. 48% of new energy vehicles are equipped with assisted autonomous driving systems. According to the "White Paper on the Internet of Vehicles" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, it is expected that by 2025, the scale of the mainland intelligent vehicle market will be close to one trillion yuan.
Interviewed industry insiders believe that the construction of large-scale, city-level Internet of Vehicles infrastructure is a necessary prerequisite for commercialization support and large-scale demonstration, and all localities should increase their efforts in infrastructure construction.
Experts interviewed said that there is still a lack of industry standards and institutional norms in the field of Internet of Vehicles.
Deqing County has previously issued the "Seven Opinions of Deqing County on Supporting the Development of Autonomous Driving Test Services", and participated in the compilation of the provincial standard for geographic data in the field of autonomous driving, "Basic Geographic Data Specification for Intelligent Networked Vehicles". Yu Xin suggested that taking high-precision maps as an example, it is necessary to further clarify the map data delivery interface and delivery format between surveying and mapping units, map dealers and car dealers, and promote the in-depth application of high-precision maps for intelligent networked vehicles.
The person in charge of the IoV project of Liuzhou Dongcheng Group Dongke Smart City Investment and Development Co., Ltd. believes that the industry has not yet formed a relatively mature business model for the application of the Internet of Vehicles, and Liuzhou is actively exploring in this field, such as gradually empowering the vehicle Internet of Vehicles on the local time-sharing rental car, and it is recommended that more sustainable business models be explored in the future.
Miao Changxing, a first-level inspector of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that in the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will strengthen top-level strategic planning, adhere to the integrated development route of vehicle, road and cloud, strengthen overall coordination, strengthen innovation drive, optimize policy supply, and jointly promote the high-quality development of the intelligent networked vehicle industry.
The multi-scenario implementation of smart transportation is accelerated
Highway traffic statistics and prediction, abnormal event picture detection, intelligent rescue, truck safety monitoring... In recent years, new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain have been deeply integrated with the transportation industry, promoting the continuous expansion of the application scope of transportation intelligence, and the increasingly diversified application scenarios, and people have more and more deeply felt the convenience and speed brought by intelligent transportation.
Smarter transportation infrastructure
Technology empowerment can greatly improve the city's intelligent transportation service capabilities. In recent years, Guangdong Province has promoted the deep integration and promotion and application of new generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G in the transportation field, and the construction of smart highways has achieved initial results.
In the Shenzhen Outer Ring Expressway, BIM-based construction and daily maintenance support have been realized, and the Beidou satellite signal in the tunnel is fully covered. Nansha Bridge and Leguang Expressway have vehicle-road communication and vehicle-road coordination technology application capabilities in 21 scenarios.
On the Xinbo Expressway, the application of "AR reality monitoring system" escorts the safe travel of vehicles. When there are abnormal events such as parking, pedestrians, congestion, traffic accidents and other abnormal events on the road, the system will send an alarm to the monitoring center, and the monitoring screen will pop up the abnormal area video picture, and the abnormal individuals in the picture will be marked and tracked by the "cursor" in the screen. After the monitoring center receives the system alarm, the staff can immediately notify the highway administration, traffic police, rescue and other departments for handling, effectively preventing the accident from occurring or further escalating.
On the main line of Guangdong Huiqing Expressway, a small police cartoon-style sign can be seen on the guardrail every 100 meters, when the driver and passenger need rescue on the highway or cannot determine the location, scan the QR code on the sign with their mobile phones, and the background system of "GPS scan code to receive the police rescue procedure" automatically and quickly locks the location of the driver and passenger. Since its commissioning in April 2022, Huiqing Expressway has installed a total of 2,200 such signs on the main line.
The operation control mode is smarter
In Guangdong, the operation and management of many expressway service areas have also been intelligently upgraded.
The Liangjinshan service area of Kaiyang Expressway has a large flow of people and vehicles. The management unit has developed a parking space management system, which uses AI video analysis technology and video bayonet statistics technology to set up relevant detection devices in the parking area of the service area, which can count the number of remaining parking spaces in the area in real time, and guide the lane to stop through the display screen to improve the experience of drivers and passengers.
