Text/Reporter Wang Zifei
On May 1, the "Hangzhou Intelligent Networked Vehicle Testing and Application Promotion Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") was officially implemented. Since that day, Hangzhou has also opened the city's eight urban districts and Tonglu County as intelligent networked vehicle test application areas, serving a population of more than 10 million. According to incomplete statistics, 51 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have introduced pilot demonstration policies for autonomous driving, and continue to accelerate the expansion of application scenarios. Moreover, other provinces and cities have successively introduced policies to encourage, guide and regulate the development of unmanned distribution. For example, the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission recently released the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Instant Distribution Industry (Draft for Comments)", which proposes to "expand intelligent and commercial application scenarios such as automatic delivery vehicles".
More and more cities are granting the right of way and issuing license plates for unmanned vehicles, which has accelerated the commercialization of unmanned vehicles. With the vigorous development of e-commerce, new retail, community group buying and other industries, the scale of the urban distribution market is gradually expanding, but unmanned vehicle delivery is also facing new challenges: how can unmanned express delivery vehicles cope with complex delivery scenarios? How to further improve relevant laws and regulations to clear institutional obstacles for the large-scale implementation of unmanned vehicles? And what impact will the acceleration of the large-scale application of unmanned vehicle distribution have on the logistics industry?
Unmanned delivery vehicles are becoming more and more popular
With the rapid development of science and technology, unmanned technology is gradually changing people's lifestyles. As one of them, unmanned delivery vehicles have quietly entered our lives.
On the streets of Shunyi District, Beijing, you can always pass by these cute "unmanned vehicles". Ms. Wang, who lives in Shunyi District, Beijing, lamented to a reporter from China Logistics and Procurement magazine on May 6, "The recent arrival of big promotion days such as 'Mother's Day' and '520' was worried that I would encounter the phenomenon of express delivery 'traffic jam' again. ”
Despite its small size, its capacity is amazingly large, and the overhead lidar can "see six ways and hear all directions". It is understood that these unmanned vehicles can carefully plan the distribution route to achieve 24-hour uninterrupted operation, and the work of short barge transit transportation from the outlets to the post station after 12 o'clock at night can be handed over to them.
According to the staff of the SF branch of Lixi Garden, Shunyi District, Beijing, in September last year, the outlet introduced 8 neolithic unmanned vehicles to serve the connection of 4 express outlets, these unmanned vehicles go back and forth 4 times a day, and the car can be loaded with 3 cubic meters of goods, and more than 200 small express deliveries can be loaded. The courier picks up the parcel in their respective area, puts the parcel into the unmanned vehicle, and it will automatically return to the business location.
"For our couriers, the 2~3 hours saved every day can be better delivered, and the delivery efficiency is about 30% higher than before. Some customers are able to receive their shipments about an hour in advance. Mr. Wang, a courier at an outlet in Shunyi District, Beijing, introduced that unmanned vehicles can operate autonomously, with a speed of up to 35 kilometers per hour, and can achieve an ultra-long battery life of 160 kilometers after being fully charged.
"In the past, I used to drive an electric tricycle to the outlets to transport express delivery back, but the carriage of the electric tricycle was too small, and many times I couldn't finish loading it in one trip, so I had to run at least twice a day. When I encountered a large express that couldn't fit in the carriage, I had to hire a car to pull it over. Mr. Wan, a courier in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said that compared with the standard electric tricycle of the outlet, this unmanned delivery vehicle is larger and more able to be loaded, "The volume of the car is about 5 cubic meters, not only the large express delivery can be put down, but the small express code can also be loaded with 500 ~ 600 tickets, which is equivalent to the capacity of 3 tricycles." ”
Not only in the express delivery industry, but also unmanned delivery vehicles also have great commercial value in the field of instant delivery. It is reported that in February 2024, Meituan's automatic delivery vehicles will land in Longhua, Shenzhen, and officially launch public road tests, which will first be carried out on the roads around Dalang Fashion Town, and will gradually expand from "small-scale testing" to "large-area pilots", continuously expanding coverage, adding vehicles, and extending testing and operation hours. After the test is mature, Meituan will officially provide automated delivery services for residents in the surrounding communities. This is the first time that an automated delivery vehicle has entered the central urban area of a first-tier city.
