Author | Wei Qiyang
Source | Insights New Research Institute
"Two years and three years are too short, and eight years and ten years have too many variables to see clearly."
In five years, a person can complete one advanced study, one job transfer, or more than one promotion.
In five years, we can master a skill that we can get close to, or complete a systematic knowledge reserve in an academic field...
Five years also means that we can think about whether it is possible to persist in doing a valuable thing well, and even make it to the extreme.
Five years is just the right time to pass the "next stage" of life and enter the "next stage".
It took exactly five years for Xiangjiang Intelligent to complete the forging of the core competitiveness of Changsha's intelligent network industry through the "life increment" bit by bit.
Looking forward to the next five years, under the guidance of the global R&D center city strategy, Xiangjiang Smart and Changsha Smart Connected Industry have new goals and tasks.
1. The Xiangjiang River is rushing, and the intelligent network industry has imprinted Changsha
When Changsha decided to develop the ICV industry in 2016, the industry had just started, and the direction of the industry was mainly research and development. Most of the major autonomous driving companies demonstrated their technical capabilities through road tests of unmanned vehicles, drawing a blueprint for the future. At the same time, enhance the confidence of capital and society in the industry.
In this regard, Changsha has no representative companies, and there are no particularly good targets for attracting investment from other domestic cities. After the argumentation of the decision-makers, the entry point for breaking the game is to target the pain points of the industry's research and development and lack of a test environment for self-driving unmanned vehicles. Xiangjiang Smart-led, build a high-standard test area, and build a smart car industry ecology from scratch in the way of "building a nest to attract phoenixes".
Later, when the industry developed to the point where it needed to go to open roads to further polish its technical capabilities, it was still under the leadership of Xiangjiang Intelligent, and completed the construction of the "two hundred" projects in 2019 (100 square kilometers of urban open roads and 100 kilometers of open roads) Wisdom Expressway) completes the "vehicle-road-cloud-network-map" infrastructure required for industrial development, and grabs Robotaxi's first place in China.
It was also at this time that Changsha formed a development pattern in the industry of " starting in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and landing in Changsha " because of its leading position in the scene .
Up to now, Changsha has become the only one in the country holding four national licenses (National Intelligent Networked Vehicle (Changsha) Test Zone, National Vehicle Networking Pilot Zone, National Intelligent Networked Vehicle Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, National Smart City infrastructure and intelligent networked vehicles collaborative development pilot cities) cities.
Entering 2023, the fifth year since the establishment of Xiangjiang Intelligent, the momentum of rapid development of Changsha's intelligent networked automobile industry remains unabated.
First of all, in terms of industrial competitiveness, Changsha is still one of the industry benchmarks. In May of this year, in the report "Comprehensive Evaluation Index and Best Practices of Urban Intelligent Connected Vehicle Industry Development (2022)" jointly compiled by the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center and other industry associations, Changsha was not only on the list, but also ranked quite well. High, in the first echelon of urban intelligent networked vehicle competitiveness.
Secondly, in terms of scenes and policies, Changsha strives to open up new boundaries. In addition to the test and trial operation of Robotaxi in the urban road scene, the "Notice on the Implementation Rules for Road Test and Demonstration Application Management of Intelligent Connected Vehicles in Hunan Province (Trial)" also clarified the relevant rules for expressway testing.
In April this year, the Changsha City Joint Working Conference agreed in principle to release the Changsha City Functional Unmanned Vehicle Management Measures, which has pushed the implementation of functional unmanned vehicles a big step forward at the policy level.
Taking advantage of this favorable policy, Xiangjiang Intelligent Vehicle Company, a subsidiary of Xiangjiang Intelligent, quickly launched a batch of intelligent sanitation vehicles, which were successfully delivered and put into public places such as Baxi Island and Meixi Lake Art Center for commercial operation.
Finally, in terms of industrial cultivation, the performance of ecological enterprises is extremely eye-catching. A group of enterprises including Liwei Zhongtian, Mozhibi, Nanoradar Technology, and Changsha Hisense Intelligent System Research Institute were recognized as provincial-level enterprise technology centers in Hunan; Xidi Zhijia became one of the few unicorn enterprises in Hunan , has been selected into the lists of "2022 Forbes China's New Unicorns" and "2023 Hurun Global Unicorns".
