Autonomous driving has gradually entered the market. How far are we from autonomous driving?

Since Didi entered the autonomous driving industry, it has attracted a lot of attention and received mixed reviews. This time, the autonomous driving manned application demonstration project has already started the warm-up stage. Everyone can sign up through the Didi App to take a test ride in an autonomous driving vehicle in the test area.

Compared with the Lincoln MKZ, BYD and other models used in the past, the Volvo XC60 used in this autonomous driving manned demonstration project is more in line with commercial needs in terms of technical support. It is equipped with nearly 20 sensors, including 1 64-line laser radar, 2 16-line laser radars, 7 cameras, millimeter-wave radar and ultrasonic radar. In order to adapt to various weather requirements, Didi has made improvements to the packaging of this vehicle, adopting a style that is closer to front-mounted deployment, and even thoughtfully installed a wiper on the forward-facing camera to ensure the recognition rate of the camera in rainy and snowy weather.

To ensure safety, passengers need to apply for a vehicle through the Didi App and get on and off at fixed points. A safety officer is assigned to each vehicle to take over the vehicle when necessary, and a safety escort center is set up to provide remote assistance when necessary. Due to heavy rain on the day of the test, there were two short takeovers during the 2-hour test ride, but the overall driving process was relatively smooth.

In recent years, Shanghai has made great achievements in the deployment of autonomous driving. As early as June 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved the construction of the first "National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Shanghai) Pilot Demonstration Zone" in China in Shanghai International Automobile City. In the test area, steep slopes, tunnels, brick and stone roads, grass roads and other roads were built to meet the testing needs of test vehicles. The demonstration area has provided more than 1,600 days and 10,000 hours of testing services, providing a complete testing environment for nearly 100 domestic and foreign companies.

On March 1, 2018, Shanghai issued the first batch of open road test licenses for intelligent connected vehicles. As of now, the open roads available for intelligent connected vehicle testing have reached 53.6 kilometers, providing nearly 1,580 test scenarios, and 5G full coverage has been achieved on the test roads, involving different types and levels of roads, allowing test vehicles to adapt to various environmental requirements. In September of the same year, Didi obtained the first batch of Shanghai intelligent connected vehicle demonstration application licenses, which can carry out autonomous driving manned tests.

On August 5, 2019, Didi announced that it would upgrade its autonomous driving department into an independent company focused on the development of autonomous driving, product applications and other related businesses, which shows how much importance Didi attaches to autonomous driving.

Autonomous driving has gradually entered the market, allowing ordinary people to enjoy the improvement brought by technological development, but the real popularization of autonomous driving still needs to go through many tests, and the road is long and difficult, and there will also be opportunities brought by the continuous change of technology. However, autonomous driving is still the direction of future development. This Didi test ride indicates that autonomous driving technology is becoming increasingly mature in China, and it also marks the opening of a new chapter for autonomous driving in China.