Beijing's self-driving cars enter 'high-speed zone'

Guo Yujing reports from Beijing

In recent years, with the continuous advancement of "new infrastructure", Beijing has accelerated the construction of autonomous driving infrastructure, constantly promoted the landing of new unmanned applications and new scenarios, and gradually entered the innovation stage of unmanned rental, unmanned distribution, and high-speed trial.

First high-speed test of autonomous driving approved

A few days ago, the Beijing high-level automatic driving demonstration zone promotion working group announced that it will first open the Beijing section of the Beijing-Taiwan Expressway (fifth Ring road - Sixth Ring road) two-way 10 kilometers of road testing verification, allowing the first batch of enterprises to obtain the highway test notice to carry out pilot tests.

The release of the policy marks the beginning of the country's autonomous driving road tests. It is understood that Beijing will gradually open six 143km expressways and urban express sections in the future, which are the Beijing section of Beijing-Tianjin Expressway, the Beijing section of Beijing-Taiwan Expressway, the Beijing Daxing International Airport Expressway, the South Fifth Ring Road connection section (Daxing Airport Expressway - Beijing-Tianjin Expressway), the South Sixth Ring Road connection section (Daxing Airport Expressway - Beijing-Tianjin Expressway), and the Daxing Airport North Line expressway.

The opening of high-speed autonomous driving test scenes in the policy pilot zone is a microcosm of Beijing's efforts to create a good business environment for the development of autonomous driving. In September 2020, Beijing set up the world's first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone with the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone as the core, and demarcated an area of about 60 square kilometers. In April this year, on the basis of the demonstration zone, Beijing set up the first intelligent connected vehicle policy pilot zone in China to implement moderate advance innovation in management policies and promote the acceleration of automatic driving in multiple scenarios.

It is worth noting that Beijing's unmanned delivery vehicles have also begun to "hold a certificate." In May this year, the first batch of unmanned delivery vehicles that obtained the "right of way" officially hit the road. In Nanhaizi Park in the southeastern suburbs of Beijing, unmanned delivery vans with ID codes slowly drive up, and visitors complete the selection, payment and pick-up of goods through the shopping screen on the vehicle, whether it is a lunch box heated at 65 degrees Celsius or a ice cream frozen at minus 18 degrees Celsius, within five seconds.

In the past, because unmanned delivery vehicles are a new product in the development process of the autonomous driving industry, management is in a blank area, and it is difficult to obtain a legal identity on the road. In this regard, the policy pilot zone has formulated product application standards and management methods for unmanned delivery vehicles, and issued vehicle codes for unmanned delivery vehicles for many head enterprises, giving unmanned delivery vehicles the legal right of way for the first time in China.

Jiang Guangzhi, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said that at present, the intelligent network car product form is new, technology iteration is fast, the existing management system is difficult to meet the development needs of enterprises, and the development of the autonomous driving industry needs policy innovation to support and promote the good development of the industry.

Policies to accelerate the development of the industry

In recent years, domestic autonomous driving technology has made significant progress, while favorable policies are also being released.

In February 2020, the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation and Development Strategy" document issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Central Cyberspace Administration, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other departments proposed that by 2025, intelligent vehicles with conditional autonomous driving will achieve large-scale production and highly autonomous intelligent vehicles will be marketized in specific environments.

The reporter found that from 2012 to 2020, China has introduced a number of intelligent transport-related support policies, focusing on strengthening the top-level design of intelligent connected vehicle research and development, providing opportunities for autonomous driving change.

The intensive introduction of policies not only paints a beautiful blueprint for intelligent transportation, but also provides a basis for Beijing to promote road testing and actively shift to demonstration applications and operations.

A self-driving taxi starts to carry passengers near Daoxianghu Road in Beijing's Haidian district on Oct 14, 2020. It is reported that the total length of the autonomous taxi test area opened this time is about 700 kilometers, covering dozens of stations such as Yizhuang, Haidian, Shunyi life circle and business circle.

In addition, Beijing also takes Yizhuang New City as the core area, deploying various intelligent connected vehicle application scenarios such as unmanned retail, unmanned distribution, and unmanned inspection.

Kong Lei, deputy director of the Management Committee of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, said that focusing on the demonstration application of automatic driving innovation, the construction of high-level automatic driving demonstration zone in Beijing will be divided into four stages, and the construction of each stage has been successfully completed, which basically realizes the coordination of the five major systems of "vehicle, road, cloud, network and map", and the system construction of net-connected cloud-controlled automatic driving solutions in China. The external service capability of vehicle-road coordination system has been improved.

Autonomous sanitation vehicles improve working efficiency, intelligent networked buses automatic cruise, autonomous micro-cycle shuttle vehicles to solve commuting problems... In the future, under the innovation of Beijing high-level autonomous driving Demonstration Zone, 20 new application scenarios will gradually land, bringing more convenience to citizens' lives.

