The text 丨「Master Li」
图片丨「来自网络」
The epidemic has not yet been completely resolved, but the seriousness of the situation has been greatly alleviated, and the number of people who have been cured continues to rise. On the one hand, most of the infected areas have quickly regained order after the initial chaos and started to implement strict epidemic prevention measures; on the other hand, it is the people from all walks of life who are on the front line of the epidemic **** with the same efforts.
And the recent increase in the number of new cases in various provinces and cities is a great improvement compared to the previous period. This is the result of the contribution of each and every one of us: home telecommuting, online cloud classroom, reducing the number of people going out and a series of behaviors to reduce contact with people, to a large extent, to curb the continued spread of the virus.
In the midst of these efforts to reduce human contact, Master Li noticed a piece of technology that, while despised by many on a regular basis, has shone in the midst of the epidemic. It is autonomous driving, an in-vehicle technology that has received mixed reviews. Even Tesla, which is currently the furthest along in this field, continues to perform beautifully at some points, not to mention other car companies that have come along behind Tesla.
The biggest reason for this dissatisfaction is that the actual experience of self-driving cars is still far from ideal, and not only doesn't allow for relaxation, but can also keep drivers in a state of high stress.
All kinds of self-driving vehicles show their skills
Powering the front line of epidemic prevention
But in the fight against the epidemic, self-driving vehicles are not only on the front line, but also play a significant role. As of Feb. 20, unmanned vehicles from nine companies, including Huawei, Jingdong Logistics, Meituan, Yicheng Innovation, XingShen Intelligence, Xin Shiqi, Candela, ZhiWangZhi, and White Rhinoceros, have appeared in the city of Wuhan alone.
These driverless vehicles, which work in specific areas, are mainly responsible for transporting medical supplies, takeaway courier delivery, and cleaning and disinfecting. For example, the 5G unmanned vehicles jointly developed by Huawei and Dongfeng Motor can also transport medical personnel, while the intelligent delivery vehicles developed by Jingdong Logistics are among the first batch of unmanned vehicles to be put into use in Wuhan.
Wuhan's Ninth Hospital has admitted a large number of confirmed patients, and any transporters delivering supplies to the hospital would be at great risk. So, 600 meters from the hospital Jingdong Logistics Wuhan Renhe station, assumed the ninth hospital medical supplies distribution work, according to the data released by the Jingdong side, there are currently 10-20 orders per day from the ninth hospital in Wuhan supplies orders, of which 50% -70% of the orders are unmanned vehicles for distribution.
In addition, in the epidemic areas of Shandong Province, "Quafu" driverless logistics vehicles, responsible for the urban market delivery of vegetables, each car can be distributed 1500 pounds of vegetables and fruits on a single trip; new stone company's unmanned distribution vehicle, in Beijing, Xi'an, Shenzhen and other places of public **** place responsible for the distribution of masks; The "Smart Walker" unmanned cleaning and disinfecting vehicle is responsible for indoor and outdoor cleaning work in many places; the unmanned delivery vehicle of Meituan has appeared in the delivery of takeaway orders in many cities across the country.
After this campaign
Driverless may usher in a golden period of development
While the idea of autonomous driving has long been around, but it is limited by technical maturity, cost, laws and regulations and other reasons, as of the end of 2019, most of the models on the market are equipped with automatic driving functions that belong to the L2 level only, and the functions they show are still a big gap between them and the ideal fully automated driving. There is still a big gap. So much so that self-driving technology is ignored by many people on weekdays, and even resisted for safety reasons, and only a small number of people are willing to spend an extra amount of money for it when purchasing a car.
But I believe that in this epidemic, the sense of security that these self-driving vehicles bring to people can make many people's concept of self-driving technology change; and clearly realize that self-driving is not limited to the private car field, it is a new technology that can change our lives in every aspect.
In addition, last year, the official commercialization of the "5G" mobile network, also predicted that 2020 will be a year of self-driving technology blowout, such as the epidemic in the attitude of perseverance to switch to the production of masks SAIC-GM-Wuling, which in July last year, China Mobile, Huawei and other communications giants signed a strategic cooperation agreement, in the C-V2.1 and C-V2.2, the automobile industry, the automotive industry, the automotive industry and other industries, the automotive industry, the automotive industry, the automotive industry, the automotive industry and the automotive industry. Cooperation agreement, in C-V2X and 5G network pilot in-depth cooperation; in the driverless, SAIC-GM-Wuling also with Harness Technology to carry out project cooperation operation and commercialization exploration.
Simply put, Baojun has already put the planning of automatic driving in the more distant unmanned field, and it is utilizing the "higher bandwidth, lower latency" 5G network to develop the real sense of "unmanned" technology.
Not only is Baojun choosing to make an effort in the field of automated driving, even the relatively conservative Japanese automaker Toyota has recently begun to layout in the field of automated driving. On Feb. 25 this year, Toyota injected $400 million into Chinese self-driving startup Pony.ai, making it the largest single financing in China's self-driving field.
Given that Pony.ai launched its Robotaxi open road regular operation in Guangzhou back in 2018. By the end of 2019, the company's driverless cars had accumulated more than 1.5 million kilometers in open road tests. And one of Ponywise's test platforms is a Lexus RX model, at which point Toyota's injection of capital becomes highly portentous.
Recall that when SARS hit in 2003, the online shopping industry was booming; will self-driving technology soon become the new wave of the next few years, fueled by the epidemic?
Self-driving is definitely the "new wave," but it has a long way to go. While many self-driving test vehicles are already on the open road, and with the expansion of 5G network coverage, there is a hardware foundation for self-driving technology in the form of "vehicle-to-circuit" (V2X) collaboration. However, subject to urban infrastructure renovation and sensor costs, as well as autonomous driving laws and regulations and ethical and moral standards, in the next few years, low-speed unmanned vehicles for indoor services and logistics and distribution, most likely to be the first large-scale application; and driverless cars carrying people Well ...... Let's just be honest and practice our driving skills, shall we?
This article comes from the authors of AutoNews, and does not represent the views of AutoNews.