Car stuff

Author? |six hairs

Editor? |Xiaohan

In recent times, Beijing Shougang Park has become a high-frequency word in the field of self-driving.

Baidu's first public demonstration of taking out the unmanned cab safety officer took place here; Meituan's unmanned delivery trucks shuttled on the park's open roads; and an unmanned retail vehicle filled with drinks will drive by in front of you when you're thirsty ...

In addition, companies such as Beiqi, Nine Robotics, Ubiquitous, Smart Walker, and Superstar Future have announced they will be Shougang Park to deploy self-driving formations, driverless scooters, intelligent inspection robots, floor sweeping robots and other products.

The whole park has become a big paradise for unmanned vehicles, what's going on behind the scenes?

Shougang Park is an important microcosm of Beijing's industrial process, and is also home to the organizing committee of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, as well as some of the venues.

In order to implement the concept of a "technological Winter Olympics," the Shougang Park has decided to introduce new technologies, such as autonomous driving, to serve athletes and visitors from around the globe during the Games.

What self-driving products will be deployed in the park? What services will they provide? And how far along are these deployments?

Car stuff recently spent a whole afternoon in the Shougang Park, and also talked to the staff of the Shougang Park and various self-driving companies, and got an early peek at the mobility secrets from 2022.

One, twice tied to the Olympics? The old steel mill has become a "paradise" for unmanned vehicles

In 1919, Shougang, the predecessor of China Shougang Group, was born. Since then, every twist of fate in Shougang Park has been y marked by the times.

Shougang began as Shijingshan Ironworks, a self-built ironworks belonging to the Longyan Iron and Steel Company, a government-business joint venture. During the war, the Japanese invasion forces called it the Army Management Shijingshan Iron Works. 1945, Shougang was re-taken over by the national government and changed its name three times, with the new name being Shijingshan Iron and Steel Works.

After the founding of the country, the Shijingshan Iron and Steel Works began to expand, and was reorganized as the Shijingshan Iron and Steel Company in 1958.In 1966, Shijingshan Iron and Steel Company was formally renamed Capital Iron and Steel Company.

The former site of Shougang Park (Source: Shougang Group official website)

Into the modern era, the Olympics became the driving force behind Shougang's direct and indirect transformation.

According to Beijing Shougang Construction and Investment Company Limited (referred to as "Shougang Construction and Investment"), Wang Hongmin, assistant director of the Industrial Development Department, Shougang Park (Shougang's old factory site) and the Olympic Games have been associated with a **** twice.

First, the 2008 Olympic Games to take the right to organize the Beijing determined to improve air quality. So in order to cooperate with the 2008 Olympic Games, Shougang implemented an unprecedented relocation of the steel plant from Beijing to Caofeidian.

Shougang's steel mill relocation route (Source: Shougang Group official website)

The second time was when the Shougang Park and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics tied up.

Shougang Park supports the Winter Olympics in terms of venues and services. The Organizing Committee of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games has moved into Shougang Park (North). In addition, the park has built the Shougang Ski Jump, the official venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and set up four national team training venues for short-track speed skating, figure skating, curling and ice hockey.

Wang Hongmin told the car things, following the "technology winter Olympics" concept, Shougang hope to AI, automatic driving and other new technologies and products applied to the park, for the Olympic Games. 2019 February, Shougang Park was approved by the Beijing Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, began to build the Beijing Intelligent Networked Vehicle Demonstration and Operation Zone (Shougang Park)? , and it is also from this time that a number of self-driving cars have been stationed in Shougang Park one after another.

That's the background to the nine unmanned vehicles (including some intelligent robots) we'll see in Shougang Park at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Two, 9 unmanned vehicles all together? The Winter Olympics has become a practice field for future travel

From now on, there are less than 2 years left before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics. By then, nine models*** counting about 100 unmanned vehicles (including some intelligent robots) are expected to be available to the public in the Shougang Park.