Effectively and safely promote the implementation of application scenarios

As autonomous driving ushered in a new stage of development, how to efficiently and safely promote the landing of a variety of applications and scenarios has become a common direction for all parties to explore.

At present, Beijing is also gradually improving the relevant standards.

Among them, the road safety of unmanned delivery vehicles has been concerned. Since the existing policy does not stipulate whether "unmanned delivery vehicles" belong to motor vehicles or non-motor vehicles, Beijing will start from the actual situation when formulating the policy, refer to non-motor vehicles for management, and standardize the size, load, speed, power and other technical and detection indicators of unmanned delivery vehicles, and its safety is also designed according to the vehicle regulation level standard. This undoubtedly lays the foundation for the next development of autonomous driving.

Jiang Guangzhi said that in the recent open highway automatic driving test scenario, Beijing has issued a number of safety management policies and safety measures. For example, in the process of highway testing, the test vehicle needs to be equipped with front and rear accompanying cars in three stages, and each stage needs to be audited before the accompanying cars can be removed. In addition, in principle, the test vehicles should carry out road tests in the designated lanes of the highway, and the relevant test roads should set up a variety of warning signs to give warnings to the mixed social vehicles.

Kong Lei said that under the guidance of the national innovation policy, Beijing high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone has officially entered the 2.0 stage of network cloud control technology exploration, and the future will focus on the implementation of five special projects of "strong cloud, road expansion, networking, joint vehicles, and map" to achieve the goal of accessing thousands of high-level autonomous vehicles and serving 10,000 networked vehicles. At the same time, we will actively promote the full coverage of roads in the core areas of automatic driving, build 100 network cloud control intersections, achieve traffic light networking and joint control in the 48 square kilometers core area, and provide more testing and demonstration space for automatic driving enterprises in larger areas and more scenarios.

Shanghai autonomous driving drives the digital transformation of the city

Reporter Wang Chenyang reports from Shanghai

With the city's digital transformation, Shanghai's autonomous driving industry continues to "lead" in the country.

In May this year, Shanghai became one of the first pilot cities identified by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for the coordinated development of smart city infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles.

At the end of July, Baidu ApolloPark officially opened in Shanghai International Automobile City, covering an area of nearly 10,000 square meters. This is the third intelligent network ecological base created by Baidu in super first-tier cities in China after Beijing and Guangzhou.

It is understood that Shanghai Baidu ApolloPark will build an intelligent network cloud control command platform with the core of "vehicle-road-cloud-graph", making it a command center for unmanned operations, a research and development center, and a multi-source sensor fusion calibration center. At the same time, Shanghai Baidu ApolloPark will also focus on the three major ecosystems of industry, developers and education, establish a cutting-edge product display center, an industrial cooperation platform, a developer ecological community and a science education base, and gather advantageous ecological resources.

At present, Baidu ApolloPark can realize data connection and user connection, which greatly accelerates the deployment of large-scale fleets and the scale of road network expansion, testing and operation, and promotes the rapid accumulation of data and closed-loop iteration. After the opening of Baidu ApolloPark in Shanghai, the deployment of Apollo autonomous driving vehicles in Shanghai will gradually expand to more than 200 units, becoming the largest autonomous driving fleet in East China, and achieving high-density operation in the Jiading area of Shanghai.

Due to the excellent policy environment for autonomous driving research and development, Shanghai has always been a highland for the development of the autonomous driving industry: In 2015, Shanghai International Automobile City was approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to establish the first national intelligent connected vehicle pilot demonstration zone; In June 2020, the demonstration application of intelligent connected vehicles in Shanghai entered the scale stage; In September 2020, the Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle public Data Center was officially unveiled, further promoting the data agglomeration and development of the autonomous driving industry in multiple ports.

Multiple landing application scenarios are another advantage of Shanghai's autonomous driving development.

In July this year, the technology innovation enterprise UISei Technology and the international chemical giant BASF cooperation, by UISei technology independent research and development of unmanned logistics vehicles in BASF Shanghai Pudong Science and Technology Innovation Park (BASF Pudong base) officially put into operation services, for the transport of raw materials and related products to and from the warehouse and equipment.

Liu Guoping, general manager of BASF Pudong, said: "Autonomous driving can avoid the operator's operational risks in extreme weather and harsh environments, and this digital innovation makes the base's operations safer."

According to the plan of the two parties, the driverless logistics vehicle will be used as an integral part of the intelligent manufacturing of the BASF Pudong base to achieve seamless docking with the existing production and scheduling systems and improve the intelligent logistics level of the base.

Clearly, autonomous driving and smart transportation are feeding back into the digital transformation of industrial production.