It is understood that there are several main stages of food delivery for riders at present: picking up food at a restaurant, driving on an open road, and delivering food to its destination. As of the end of December 2023, the autonomous delivery vehicle service has been expanded to more than 100 communities in Shunyi, Beijing, with autonomous driving mileage accounting for 99%, and nearly 4 million outdoor full-scene deliveries have been completed. Xia Huaxia, vice president and general manager of Meituan's automatic vehicle delivery department, once said that open roads were the application scenarios that Meituan's automatic delivery vehicles focused on exploring in the past, mainly because this scenario has the highest complexity, the greatest technical challenges, and needs to be overcome first. In the scenario of public test roads, Meituan focuses on autonomous driving technology and operational capabilities. In addition, industry regulations and standardized business practices are important factors influencing the implementation of business enterprises.
How to ensure the safety of unmanned vehicles
Unmanned delivery vehicles are officially "on duty" on more and more public roads, but there are still many problems that need to be solved urgently, such as safety, legal responsibility, road rules, etc. Previously, there was an accident in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in which an unmanned express vehicle rear-ended a truck.
According to the video taken by netizen Mr. Yang, at around 10 a.m. on July 10, 2023, on a section of a road in Gusu District, Suzhou City, a white unmanned logistics vehicle suddenly accelerated while driving and hit the rear of a red truck parked on the side of the road in front. The operator of the e-commerce platform said: "We apologize for this accident and assume the corresponding liability for compensation." We are also investigating the cause of the accident, which may have been due to a system failure or external interference. ”
The traffic police said: "This is the first time we have encountered such a situation, and we do not yet have a clear legal provision to deal with the responsibility of driverless car accidents." We will judge and deal with it in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the actual situation. Some netizens believe that unmanned driving technology is not mature and reliable enough, and supervision and testing should be strengthened to avoid bringing hidden dangers to public safety. Some netizens said that unmanned driving technology is an innovation and progress, which should be supported and encouraged, as long as the relevant legal system and technical standards are improved, its safety and effectiveness can be guaranteed.
For such issues, many places have issued relevant regulations. For example, in May this year, the Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone (Yizhuang) issued a trial version of the "Implementation Rules for the Management of Unmanned Delivery Vehicles", which stipulates that unmanned logistics vehicles are managed as non-motor vehicles. Huang Daoxiu, a lawyer at Jiangsu Sancheng Law Firm, said that at present, the mainland has not formulated a special legal provision to regulate the liability for driverless vehicle accidents, but the Road Traffic Safety Law should still be applied to unmanned vehicles. In the case of a driverless vehicle accident, if the accident is caused by the driverless vehicle while the driverless vehicle is on autopilot, the vehicle manufacturer or technology provider may be deemed to be the primary responsible party. However, if there is human intervention with the driverless vehicle, such as the driver or maintenance personnel, the primary responsibility may be shifted to it. The actual situation should be compensated according to the "Traffic Accident Liability Determination" issued by the traffic police. "If it involves a civil compensation subject, it is more complicated, if it is a fully autonomous vehicle, if the unmanned vehicle party needs to be liable, the subject of compensation should be the manager or owner of the unmanned vehicle." Huang Daoxiu said that because unmanned vehicles involve public safety, the state should implement an access approval system for unmanned vehicles.
It is understood that Meituan's automatic delivery vehicles will go through a large number of road tests before hitting the road, and constantly improve the relevant algorithms of autonomous driving, and they need to be approved by the local government, traffic police and other departments before they can be put on the road. In addition, the remote safety officer will monitor the operation of the vehicle in real time to ensure the safety of operation. Meituan's self-developed L4 autonomous driving software and hardware technology is the core, relying on cameras, lidars and other sensors to perceive and predict the surrounding environment in real time, and ensure the real-time delivery capability of automatic delivery vehicles in all scenarios through high-precision map positioning and intelligent decision-making planning.
