Lei Gang from Aofei Temple
Quantum Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

Beijing is making every effort and everything is done in a high-profile manner.

In the last few days of 2019, Beijing frequently released positive news about autonomous driving.

First, a series of tests including L4 passenger, truck and V2X were completed at high speed, and then the manned and cargo test licenses were officially issued.

This means that the countdown to "hailing a driverless taxi in Beijing" has begun.

At present, the first batch of 40 licenses for Beijing's autonomous driving passenger and cargo vehicles have all been taken by Baidu Apollo, which also means that the first vehicles that Beijing citizens will experience will be Baidu's driverless cars.

Previously, licenses for manned and cargo testing had already been issued in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places. Especially in Guangzhou, WeRide and Pony.ai have already started RoboTaxi trial operations.

But now, Beijing is starting to take action.

There was more than one important wind direction event.

China's first autonomous driving platoon test on highway

Initiated by Beijing Capital Highway Development Group Co., Ltd. ("Capital Highway Development Group") and participated by many technology and automobile companies, an unmanned driving test on a Chinese highway was completed.

On the Yan'an-Chongli Expressway (Beijing section), TuSimple, a Level 4 autonomous truck company, and its truck fleet completed China's first platoon following test based on C-V2X vehicle-road collaborative technology in a fully closed highway environment.

In this demonstration, TuSimple, together with BAIC Foton, Shoufa Group, Huawei, NavInfo, etc., achieved a three-vehicle platoon following of an unmanned truck fleet with a total length of 14 kilometers (including a 9.8-kilometer continuous extra-long tunnel section).

The demonstration of platoon cruising, platoon lane changing, platoon synchronized deceleration and parking, and platoon vehicle-road collaboration scenarios was completed by adopting manual driving mode for the lead vehicle and unmanned driving mode for the following vehicles. It can also maintain a 10-meter vehicle spacing at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, realizing a single-person driving platoon of multiple vehicles.

Although not all three vehicles are driverless, this is also one of the envisioned directions for the implementation of driverless freight applications. The early adoption of the rear vehicle following mode can also greatly reduce costs and increase efficiency.

What’s more worth mentioning is that this is also China’s first unmanned driving platoon test on highways, and because it is taking place in Beijing, the significance is self-evident.

Audi and Horizon Robotics jointly conduct L4 passenger car testing

In the same batch of tests, Audi China also completed the first vehicle-road collaborative test in an actual highway scenario, including L4 autonomous driving at a speed of 80km/h and intelligent assisted driving to improve highway driving safety.

Previously, Audi has already established a strategic partnership with domestic AI chip unicorn Horizon in the field of autonomous driving. This test showed the results of the two parties' integrated software and hardware cooperation.

Among them, Horizon provides support in aspects such as perception computing.

Audi is currently a global pioneer in the field of autonomous driving. Although it is slower than Tesla and others, it has the strongest momentum among all major automakers. The Audi A8 is particularly famous for its main autonomous driving function.

Huawei's autonomous driving infrastructure is on the rise

Another important player is Huawei, but Huawei plays an infrastructure role.

As a key demonstration project for the country to accelerate the promotion of smart highway pilot projects, the Yan'an-Chongli Expressway (Beijing section) defined and demonstrated more than 10 key scenarios, values ​​and implementation plans that should be focused on in the first phase of application of vehicle-road collaboration on highways.

For example, forward emergency braking warning, forward accident warning, abnormal intruder warning, automatic lane change and overtaking, automatic deceleration, automatic emergency stop, etc.

Huawei, which has clearly entered the field of autonomous driving, focuses on providing infrastructure.

Huawei has built the Yanchong Expressway into a smart highway by providing roadside perception terminals such as cameras and radars, and C-V2X solutions that include roadside units RSU, roadside computing equipment RSS, and V2X Server.

At the same time, Huawei provides on-board units (OBU) and mobile data centers (MDC) to help complete the L4 autonomous driving demonstration in highway scenarios based on vehicle-road collaboration.

Beijing issues first batch of manned cargo test licenses

Of course, highway testing of autonomous driving seems to be more related to the participating companies.

However, the issuance of test licenses for passenger and cargo transportation means that the countdown to hailing a driverless taxi in Beijing has begun.

On December 30, Beijing announced the official launch of autonomous driving manned cargo testing. The Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone opened an area of ​​40 square kilometers as an autonomous driving vehicle testing area, with a total of 111 roads. Except for sections with concentrated schools, hospitals, and office buildings, the entire area has basically been opened. This is also the first time that the city has opened an autonomous driving vehicle testing area.

The first batch of licenses totaled 40, all of which were taken by Baidu Apollo.

Baidu said that the driverless vehicles approved for manned and cargo testing have accumulated more than 100,000 kilometers of autonomous driving road tests.

According to the detailed requirements, manned and cargo tests must first be tested by internal employees, with a benchmark of more than 100,000 kilometers.

To further carry out manned testing by social personnel, safety tests of more than 500,000 kilometers are needed.

However, based on the number of driverless test licenses Baidu has currently obtained (150 nationwide) and the safety test mileage (3 million kilometers), it shouldn't take long for it to reach the 500,000-kilometer threshold.

Hailing a Baidu self-driving taxi in Beijing may become a reality in 2020.

Will you sign up for the test?