Not only that, Shanghai's local autonomous driving technology companies are also accelerating their "going out". For example, Xijing Technology, whose company name is derived from the place name of Shanghai, has brought autonomous driving to countries and regions along the Belt and Road.

In the port of Lam Chabang, Thailand, the artificial intelligence collection card mixed terminal built by Xijing Technology and the port company has been fully put into commercial operation, and has realized the simultaneous operation of manned and unmanned collection cards, which can support the team's continuous real ship operation for more than 24 hours. In West Asia, at COSCO Shipping Khalifa Port II Terminal in ABU Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, West Well Technology opened a new model of autonomous commercial "generation operation" of Q-Truck fleet, that is, charging according to the actual volume of containers operated. In this way, not only reduce the user's early procurement funds, promote the rapid landing of automatic driving products, but also help Chinese enterprises better manage overseas projects, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and improve operational safety.

The development of autonomous driving is inseparable from the soil of the overall ecology, and it will also promote the development of smart cities in the reverse. For example, Baidu's Apollo ecosystem has gathered more than 210 car companies, hardware and software suppliers, universities, developers and other relevant partners. Robin Li, chairman of Baidu Inc, said that from a broader perspective, intelligent transportation systems are a microcosm of future digital city operations. "We are familiar with the operator model for airports, high-speed rail, telecommunications networks, but we don't have operators for digital cities at the moment," he said. With new infrastructure such as AI, we are confident that we can further contribute innovative solutions to the digital transformation of industry and cities."

CAI Jun, a first-level inspector of the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, said that Shanghai will continue to carry out the construction of smart roads in the future, transform from artificial experience decision-making to intelligent data decision-making, change passive management response to active intervention and prevention and control, implement a new generation of holographic sensing and intelligent control of smart roads research and pilot, and gradually promote to the Yangtze River Delta integrated radiation range of highways.

"Shanghai will continue to build a domestic leading vehicle-road collaborative vehicle networking, actively promote the construction of an open road test environment with complete risk levels and perfect test scenarios, and explore open urban expressways, expressways and other road test scenarios; Promote the application of vehicle-road collaboration technology to support the adaptability of autonomous vehicles in complex road conditions." CAI Jun said.

At present, Shanghai is comprehensively promoting the digital transformation of the city, and is at the forefront of improving the digital level of automobile products, travel services, and operation systems. In the future, Shanghai will also accelerate the digital transformation of transportation, focus on the comprehensive coordination of vehicles, roads and networks, and the overall layout of technology, facilities and scene operation to help build urban intelligent transportation.

Guangzhou autonomous driving mixed pilot to promote large-scale application

Reporter Wang Haoming reports from Guangzhou

On a sunny morning, if you are walking along the Pearl River, you will be able to find a car with "big eyes" on the top of your head passing by you, there is no one in the driving seat, but the steering wheel is automatically rotating...

This is not a futuristic fantasy of science fiction, but a reality that happens every day in Guangzhou.

A few days ago, Guangzhou announced the launch of autonomous driving hybrid pilot, marking China's largest car production city to the large-scale application of autonomous driving has taken a key step.

Promote the integration of autonomous driving into urban transportation

Earlier, the reporter sat in the passenger seat of a self-driving taxi, and experienced driving about 10 kilometers in the test section, and felt that the steering of the self-driving taxi was relatively smooth, acceleration and deceleration were very smooth, and the recognition of traffic lights, motor vehicles and pedestrians was also very accurate and fast. Although there was no driver in the cockpit and safety officers sat in the back, the whole process did not make reporters nervous.

Of course, the reporter's self-driving car also became the focus of the entire road, after all, for many people, driverless cars are still a new thing. However, Guangzhou is determined to integrate autonomous vehicles into urban transport by 2025.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Guangzhou Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, with the large-scale application of self-driving cars, the complex environment of self-driving cars and human-driven cars will exist for a long time. By 2025, Guangzhou will complete a multi-dimensional, comprehensive and large-scale urban traffic test with different proportions of mixed traffic environments, different participation levels of vehicle and road collaboration, and a variety of new travel services in five stages.

In order to support the hybrid test of autonomous driving, Guangzhou City issued two policy documents: Opinions on the Policy of gradually testing the application Demonstration operation of intelligent Connected Vehicles (autonomous driving) in different mixed environments by different regions First, and Work Plan for the application Demonstration operation of intelligent Connected Vehicles (autonomous driving) in different mixed environments. On the basis of the current development of the intelligent connected automobile industry, the pilot of autonomous driving will be launched.

According to the two documents, in the first phase, the introduction rate of intelligent connected vehicles (autonomous driving) in the mixed pilot area will be between 1% and 10%, the number of deployed or no more than 500 units, and the second phase will start after 180 days without active safety incidents. In the final fifth phase, the introduction rate of intelligent connected vehicles (autonomous driving) will reach 40 to 50 percent.

