Without these "hard cores", autonomous driving can only be a castle in the air

Introduction: In April 2020, Baidu launched a self-driving taxi service in Changsha; in Shanghai, AutoNavi launched a self-driving taxi project; in June 2020, AutoNavi and WeRide launched a self-driving taxi operation service in Guangzhou; in Shanghai, Didi's self-driving online car-hailing service was launched; in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone, Baidu launched a self-driving taxi service. Self-driving is gradually "driving" from the future into reality, giving people more imagination about the future of self-driving.

Without Jordan, Pippen and Rodman, the Bulls dynasty would not have been created;

Without 4G, the development of short videos will be a long way off;

As for today's internet celebrity in automotive technology - autonomous driving, without the three hard-core common technologies of environmental perception, behavioral decision-making, and motion control, autonomous driving will be like a moon in the mirror and a flower in the water, and can only remain in people's imagination.

The eyes of autonomous driving: environmental perception system

Similar to humans driving cars, self-driving cars achieve driving through "eyes" or the environmental perception system, "brain" or the behavioral decision-making system, and "hands and feet" or the motion control system. These three systems lay the foundation for the development of self-driving technology.

As the saying goes, "keep your eyes open and your ears alert". For a car to achieve autonomous driving, it must first be able to see, see clearly, see far, and understand. The environmental perception system collects information about the car's surroundings through various sensors. Commonly used sensors include cameras, lidar, millimeter-wave radar, ultrasonic radar, etc. Since each sensor has its own advantages and disadvantages, sensor fusion technology has become a means of environmental perception. There are currently two mainstream technical routes in the industry. One is the camera-dominated route represented by Tesla; the other is the radar, camera multi-sensor fusion route represented by brands such as Audi and ARCFOX. Nowadays, the second route has been favored by more technology companies, travel companies, and car manufacturers.

Obviously, at a time when there is no major breakthrough in perception technology, the more sensors a car has, the more comprehensive the information it perceives. It is reported that among high-end brands, the NIO ES8 and the upcoming ARCFOX αT are equipped with up to 23 intelligent driving sensors to monitor the actual driving conditions of the road to the greatest extent, safely and sensitively realize a variety of intelligent driving assistance functions, making travel easier and more efficient.

The brain of autonomous driving: behavioral decision-making system

The behavioral decision-making system, the brain of autonomous driving, plays the role of a "co-pilot", predicting behavior and planning driving routes based on information about the vehicle's surroundings. For example, if the software believes that the lane ahead is closed due to construction and predicts that the electric car in the lane will move, the decision-making system will make a decision to slow down or make room for the electric car in advance.

Obviously, algorithms and computing power will be the key technologies to test the decision-making system, which is why many automakers have joined hands with technology companies such as Huawei and Baidu. It is understood that high-end smart brand ARCFOX and Silicon Valley technology company visionICs have established a joint autonomous driving laboratory to jointly develop the next generation of autonomous driving systems, and its upcoming ARCFOX αT will also be equipped with Huawei's new generation MH5000 5G chip T-BOX with a chip computing power of 352TOPs (352 trillion operations per second) to help smart travel.

The hands and feet of autonomous driving: motion control systems

Compared with perception and decision-making, the current motion control system mainly includes the familiar auxiliary automatic driving functions such as automatic braking, automatic steering, automatic parking, and automatic following. Nowadays, these auxiliary automatic driving functions have evolved from the technical research stage to the product landing stage. The leading automakers have achieved remarkable results in this field. Audi, Volvo, Tesla, ARCFOX and other new and old brands have successively launched mass-produced models of nearly L3 level. The relevant person in charge of ARCFOX Research Institute recently revealed that the L3 function of automatic driving will be first realized on the high-end smart brand ARCFOX. After four years of polishing, ARCFOX is obviously ready for battle in the autonomous driving car market.

The wind starts from the tip of the green reed. Whether autonomous driving can go forward steadily depends on technological progress. In the future, with the development and application of technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and big data processing, especially the support of 5G network technology, autonomous driving technology will become more mature. With the help of a series of policy combinations, the prospects of the autonomous driving market will be broader.