Shenzhen City Center welcomes the first batch of RoboTaxi, Yuanrong Qixing officially opens for operation

Yunzhong sent this from Aofei Temple
Edited by QuantumBit | Public Account QbitAI

In Shenzhen, what is the most impressive way to go out and make money?

It is no longer possible to get a license plate number to buy a car through lottery, but Shenzhen now has a more "exciting" option.

On July 19, 2021, Yuanrong Qixing officially provided the public with RoboTaxi manned application demonstration services in Shenzhen , allowing Shenzhen residents to hail a car that "goes by itself".

△ "Yuanqixing" applet application interface

It is reported that users can apply for a ride invitation code through the WeChat public account "Yuanrong Qixing DeepRoute". After receiving the invitation code, they can place an order using the mini program "Yuanqixing" to experience the RoboTaxi travel service.

△ Yuan Rong Qixing official account

For this public operation, Yuanrong Qixing deployed 20 RoboTaxis in Shenzhen, covering nearly 100 stations including the core CBD , with a total operating section of more than 200 kilometers.

In April this year, Yuanrong Qixing received the "Intelligent Connected Vehicle Application Demonstration Notice" issued by the Shenzhen Intelligent Connected Vehicle Road Test Joint Working Group, becoming the first company to carry out RoboTaxi manned application demonstration in Shenzhen.

The autonomous driving system equipped in Yuanrong Qixing RoboTaxi has accumulated more than 2 million kilometers of public road testing experience in the core urban areas of three cities across the country.

The sensor kit it uses is only 24.6cm high. Combined with its self-developed multi-sensor fusion algorithm, the system can accurately identify the types of objects within 150 meters around the vehicle.

In terms of planning and control modules, its autonomous driving system can plan routes based on real-time road conditions and control vehicles to drive safely on complex urban roads. Even in crowded and busy urban areas of Shenzhen at night, it can drive with ease.

The trunk of the vehicle also hides a major highlight of this operating vehicle - an empty trunk with a small computing platform firmly suspended in the trunk. The original trunk can still be used for passengers to place their luggage.

△ Use a small computing platform to leave space in the trunk for passengers

Traditional solutions for autonomous driving often use computing platforms with large computing power, volume, and power consumption, and use a "heap-up" approach to solve the large demand for computing resources in deep learning algorithms in autonomous driving. Such computing platforms not only cost tens of thousands of yuan, but also consume hundreds of watts of power.

Assuming the average power of the computing platform is 500W, its 24-hour power consumption accounts for about a quarter of an electric car with a storage capacity of 50kW·h. If a high-power computing platform is used, the car with an original range of 400km will only be able to travel 300km.

Yuanrong Qixing provides another solution in a more elegant way - through its self-developed inference engine DeepRoute-Engine , it reduces the demand for computing resources for deep algorithms. This means that using the Yuanrong Qixing computing platform, a car with an original range of 400km can travel 380km.

In layman's terms, the process of inputting data collected by sensors into a trained deep learning model and processing and identifying objects is called inference.

The inference engine is equivalent to a driver that drives the deep learning algorithm to perform inference. The inference engine customized for the deep learning algorithm can complete inference at an efficiency 6 times that of traditional solutions, reduce the demand for computing resources for deep learning, and support more models of computing platforms.

DeepRoute-Engine currently supports GPUs from brands including AMD, Nvidia, Intel, and Huawei's in-vehicle computing platform. The overall power consumption of the computing platform it uses is only 100 watts, and the computing power is about 70TOPS.

In addition to the full range of black technology, Yuanrong Qixing has also incorporated many local characteristics in its operation. Its operating sites include not only Shenzhen landmarks such as the Civic Center, but also multiple art galleries and museums, shopping centers, and multiple community health centers, covering all aspects of citizens' daily lives. In addition, Yuanrong Qixing will operate on weekends and nights, so that busy office workers can also experience autonomous driving services.

△ Yuanrong Qixing RoboTaxi arrived at the "Great Tide Rising in the Pearl River - Exhibition on the 40th Anniversary of Guangdong's Reform and Opening Up"

△ RoboTaxi provides travel services at night

After this open operation, Yuanrong Qixing will gradually expand the size of its fleet, operating areas and operating hours, explore a more mature commercialization path for autonomous driving, and promote the innovative development of intelligent connected vehicles.

△ Yuanrong Qixing RoboTaxi fleet

Liu Xuan, partner and vice president of Yuanrong Qixing, said: "Yuanrong Qixing will take this trial operation as an opportunity to continue to invest heavily in technological innovation and technology research and development, and use higher-level technology to ensure the safe operation of autonomous vehicles. At the same time, we will also take this opportunity to test and explore the commercialization of RoboTaxi."