Obviously, Changsha's intelligent networked automobile industry has grown from scratch, from a chaser to a top competitor, and then to the first camp. In the connected automobile industry, Changsha will definitely occupy a place.
It must be noted that China's ICV industry is in a leading position in the world, which to a certain extent represents the development status of the industry in the world, while Changsha is in the lead in China, and has become the epitome of China's industry at the micro level.
2. The industry has undergone tremendous changes, and the only thing that has not changed is the thinking of industrial development
The five years have changed a lot, and the focus of each stage is different, but Changsha's industrial thinking is always the same, focusing on the direction of R&D and innovation, insisting on the underlying foundation and platform services.
One of the most typical cases, in the early stage of Changsha's industrial development, it started from "building a nest to attract phoenixes", and built a high-standard testing area around the needs of the industry's R&D and testing.
In just over a year, it attracted Baidu, Tencent, Huawei, JD.com, CRRC, Continental, Bosch, etc., and giants of different research directions in the autonomous driving industry. There are more than 300 key affiliated companies of Netlink Auto, and Changsha has established a very active industrial ecology in a short period of time.
Today's Changsha is growing by "building (new) nests to attract phoenixes". A Xiangjiang Intelligent Network Industrial Park with an investment of about 200 billion yuan is under construction in full swing.
According to the plan, the Industrial Park is a natural R&D center and pilot test base, as well as an industrial incubator, consisting of the Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Park, Smart Connected Innovation Park, Smart Connected Acceleration Park, Smart Connected Manufacturing Park, Smart Connected Service Park, Smart Agricultural Science and Technology Park, Digital Rongcheng Demonstration Park consists of seven "gardens within gardens".
Relying on the industrial park, Changsha and Xiangjiang New District will be able to further flexibly use relevant policies to build an industrial fund platform, a testing service platform, a data integration and sharing platform, an innovation transformation platform, and an off-site dual recruitment platform for the intelligent networked automobile industry. Consolidate the industrial foundation, lengthen the upstream and downstream chains, and provide new driving force for the intelligent networked automobile industry.
Taking a closer look at each stage of Changsha's industrial development, we can find that the "nest" in the past was a test area, but now the "nest" is an industrial park; Commercial operation is the goal; in the past it was a test environment, but now it is an industrial carrier.
It has changed a lot, but its core remains the same, that is, R&D-oriented, with platform construction as the starting point, to provide all-round services for ecological enterprises and R&D talents.
Taking the two major landmark projects of Changsha's industrial development, the test area and the industrial park, as a whole, the intelligent network is a strategic emerging industry. Before the technology is applied on a large scale, R&D and testing are the focus of industrial development. Therefore, the overall framework of Xiangjiang Intelligent is tilted in the direction of the research and development platform.
The high-standard test area is actually a R&D verification and R&D test platform. Its function is to serve the R&D center. It is constantly upgraded around the test area to meet the needs of R&D progress and industrial development. This has also become the source of industrial ecological vitality. one.
The industrial park under construction now has simultaneously built an incubator for the intelligent network industry park. After being awarded the provincial incubator, it is still applying for a national incubator. In the process, it also included many elements such as pilot test, test, and fund.
In this way, Xiangjiang Intelligent focuses on the R&D service platform with one hand and the industry incubation platform with the other. Driven by two wheels, it has formed a closed loop of "research-study-production" that conforms to the development law of emerging industries.
With a good platform, industrial development will show vitality and competitiveness.
Now entering the Xiangjiang New District, what we see is a three-dimensional industrial ecology. Among them, Changsha Intelligent Driving Research Institute, Changsha Automotive Innovation Research Institute, and Schaeffler Greater China Second R&D Center have initially formed a tripartite confrontation. With the construction and development of Xiangjiang Intelligent Connected Industrial Park, an intelligent connected R&D center cluster area is about to be formed, and the agglomeration effect is highlighted.
