[? Billion euro guide? ]? Within three years, the pilot scope of automatic driving in limited scenes will be expanded on a large scale.

Author Zhang Nan

Editor Yang Yaru

Under the epidemic, the concept of "nobody" unexpectedly ushered in the first light of 2121.

In the days when people were forced to "stay at home", the short video of unmanned vehicles helping the epidemic quietly became popular in Tik Tok. On the screen, an unmanned delivery car with the Logo of "Jingdong Logistics" came and went freely in Jilin Street, Qingshan District, Wuhan. After crossing the intersection of Jianshe No.2 Road, the goods were finally delivered to Wuhan No.9 Hospital smoothly. ?

In addition to JD.COM, many enterprises, such as Gaoxin Xing, Yushi Technology, Zhixing, Neolithic, etc., have also participated in this power-assisted competition. Under the background of "national anti-epidemic", their unmanned vehicles are providing disinfection, food delivery, logistics, temperature measurement and other services to local residents in Wuhan and even major cities and hospitals across the country. This also marks the first time that unmanned disinfection vehicles, unmanned sweepers, unmanned delivery vehicles and other models have truly entered the lives of ordinary people. ?

Many netizens commented: Technology changes life. However, the reason why unmanned vehicles that have been "fried" for a long time can provide services at key nodes is largely because the above vehicles are self-driving vehicles with limited scenes, with lower speed and simpler surrounding environment.

the so-called limited scene is a specific area with geographical constraints. At present, the working scenes of unmanned vehicles serving epidemic areas are all closed/semi-closed areas such as hospitals and communities, and the frequency of abnormal situations is less. As for some applications on public roads, it is also due to the scarcity of vehicles and pedestrians during the epidemic period, which is theoretically close to the semi-closed scene of the park. Another fact is that the delivery distance of unmanned vehicles driving on public roads, such as Jingdong Logistics Car, will not be too long (hundreds of meters). All these factors give unmanned vehicles a good opportunity to "show their talents".

On the other hand, the timely application of self-driving cars under the epidemic situation also highlights the rapid development and landing possibility of this technology. Nowadays, autonomous driving technology in limited scenes such as ports, parks, airports, mining areas and parking lots is gradually maturing, and it is in the middle stage of pilot operation and commercialization. Its initial pilot operation can be traced back to two years ago.

Looking back at the node in 2121, Yiou Automobile believes that autonomous driving in limited scenes will enter a new development stage within three years.

New development opportunities

According to past impressions, most people think that autonomous driving is a proper term for passenger cars: tap on the mobile APP, and an unmanned car will come in a moment to carry passengers to their destination automatically. This is not only the understanding of self-driving cars in most people's minds, but also the future vision of RoboTaxi's overweight layout in the capital market. ?

however, when the capital market environment tends to be severe, the bottleneck of RoboTaxi's own development gradually appears-it is difficult to realize the technology, and it will take a long time for real profit, so its popularity will naturally decrease. According to Yiou Automobile's observation, in the past year, the financing events and financing amount in the field of RoboTaxi generally decreased. On the contrary, many enterprises in the field of automatic driving with limited scenes completed a new round of financing last year, including enterprises focusing on mining scenes such as Huituo, Tage Zhixing, Xidi Zhijia, and Yikong Zhijia, as well as enterprises applying mainline technology and Neolithic tools in ports and parks.

the attitude of capital reflects the market prospect of the industry and the commercialization hope of the enterprise. "Automated driving needs to be combined with scene applications." Chen Long, CEO of Huituo, once said to Yiou Automobile. Chen Chaozhuo, vice president of Zongmu Technology, also said in the Beijing Internet of Vehicles and Intelligent Driving Forum in 2117 that the maturity of automatic driving should be analyzed from two dimensions: automatic driving classification and Geofence. In his view, the automatic driving technology in the scene with no/few people and low speed can mature earlier. This is the remarkable feature of automatic driving in limited scenes.

compared with the open road scene, there are fewer kinds of vehicles and pedestrians in the limited scene, and the dependence on sensing devices such as laser radar is reduced, so the overall cost of the autonomous driving solution is reduced. At the same time, due to the slow driving speed of self-driving vehicles in limited scenes, their decision-making pressure is also reduced. If something goes wrong during driving, the vehicle can pull over in time to enhance driving safety.

in addition, due to the geographical constraint of the limited scene, the range of abnormal situations encountered by self-driving cars is relatively controllable, and extreme cases (corner? Case) is less, which reduces the difficulty of technology research and development. Therefore, compared with more open road scenes, autonomous driving technology will mature faster in limited scenes and will be the first to usher in commercialization.

At present, enterprises such as Mainline Technology, Tage Zhixing, Huituo, Zhixing, Yushi Technology, Neolithic, etc. have all achieved pilot operation in mining areas, ports, airports, parks and other scenes. Through communication with people in the industry, Yiou Automobile believes that the pilot scope of this scenario will be expanded in the next three years, and it will be commercialized in about five years.

Standing in the future, three changes

With the limited scene autopilot gradually moving from pilot to commercial operation, related enterprises will also change accordingly. Yiou Automobile learned through exchanges with many industry professionals that the current limited scene autonomous driving is on the eve of commercialization, and the focus of competition among related enterprises will shift from technology to operation in the future. ?

first of all, the cost of parts in the autonomous driving industry will be further reduced, and the supply chain will be further mature. At the CES in early 2121, the self-driving lidar was called "a hundred flowers blossom" and became a highlight of the exhibition. Sagitar Juchuang, Radium Smart, DJI, Wo Sai Technology and other enterprises have displayed their latest products. At present, many companies have lowered their prices to around $1,111 while stabilizing their performance. In order to maintain accuracy and safety, limited scene autopilot still needs the assistance of laser radar, and the low cost and high performance of this necessary kit for unmanned vehicles will complement the commercialization of autonomous driving. ?

in addition to lidar, a suitable drive-by-wire chassis is also the basic kit to realize automatic driving. With the development of technology, the role of self-driving drive-by-wire chassis as an independent supplier began to become clear around 2118. Under the limited scene of automatic driving, low-speed electric vehicle companies and passenger car companies are trying to enter the market. At the same time, some robot companies are also making corresponding attempts.

Secondly, in the process of evolution to large-scale pilot application, vehicles with limited scene autonomous driving will be closer to the product state-stable performance, relatively low cost, strong scene replication ability and good combination with the operating platform. These four points are also considered by the industry to be the key factors for autonomous driving. Automated driving solution providers will focus on technology development and pay more attention to the operation and service capabilities of enterprises.

"Don't expect autonomous driving technology to solve all the problems. Some problems that technology can't solve can be solved through operation." Xia Tian, CTO of White Rhino, once told Yiou Automobile. Compared with the open road scene, the extreme case (corner? Case) is relatively rare. During the actual road test and trial operation, the machine can collect problems in time, learn solutions in the shortest possible time, and so on, its ability to cope with abnormal situations can be increased. ?

in order to increase safety, most self-driving companies that focus on limited scenes are equipped with remote takeover systems for vehicles. With the disappearance of jobs such as delivery clerk and logistics driver, new jobs such as automatic driving remote receiver, automatic driving operator and automatic driving platform administrator will appear. ?

at the same time, the competitive situation of autonomous driving enterprises with limited scenes will also shift from technical competition to operational competition, in order to meet the needs of users to the greatest extent.

Editor: Yang Yaru

This article comes from the author Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.