Overview of this article: On August 1, China's first intelligent networked vehicle management regulations came into effect in Shenzhen, and Shenzhen became the first city to allow fully unmanned autonomous vehicles on the road. This policy has encouraged people in the industry, and the dawn of L3 autonomous driving has begun to appear.
The implementation of the new regulations shows that China's intelligent networked vehicle market is entering a key node from gradual change to sudden change, from quantitative change to qualitative change. But while actively embracing the window period, car companies can't help but realize that there is still a long way to go for autonomous driving, from the industrial chain to road security, from business models to standardized standards.
1. Policies break the ice, and automatic driving officially lands
2. The industry is perfect, and the road test guarantee is the first
3. The standard is vague, and the business model still needs to be explored
The era of L3 autonomous driving in China has come.
The promulgation of the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Intelligent Networked Vehicle Management Regulations" is a booster for the entire intelligent networked vehicle industry - the first city in China that expressly stipulates that L3 level autonomous vehicles can be on the road has appeared. With the development of Shenzhen In the future, more cities will also introduce supporting regulations to promote the development of the entire industry to a higher level of autonomous driving.
But the implementation of the policy does not mean the improvement of the industry. On the contrary, the test of the car companies has just begun: how to dance in shackles in the scope of the policy, how to ensure the operation of autonomous driving roads and regulations, and how to get through the business model of intelligent networked vehicles?
Policies break the ice, and autonomous driving officially lands
Legal and policy support is the prerequisite for the commercial operation of autonomous driving. The "Management Regulations" issued by Shenzhen is the first relevant law on autonomous driving in China. Legal guidance may bring a new dawn for the commercialization of L3.
The promulgation of the "Management Regulations" provides standards and templates for the L3 autonomous driving access policy.
First of all, the "Management Regulations" provides legal permission for smart cars to go on the road for the first time.
After being listed in the National Automobile Product Catalog or the Shenzhen Intelligent Connected Automobile Product Catalog and obtaining relevant access, the intelligent connected vehicles can be sold; registered with the traffic management department of the public security organ, they can be driven on the road; with the permission of the transportation department, they can Engaged in road transportation business activities.
Secondly, the "Management Regulations" clarified the core difficulty in autonomous driving: responsibility determination.
The regulations point out that if a traffic accident occurs and one party of the intelligent networked vehicle is responsible, the driver of the vehicle shall bear the corresponding liability for damages; , can recover from the producers and sellers of intelligent connected vehicles.
That is to say, as long as the L3 automatic driving system is turned on, the driver will always be the first person responsible for violations or accidents of one's own vehicle.
In addition, the "Management Regulations" also specifically set up a chapter on "Network Security and Data Protection", which encourages the sharing of data information, communication networks and other resources of the collaborative infrastructure of vehicles and roads, except for data related to national security, public security, and personal information. .
The legal guarantees at the above three levels have clarified the three major issues of intelligent networked vehicles on the road, responsibility determination, and information security, providing institutional guarantees for the implementation of intelligent driving.
After the legislation first, Shenzhen has become the first city of L3 and above autonomous driving.
Shenzhen has opened about 145 kilometers of test roads, and has issued a total of 93 road test and demonstration application notices, including 23 manned demonstration application notices.
At present, there are more than 800 companies related to autonomous driving in Shenzhen. In addition to industrial chain giants such as BYD, Huawei, and DJI, there are also emerging stars in the field of autonomous driving, such as Yuanrong Qixing and Shudongzhijia, which have also attracted Baidu and Pony.ai. , WeRide and other companies that develop autonomous driving business have landed in Shenzhen.
It can be seen that the loosening of policies and regulations can promote the implementation of intelligent networked vehicles. Taking Shenzhen as a pilot, the country is expected to form an emerging industrial form with deep integration of industries such as automobiles, electronics, information communications, and road transportation with intelligent networked vehicles as the core.
The industry is perfect, and the road test guarantee is the first
The smooth operation of self-driving cars requires not only institutional green lights, but also road green lights, so that "smart cars" and "smart roads" can develop synergistically.
Since smart cars are highly dependent on data information, every judgment and decision made is closely related to road conditions and real-time conditions. Smart cars and smart roads need to cooperate closely to jointly ensure travel safety under new technologies. Therefore, it is urgent to promote the construction of intelligent networked road facilities and continuously improve the informatization and standardization of road infrastructure.
On June 10, 2022, the "Vehicle-road Collaborative Autonomous Driving Intelligent Networked Road Classification Standard" officially passed the preliminary review. further improvement.
At present, my country's single-vehicle intelligent driving is in the transitional stage from L2 to L3, and smart roads are also in the pilot stage. Vehicle-road coordination is expected to be launched on a large scale in China in 2030, and it is roughly estimated that the domestic market will reach trillions.
