In 2019, car companies have been talking about autonomous driving for a year. However, most of the current mass-produced cars can only be equipped with L2 level driving assistance systems, which is far from the expected autonomous driving scenario. . For many people, autonomous driving is actually a very distant technology. This is because in actual applications, autonomous driving is restricted by too many fields. It is possible for a certain technology in any field to fall into a bottleneck. As a result, the development of autonomous driving has fallen into a bottleneck.
However, during this epidemic, there is no shortage of "autonomous driving" technology appearing in many areas. Maybe it's in the corridors of the hospital, maybe in the scenes of various streets and communities, or even more maybe at a certain express delivery station. These figures either take on the heavy responsibility of delivering supplies, deliver express delivery to residents, or silently disinfect the streets. It can be said that it is the appearance of these figures that enables our "zero contact advocacy" to be better implemented.
Unmanned logistics transport vehicles?: Express delivery and food delivery are not a problem.
Unmanned logistics transport vehicles, as the name suggests, are driverless vehicles that can transport materials. However, due to current technology, these vehicles have limitations in terms of load capacity, route planning, and speed. For example, in the Wuhan epidemic area, unmanned logistics delivery vehicles launched by JD.com are responsible for transporting medical supplies, such as masks and protective clothing, between hospitals. The daily delivery volume is between 10 and 20 orders. At the same time, some JD Logistics drones are also carrying out delivery work in rural areas such as Hebei, Shaanxi and Jiangsu.
In addition to supplies and express delivery, the postal "Hanma" unmanned delivery vehicle also appeared in Wuhan, which can well undertake the delivery tasks within the area of ??Xiantao Municipal Government and directly affiliated units. It is reported that this type of car can deliver nearly a hundred pieces of mail a day, which is more efficient than manual delivery. The delivery person only needs to sort the mail and newspapers and put them into the vehicle, and the vehicle will complete the delivery along the established route.
At the same time, similar technology applications have emerged in other urban areas. For example, in Shandong, unmanned logistics vehicles have appeared, responsible for transporting fruits and vegetables between communities and supermarkets, with a transport capacity of up to 1,500 kilograms per trip. In hospitals or isolation points in many provinces and cities in Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hubei and Zhejiang, there are many delivery robots that deliver medicine, deliver meals and recycle medical waste.
Unmanned special vehicles?: Cleaning and disinfection are easy
If the advantage of logistics transportation vehicles is to avoid contact between people, then the following will be mentioned This type of driverless vehicles are mainly used in public services. During the epidemic, in Futian District, Shenzhen, a black and gray unmanned sanitation sweeper with green reflective paint officially came on duty. It is reported that this vehicle is sufficient to replace sanitation workers in outdoor cleaning work, including sweeping, watering, and garbage collection.
At Shanghai Zhangjiang Artificial Intelligence Island, Baidu Apollo’s ecological partner Neolithic also put self-driving disinfection vehicles into practical use. This type of self-driving disinfection vehicle can carry 160L of disinfectant and perform self-propelled spray disinfection at a speed of 5km/h. The spraying range covers 3-5 meters. Currently, similar self-driving disinfection vehicles are in use in Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangxi, Wenzhou, Wuhan and Guangzhou.
In addition, in some first-tier cities’ stations, airports and other large public transportation places, self-driving cars responsible for temperature measurement, broadcasting and remote visual command have appeared. The functions undertaken by this type of car are relatively simple, and there have been similar application cases before, but in this epidemic, they are undoubtedly more useful.
Autonomous driving during the epidemic may change the pace
Before this epidemic, we always believed that autonomous driving should serve the private car field. However, during this epidemic, some simplified applications of autonomous driving have appeared in many fields. From the actual effect, the tasks of such autonomous vehicles have been completed quite beautifully. I believe that the development of autonomous driving will continue in 2020. A major breakthrough may occur.
At this stage, achieving L3 or even L4 level autonomous driving in closed places is no longer a dream. It is precisely because of this that these self-driving cars can move from closed test sites to real sites without leaving home, and take on tasks in various fields.
It can be seen that when the path planning is reasonable and the road environment is good, the actual application scope of autonomous driving may be wider than we imagined.
Currently, in some cities such as Guangzhou, there have been cases of driverless taxi operations. Although these taxis are still in the demonstration operation stage, considering that the use scenarios of taxis are more complex, they have not yet been used. Widely popularized. But within some communities, companies, or government agencies, can similar self-driving vehicles for delivery, transportation, and cleaning be widely popularized? From the current point of view, this possibility is actually not small.
The SARS epidemic in 2003 made everyone aware of the convenience of e-commerce. You can "buy everything" without leaving home; and after the new coronavirus in 2020, who else can Will the industry develop rapidly? I dare not say that autonomous driving will flourish through this. After all, compared to the business operation model of e-commerce, autonomous driving technology is a complex system engineering that involves more aspects. But I believe that after this battle, autonomous driving technology will definitely usher in new development directions and application directions.
(Picture source from the Internet, infringement and deletion)
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.