In fact, according to the pace of deployment, by the first half of next year, all nine unmanned vehicles (including self-driving robots) will be ready to move from technical testing to quasi-operational status.

1. Self-driving cabs to provide passenger services

Baidu and Superstar's future self-driving cabs will provide passenger services in the park. Before the end of this year, Baidu will first land two self-driving cabs. Another two self-driving cabs from Super Star Future are expected to land in the park in the first half of next year.

Baidu has conducted a demonstration of completely driverless cabs at Shougang

Now, a number of self-driving stops have been set up inside the park, which will later be open for use by all self-driving cabs in the park. Different self-driving cabs can be called from the same stop.

And if you pay closer attention, you can also find that the stops are now labeled with a "not yet activated" notice. In response to this, Wang Hongmin told the car thing, the park is still in the debugging stage before the official operation of the self-driving vehicles, so the temporary set of stops are labeled "not yet activated" words.

Autonomous driving stop

2, unmanned minibus: no driver bus

In addition to self-driving cabs, the Shougang Park and Baidu will also join hands to land unmanned minibuses. These unmanned minibuses will travel on fixed routes. As far as the product form is concerned, Baidu's driverless minibus a *** there are two generations, the first generation of models within the steering wheel, to the second generation, the steering wheel in the car was taken away. Both models are deployed in the Shougang Park, and are expected to reach a scale of 3 to 5 in the first half of next year.

Baidu driverless minibus boarding and alighting points

3, tour group visits may wish to choose BAIC's self-driving fleet service

If it is a tour group or a business visit, BAIC's self-driving fleet service seems to be a better choice, not only allowing more people to take a ride, but also traveling on routes that are freer compared to unmanned minibuses. According to reports, BAIC's self-driving fleet consists of four vehicles, each of which can accommodate 11 people. Because only the lead vehicle in the fleet is driven by a human driver, it looks, again, a bit like a trackless train and light rail.

4, can "automatically" return to the distribution point of the scooter

The first half of next year, Shougang Park plans to deploy 60 to 70 three-wheeled scooters from Nine (Segway-Ninebot), to provide the public with a service similar to the **** enjoy the bike.

It is reported that unlike Nine's previous two-wheeled scooters, the scooters that landed in Shougang Park have three wheels in one ****. And the reason for this design is to allow the scooter to travel without the help of human power.

Wang Hongmin told the car things, landed in Shougang Park, these scooters can rely on the background scheduling system, remote scheduling after the scooter to return to the distribution point. Thus, in this way, "there can be a relatively even distribution of vehicles at each collection and distribution point in the park."

5, shopping anytime, anywhere: unmanned delivery vehicles and unmanned retail vehicles

What if you are hungry or thirsty on the way to the park? That's when New Rock's unmanned retail vehicles and Meituan's unmanned delivery vehicles come in handy.

Currently, the unmanned retail car from Xinshiqi mainly provides services around the Winter Olympics Organizing Committee venues, the three blast furnaces, and the Xiuchi exhibition hall. If you need to shop, stand in front of it or wave at close range to stop the unmanned vehicle. 2022 Winter Olympics will also be able to buy Shougang's special cultural and creative products from the unmanned retail vehicle.

The unmanned delivery vehicle magic bag is the cooperation with the flash purchase unmanned micro warehouse of the American group, forming the MAI?SHOP in the Shougang Park, the unmanned delivery vehicle is equivalent to help MAI?SHOP to complete the "takeaway delivery work".

During the Winter Olympics, MAI?SHOP plans to set up about 15 sites in Shougang Park, where users can place orders by sweeping the QR code on the site. After placing a successful order, Meituan's unmanned vehicles will use text messages and voice phone notifications to notify them when they depart and arrive at the stations.

MAI?SHOP's "unmanned supermarket"

6, unmanned vehicles, intelligent robots to help park management

Snail Xiaobai from ZhiWangZhong and ATRIS (ATRIS), an intelligent inspection robot from Ubiquitous, will help Shougang Park with park management.