In other words, if the trial goes well, by 2025, in the mixed pilot areas of Nansha and Huangpu districts, nearly half of the vehicles on the motorway will be autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous driving is already available at scale

One day in June, a Robobus, a driverless minibus from Wenyuan Zhixing, crossed the Hedong Bridge and entered the closed and controlled area of Liwan District in Guangzhou due to the epidemic. Epidemic prevention and living supplies are unloaded from the vehicle, and the unmanned vehicle returns immediately after elimination, and enters the sealed area again after being fully loaded. It is understood that the driverless minibus worked for more than 12 hours that day, delivering about 9 tons of supplies to residents in the closed management area.

The person in charge of the Guangzhou Bureau of Industry and Information Technology said that from May to June, Guangzhou Wenyuan Zhixing, Small Horse Zhixing, Baidu Apollo, GAC Group and other car companies are actively participating in the delivery of materials in the epidemic closed and controlled area, helping the closed and controlled area to build the "last kilometer" and "last 100 meters" channel of material distribution supply and demand. More than 20 autonomous vehicles and more than 30 unmanned logistics delivery vehicles have been dispatched, and more than 260 tons of materials have been distributed.

The person in charge said that the actual combat is undoubtedly a technical actual test of automatic driving enterprises, and also confirmed that automatic driving technology has the maturity of large-scale demonstration application.

Guangzhou's ability to turn autonomous driving from science fiction into reality comes from its long-term accumulation and pioneering trials in the intelligent connected automobile industry.

Guangzhou is one of the three major automobile cities in China, not only has the world's top 500 automobile manufacturer GAC Group, but also attracted the entry of science and technology innovation enterprises such as Xiaopeng Automobile, Pony Wisdom, Wenyuan Zhixing and Baidu Apollo (Apollo).

Since December 2019, Guangzhou has carried out pilot operation of autonomous taxi (online taxi) in Huangpu District and Nansha District respectively, and in a year and a half, the cumulative operating mileage has been nearly 1 million kilometers, the service number has been nearly 100,000, and the active responsibility accident has been zero.

At present, Guangzhou has issued a total of 127 intelligent connected vehicles under the 10 test enterprises such as Wenyuan Zhixing, Pony Zhixing, Baidu Apollo, GAC Group, and so on, to carry out different types of road, passenger, remote and truck testing work on the relevant sections of the pilot area that has been opened. Up to now, the total safety mileage of Guangzhou autonomous driving enterprise road testing has reached 2.55 million kilometers, and has achieved zero accidents.

Behind the smart car is the smart city

In February this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice to support Guangzhou to create a national artificial intelligence innovation and application pilot zone, of which intelligent connected vehicles are one of the most important industries. Subsequently, the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Overall Technical Specifications for the Construction of Guangzhou Vehicle Networking Pilot Area" and the "Technical Specifications for V2X Cloud Control Basic Platform of Guangzhou Vehicle Networking Pilot Area" in March, guiding the construction of a standardized, standardized and scientific development system for the vehicle networking pilot area.

It is worth noting that in Guangzhou, smart cars are not "fighting alone", behind the entire smart city construction. In Guangzhou, a total of 12 municipal departments including industry and information technology, transportation, public security, justice, housing and construction, urban management, and emergency response participated in the test.

In May this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Notice on Determining the First Batch of Pilot Cities for the Coordinated Development of Smart City Infrastructure and Intelligent Connected Vehicles, identifying Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Wuxi as the first batch of pilot cities.

In the same month, the Guangzhou Municipal Government issued the Work Plan of Guangzhou to Further Accelerate the Construction of Smart Cities and Comprehensively Promote Digital Development, supplemented by a list of 18 key projects, clarifying the key construction tasks of Guangzhou in the fields of information infrastructure, unified support platform, urban services, industrial support, and urban governance in the next three years. To build a smart city of Guangzhou that integrates digital government, digital economy and digital society with high standards, and build a "smart city" with classic charm and vitality of The Times.

The "Plan" proposes that Guangzhou will explore and build a new city-level unified iot perception platform on the basis of the existing relatively complete iot perception infrastructure, integrating sensing units such as camera, radio frequency, sensing, remote sensing and radar, and establishing a "heaven, earth and air trinity" urban ubiquitous perception network. Through the city's "breath" (such as urban ecology, environment), "pulse" (such as urban traffic flow, people flow, logistics, energy flow), "body temperature" (such as: Urban social life and government affairs, people's livelihood services) and other vital signs, real-time, comprehensive and objective situation awareness and comprehensive monitoring, research and judge the trend and law of urban operation, timely discover the potential operational risks of the city, and promote the fine governance of the city.