In terms of support for R&D and innovation, Changsha keeps pace with industrial development with continuous innovation , upgrades the functions and scenarios of the test area, builds the first demonstration area for innovative application of intelligent networked vehicles in China, and enables the first intelligent network in China. Lianhe expected functional safety test base, released the world's first smart car evaluation system "smart car confidence" based on dangerous scenes such as rain and fog...
In addition, further refinement of the "Xiangjiang New Area Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Application Demonstration Zone Action Plan (2022-2025)", and the work of covering the entire Hunan Xiangjiang New Area with fully unmanned and all-weather self-driving taxis are also in progress .
Finally, to make a summary, the reason why Changsha’s intelligent networked automobile industry was able to complete the transformation in five years is that its strategy is:
In terms of strategy, through various policy planning, etc., to guide the development of the industry in a directional way;
Tactically, through platform construction, infrastructure construction and other service guarantees, the self-reliance of ecological enterprises will be promoted, thereby building an extremely solid barrier to competition, and at the same time establishing Changsha's industry position in the intelligent networked automobile industry.
3. How should we look at Changsha in the next five years?
If we take five years as a unit, when we do industrial planning, we often think about how the industry will change in the next five years?
Today, Changsha has proposed the strategy of building a "global R&D center city". Obviously, Changsha's intelligent networked automobile industry has a new goal and direction for the next five years.
There was Shenzhen in the front and Hefei in the back. Through the deployment of cutting-edge technology in advance, these two cities have achieved a catch-up in emerging industries. The foothold of building a world R&D center city lies in R&D, but its deeper intention is to achieve industry leadership and value realization through R&D.
In fact, taking the opportunity of building the Xiangjiang Intelligent Connected Industrial Park, Changsha’s intelligent connected automobile industry has accumulated a three-dimensional and full R&D ecology, including:
The second R&D center of Schaeffler Greater China mainly focuses on research and development of steering systems, chassis business, and mechatronic solutions;
CRRC New Energy Vehicle Research Institute, which focuses on the key core technologies of new energy vehicles;
Jilin University Changsha Automobile Innovation Research Institute with the main goal of building a vehicle development platform, simulation platform and test platform;
Relying on the public service platform for R&D and verification of common technologies of ICVs, the ICV National Inspection Center and Central China R&D Base provide R&D and verification services for ICVs;
Changsha Intelligent Driving Research Institute founded by Professor Li Zexiang, a well-known entrepreneurial mentor;
Relying on the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacture of Automobile Body, Lizhong Automotive Safety R&D Headquarters has achieved technological breakthroughs in advanced auto parts...
In the R&D ecosystem established in Changsha, there are Fortune 500 companies, new R&D institutions, and leading companies in the industry. With these ecological companies as the main body, an "innovation forest" has formed within the intelligent networked automobile industry, converging to Together, they become an industrial label of Changsha.
Of course, the development of Changsha’s intelligent networked automobile industry will not stop here. In the planning of Xiangjiang Intelligent, in the future, it will advance simultaneously in the three aspects of breakthroughs in key basic technologies, research and development of core components, and improvement of the testing and evaluation technology system to create a global The research and development center of the urban intelligent network connection research and development cluster area has become the core of the core.
In this process, Xiangjiang Intelligent will focus on promoting the Zhilian R&D Center, cultivating an industrial service platform, linking scientific and technological innovation resource collaboration, promoting the empowerment and upgrading of industrial clusters, boosting the application and transformation of R&D results, and attracting the return of Xiangjiang Intelligent Network. The Lianhe Industrial Park has built a comprehensive platform integrating intelligent network technology research and development, industrial incubation, investment and financing, and talent services, providing good policy support, scientific research and development and production environment for intelligent network related enterprises, and creating intelligent and networked intelligence The network industry cluster area promotes the industrial transformation and upgrading of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan.
What will finally be displayed before our eyes will be Changsha, the largest unmanned, all-weather demonstration application and commercial operation in China, and Xiangjiang Smart will grow into an industrial incubator operator with technical strength and heritage.
The picture has been drawn. What needs to be reminded is that from R&D innovation to industrial explosion and then to implementation, it is a process of accumulation from quantity to quality. Before the industrial value is revealed, do not act too hastily or give up halfway.
Follow the law of industrial development, step by step, be a friend of time, and wait for the flowers to bloom.