Snail Xiaobai will be responsible for some of the cleaning work in the park. Ubiquiti's intelligent inspection robot ATRIS will mainly replace security personnel to carry out inspections.

It is understood that the intelligent inspection robot ATRIS (ATRIS) can according to the planning line autonomous timed patrol; through the active identification of unfamiliar people, found suspicious people and active alarm. If the next visit to the Shougang Park, you can pay attention to, may also encounter the intelligent inspection robot is patrolling.

The nine unmanned vehicles (including some of the intelligent robots) are expected to be ready for operation in the first half of next year. In addition to these nine unmanned vehicles (including some intelligent robots), Shougang Park is also cooperating with Jingdong on unmanned express delivery. As planned, two to three Jingdong unmanned vehicles will land in the park by the first quarter of 2021 for testing.

Three, field visits to Shougang Park? Unmanned distribution is just around the corner

In fact, do not have to wait until the Winter Olympics, Shougang Park now has part of the unmanned car can be experienced. Car stuff visited the park twice, and completed two consumption with Meituan's unmanned delivery vehicle and New Stone's unmanned retail vehicle, and here's the shopping experience from Car Stuff.

First up is Meituan's unmanned delivery. To use Meituan's unmanned delivery, you need to scan the QR code to place an order at the station set up. Interestingly, Meituan's stations are all named after fruits, on the grounds that it thinks it will be easier for users to remember.

In the Shougang Park next to the famous attraction of the three blast furnaces is the peach station, car things with WeChat scanning the QR code, found that it is 10 yuan from delivery. At that time can choose something limited, the last buy is a bottle of Rio and a box of instant noodles.

Meituan's unmanned delivery station

From the experience of the car stuff, the process of placing an order and paying for it is no different from using Meituan to order takeout on weekdays, and the only thing you need to pay attention to is remembering to write down that it's a peach station on the notes. It didn't take long for the car to receive a text message from Meituan reminding me that delivery had begun and that the pickup code for this order was 960893.

After about 20 minutes, a yellow, unmanned delivery truck arrived. But it didn't stop directly next to the Peach Station site, and the car thing looked at it and thought for a moment that the signal was bad. Later, it was discovered that this was not the case, because after the car was parked, the car things received a call to notify the pickup.

The way to pick up the goods is very "stupid", enter the pickup code, the container door will automatically open. Once the pickup is complete, close the container door and the unmanned delivery truck will go to its next destination (or maybe back).

Watch the unmanned delivery vehicle leave once the shopping is done

Newstone's unmanned retail vehicle, unlike Meituan's unmanned delivery vehicle, is itself the equivalent of a mobile kiosk.

When someone stands in front of New Stoneware's unmanned vehicle, it recognizes and stops automatically. After this, just choose the goods you want from the small screen there on the vehicle, place an order and scan the QR code to pay.

In the cold wind, the car thing still bought a bottle of Fanta. However, I did not think, this unmanned retail car also has a "temperature balance function", get the hand of the drink is not expected so cold.

New stone unmanned retail car

Conclusion: unmanned car park quietly emerging? Autonomous driving landing accelerated

Domestic is quietly set off a wave of "self-driving park" boom. According to media reports, in December this year, the Longling Mountain self-driving theme park in Wuhan also announced the opening of the park. The first of many types of self-driving cars to land and operate in some semi-open and open parks may become a keyword for self-driving in 2021.

Of course, at this stage, whether it's the self-driving cabs traveling on public **** roads or the many types of unmanned vehicles that have been put on duty in parks, they all still need to be polished in terms of technology and operations. Even in the park, it's not perfect yet.

But on the other hand, from the actual results of the car things to explore the park in Beijing Shougang Park, self-driving technology in the park to take the lead in landing, has the feasibility of at the same time can also meet some of the actual needs of the people. This is a positive sign for the self-driving field.

This article was written by the author of AutoNavi, and does not represent the views of AutoNavi.