Organically linking the "people-vehicle-road-cloud" traffic participation elements together is the goal that vehicle-road collaboration needs to achieve.
At present, the coil, microwave, geomagnetic, video and other technologies on the road have been able to collect information such as intersections, expressway traffic, vehicle speed, queuing, detention, number plates, and violations. However, roadside information and vehicle perception are relatively independent, and the perceived information will not be shared with other parties. This independent perception will cause local information duplication and local information blank.
A number of car companies and communication operators are actively promoting vehicle-road collaboration, and have launched layouts for communication chips, communication modules, and communication base stations.
Focusing on hardware, data, algorithms, and high-precision maps, Huawei has built a set of data-centric open platforms that cover the entire life cycle of autonomous driving data, models, training, simulation, and labeling. Together with the intelligent hardware platform and the intelligent driving OS, the cloud service constitutes the MDC intelligent driving platform with car-cloud collaboration.
The combination of "human-vehicle-road-cloud" can, on the one hand, promote the improvement of the vehicle-road coordination system; on the other hand, it can further promote the development of autonomous driving in the direction of low cost, high efficiency, and low delay, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements for transportation productivity.
Accelerating the construction and trial operation of smart roads is the direct driving force for the implementation of vehicle-road coordination.
Led by the Bureau of Transportation, Shenzhen has formed an intelligent networked vehicle road test joint team with multiple departments to promote the implementation of autonomous driving. Subsequently, Tencent obtained the first autonomous driving road test license in Shenzhen, and the world's first 5G+autonomous driving large-scale application port also landed in Shenzhen.
The Shanghai government has made even greater strides, and dedicated lanes for autonomous driving have already appeared in practical application scenarios. On July 8 this year, the two-way outermost lane No. 3 of Donghai Avenue was set as a special lane for automatic driving, and the special time period was set from 10:00 to 13:00 on weekdays. Penalties are stipulated in the ordinance of special lanes.
The standard is vague, and the business model still needs to be explored
Legal and policy support is the prerequisite for the commercial operation of autonomous driving, but commercialization is not a matter of course.
The gradual liberalization of laws and regulations will become a touchstone for upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain to verify autonomous driving capabilities. For autonomous driving companies, focusing on landing scenarios, achieving mass production and commercial revenue is the best way to prove its feasibility. Commercial alchemy stone.
From the perspective of car companies, the emerging autonomous driving companies currently have stages with different levels of autonomous driving and different hardware configurations. Since there are no public certification standards and certification information to dispel the doubts of passengers, passengers' judgment on the safety of autonomous driving is still relatively vague, and their willingness to take unmanned autonomous vehicles is not high.
From the perspective of certification, there is no detailed standard certification specification for the certification and testing of autonomous driving capabilities in China, and it is difficult for mutual recognition of certification between regions.
For example, the Wuhan government has announced a detailed commercialization implementation rule: To apply for a commercialization pilot, you must obtain more than 20 road test licenses nationwide, complete 200,000 kilometers of road tests and 100,000 kilometers of demonstration applications.
However, this commercialization standard is not unified by the country. It is still unknown to what extent this standard can be supported by consumers, car companies, and even the national legislative level.
Taking a step back, even if the technical and safety standards are resolved, the extensive business model and information asymmetry are the real shackles for smart car companies to be accepted by the market.
At present, most of the business models of autonomous driving companies choose the most popular Robotaxi. This business model has not formed a standard charging standard in the industry. Most of them still use their own apps or small programs to define charging standards. Offers, such as coupons, free orders, etc., to attract users.
From price wars to differentiated operations, from self-pricing to formulating detailed rules for charging standards and pricing methods to avoid chaos in charging differences... These are the only ways for the long-term development of autonomous driving. Obviously, the industry is still in its infancy.
Of course, there are also companies that are at the forefront and have taken the lead in running through the commercialization model of intelligent driving.
Data show that Carrot Kuaipao provided 287,000 rides in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of nearly 500%. As of July 20, 2022, the cumulative order volume of Carrot Run has reached 1 million orders, making it the world's largest autonomous driving travel service provider. In August of this year, Carrot Run started fully unmanned commercial operations in Chongqing and Wuhan. Baidu became the first and only company in China to provide fully unmanned autonomous driving travel services to the public on open roads.
It can be seen that although the policy has been liberalized, considering the imperfect regulatory environment, the cost of consumer acceptance and the feasibility process of the business model, the commercialization of L3 autonomous vehicles still faces considerable challenges.
It is foreseeable that the high-level autonomous driving track will usher in increasingly fierce competition with the continuous relaxation of regulations. For enterprises, strengthening relevant technical capabilities and doing a good job in testing and verification have become the top priority.