Strengthening the safety management of hazardous chemical transport vehicles in the service area is an important task for expressway operators. Xinbo Expressway will put into use the "Key Vehicle Monitoring System in Service Area" from the Spring Festival of 2022, relying on the AR real scene monitoring system, using monitoring and AI intelligent identification, to monitor whether dangerous chemical vehicles enter, whether the vehicles are parked illegally after entering, to achieve 24-hour real-time monitoring and early warning information services for key vehicles in the service area, and timely alert and deal with abnormal parking of dangerous vehicles and other vehicles. The identification rate of the import and export of dangerous vehicles in the service area reached 99.87%, and the arrest rate reached 100%, realizing "passive monitoring to active discovery".
In order to promote the digital transformation of highway interconnection toll collection operations, alleviate on-site congestion at toll stations, and achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase, the digitalization, automation and intelligence of the toll collection business of road sections have been advancing in recent years.
The North Ring Expressway integrates this solution into the overall solution of intelligent toll operation services, creating a "kioskless self-service toll station", which saves 22 toll collection on-site staff than the original, reduces the average passage time of non-ETC vehicles in the exit lane by about 4 seconds/vehicle, and saves invoice management costs of about 100,000 yuan per year.
Relevant institutions and enterprises are also actively promoting the pilot application of digital yuan toll payment, further enriching highway toll payment methods, and reducing handling costs.
ETC technology empowers smart transportation
Starting from 2021, Guangdong United Electric Service Company has launched the self-operation of ETC business expansion business, promoting ETC "down the road into the city", and kicking off the prelude to ETC technology empowering urban smart transportation services.
In view of the "pain points" such as advance capital deductions in the development of ETC parking, the company has built a new ETC expansion application platform, using online keys, cloud services and other technologies to develop and launch the ETC "online + offline" payment model to solve the financial risk of ETC expansion applications. At present, this mode has been fully applied to parking, refueling and other scenarios.
The relevant person in charge of Guangdong United Electric Service Company said that ETC technology is empowering smart transportation from multiple angles, and the company supports multi-level and multi-type merchant structures by creating a closed loop of merchants entering, operating and exiting, including operators, parking lots, gas stations, and service area management, while also exploring and developing the ETC payment ecological chain, and relying on ETC big data to empower smart city management applications to further expand the value of ETC.
Smart application scenarios are more diverse
The reporter learned that through the application of traffic big data, smart transportation scenarios are constantly expanding.
——Application of highway traffic statistics and forecasting. Through the construction of industry monitoring, traffic big data analysis and prediction, visual display and standardized statistical reports, the highway has achieved refined monitoring, convenient control, scientific decision-making and efficient command. Based on the traffic flow of various types of vehicles, the traffic flow of free vehicles on holidays is estimated, and the traffic situation of buses with less than 7 seats on holidays is estimated for use by traffic supervision authorities.
——Highway abnormal event picture detection service. Through the bayonet capture equipment of the ETC high-speed gantry, combined with the visual AI algorithm in the highway scene, it provides the traffic police with picture detection services for abnormal events on the highway, and realizes intelligent identification of illegal behaviors such as speeding, illegal occupancy of the road, and the driver's mobile phone of passing vehicles, as well as video and picture forensics, which reduces the investment and construction of illegal capture hardware equipment and police investment by the public security traffic police department.
- Truck safety monitoring. In order to solve the problem of illegal operation of vehicles, the list of suspected illegal operating vehicles is screened out through the historical flow of expressways and big data modeling. At the same time, combined with real-time vehicle trajectory data, when suspected illegal operation of vehicles at the import and export station, timely warning to the regulatory authorities, assisting the department in on-site law enforcement, and giving written evidence that meets the requirements after the fact.
- High-speed rescue applications. Based on traffic big data, the application of "Accurate Location Inquiry of Faulty Vehicle Location" was developed, when the faulty vehicle calls the hotline of the rescue agency, the dispatcher can obtain the driving route, driving direction, and final traffic gantry information of the accident vehicle through the license plate number inquiry after obtaining the authorization of the owner, accurately restore the driving path of the vehicle, locate the location of the interval where the accident vehicle is located, and dispatch the nearest rescue vehicle to deal with it in time.
(Reporters: Wei Yijun, Zhang Xinxin, Nong Guanbin, Hou Wenkun)
Source: Economic Information Daily