In addition, only if there is no safety officer in the car, it can be considered truly autonomous driving. At present, the law still needs to be improved, and the rights and responsibilities of such automatic delivery vehicles in the process of operation and implementation are defined in detail.
(The picture comes from the Internet)
Unmanned or become the development trend of the logistics industry
In recent years, unmanned technology has developed like never before. From drones to driverless cars to unmanned supermarkets, innovative applications are emerging. McKinsey predicts that by 2025, the annual sales of low-speed autonomous vehicles in Continental will reach 190,000 units, of which 80,000 will be in the logistics and distribution field. According to the World Economic Forum, as global urbanization accelerates, the demand for urban last-mile delivery will grow by 78% by 2030, and the number of delivery vehicles used for the last mile will increase by 35%. As one of the most mature economic countries with the development of new forms of e-commerce and instant retail, the demand for terminal logistics in mainland China has been very strong, and it is expected that in the next few years, the domestic unmanned distribution market is expected to reach hundreds of billions of yuan.
However, with the continuous iterative development of autonomous driving technology, when machines begin to replace humans to work, it is inevitable to raise concerns about whether the development of technology will bring a large number of unemployment. When automatic delivery vehicles begin to achieve large-scale commercialization, where will the takeaway brother and the express delivery brother go?
From the perspective of the impact of the previous industrial revolution on the social labor force, the development of technology will not bring a large number of unemployment, on the contrary, with the emergence of more new things in the future, it will also bring more new employment directions, such as remote safety officers, robot maintenance technicians, etc.
From the interview with Mr. Wenwan and other couriers and takeaway brothers, it can be found that today's unmanned delivery vehicles are more like auxiliary tools for express delivery and takeaway brothers. The little brothers have reduced the work intensity and improved the distribution efficiency, so they still welcome the emergence of unmanned delivery vehicles and are not worried about being "replaced".
A logistics industry insider said that the operation and management of logistics companies are becoming more and more "unmanned", but the end distribution link is still highly dependent on manual work. As the most expensive link in the entire logistics chain, terminal distribution has become the starting point for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Unmanned vehicles are expected to become the fastest choice for reducing costs and increasing efficiency in the entire logistics industry.
From the cost point of view, Mr. Zhang, the person in charge of an express delivery outlet, calculated an account for the reporter, the service scope of an unmanned vehicle covers 3 post stations, an average of 6 times a day, and can process 1,500 express mail per day, with a peak of more than 2,000 votes. When an unmanned vehicle is put into use, the network can save an employee, a 4-meter-2 truck and the maintenance cost of the vehicle, and can save nearly 30,000 yuan per month.
At present, the total investment of the cost of purchasing an unmanned vehicle plus five years of operating expenses is about 200,000 yuan, and many outlets predict that the cost can be recovered within two years. In addition, compared with traditional fuel vehicles, electric unmanned vehicles are more environmentally friendly and reduce carbon emissions, which is in line with the current trend of promoting the development of green logistics. According to Shentong's "2023 Social Responsibility Bill", in 2023, the cumulative mileage of Shentong's network-wide express unmanned vehicles will exceed 150,000 kilometers, reducing carbon emissions by more than 30 tons.
Affected by factors such as manpower, transportation, and policies, the "last mile" has always been a problem for logistics and distribution. According to some data, the cost of "last mile" terminal distribution accounts for almost 30% of the entire logistics cost, and it is often higher in remote mountainous areas. Safety, efficiency and price are the three major factors that promote the acceleration of the era of smart logistics. UAVs solve the "last mile" of distribution in remote mountainous areas, and delivery robots go deep into the buildings in the park to extend the service from the "last mile" to the "last meter". Experts said that the logistics terminal service operation model continues to innovate, and unmanned distribution has become a new trend.
In the long run, under the premise of policies and regulations, the entire autonomous driving industry will gradually realize fully unmanned front-line operations and remote strong monitoring. This trend will also put forward higher requirements for autonomous driving capabilities, information security capabilities, and operational capabilities. (This article will be published in the 10th issue of China Logistics & Procurement magazine in 2024)