The autonomous driving industry ushered in a wave of discussion at the end of the year. Recently, a number of car companies, including BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have obtained L3 autonomous driving test licenses, which has attracted widespread attention in the industry. The goal of this test is also very clear, "to accumulate management experience based on pilot empirical evidence, support the formulation and revision of relevant laws, regulations, and technical standards, and accelerate the improvement of the production access management and road traffic safety management system of intelligent networked vehicles." ”
At the same time, it can also be found that in the L3 test list, except for AVATR with Huawei background, which is the head camp of autonomous driving technology, the other brands participating in the test cannot actually be regarded as technology heads.
In fact, there are two technical paths for autonomous driving, one is to directly carry out the research and development of advanced autonomous driving technology at Level 4 or above, and the other is to move from Level 2 assisted driving to Level 4 adopted by almost all OEMs. The representative of the former is one of them, because it is empowered by Apollo's autonomous driving technology, and the underlying layer is the L4 algorithm.
Chinese companies are leading the development of autonomous driving, ranking first in the number of patents
Before talking about the landing of autonomous driving, we need to sort out a problem, the L3 level automatic driving test license recently obtained by various car companies, to a greater extent, is towards the "work goal", that is, to carry out a pilot and explore the establishment of a set of L3 system, so it is not directly related to the advanced technology of car companies.
Autonomous driving, as the core differentiation capability of automobiles in the intelligent era, is also the most difficult function of technology. In order to gain a leading position, continuous large-scale investment, heavy technology, and data accumulation are essential. As the "end" gets closer and closer, the internal competition between enterprises will also tend to be white-hot.
In this round of competition, thanks to the rapid development of new energy vehicles in China in recent years, Chinese companies occupy a significant advantage. Relevant statistics show that about 43% of the world's autonomous driving invention patents come from China, significantly ahead of the United States, South Korea and other countries.
From the perspective of specific companies, in 2023, Guidehouse Insights, an internationally renowned research agency, released the latest analysis report of global autonomous driving technology companies, and sorted out a ranking, which has been on the list for three consecutive years and is in the first echelon of the world, along with Waymo, Mobileye and other leading autonomous driving technology companies.
In addition, according to the ranking of global invention patent enterprises in the field of autonomous driving published by China Intellectual Property Magazine**, it ranks first with 3,477 applications, and Toyota, Bosch, Honda, Hyundai and other companies rank 2 to 5. These data can also provide a glimpse into the current landscape of the autonomous driving industry.
Freezing three feet is not a day's cold. Its leadership in autonomous driving is directly related to its early bet on artificial intelligence technology. Since 2010, a large number of layouts have been made in the field of artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence Patents *** 2022 shows that as early as April 2022, the global artificial intelligence patent application exceeded 220,000 patents, of which more than 4,600 are authorized patents in China. Autonomous driving, as one of the core parts of AI capabilities, has also continued to grow in this process.
Apollo is empowered by the full stack, and L4 accumulation helps Jiyue expand its advantages
Based on the early layout of the track, it is now the world's largest driverless commercial operation company. According to the latest data, the self-driving travel service platform Radish Express has provided more than 4 million services.
In January this year, it also signed a cooperation agreement with Wuhan to start large-scale unmanned commercial operation services, build a world-leading unmanned operation area, and further consolidate its advantages. Compared with Huawei, Xpeng, etc., which are also famous for autonomous driving, which are eagerly concerned by the industry, the advantages in industrialization are still very obvious.
As we all know, the business in the field of autonomous driving is named "Apollo", which means the Apollo moon landing program, and it is not difficult to see the ambitions in this field. In October this year, the first smart car Jiyue 01, which is empowered by Apollo's full-stack autonomous driving capabilities, has been officially launched and delivered, which also marks a new stage in the development of autonomous driving.
Backed by Apollo, Jiyue was born with strong autonomous driving genes. Among the many Chinese car brands, Jiyue is the first and still the only car brand to adopt a "pure vision" intelligent driving solution. Compared with the LiDAR fusion solution, the pure vision solution raises the technical ceiling of autonomous driving, but it is also more difficult to develop.
At present, the ultra-high-end intelligent driving has adopted the "pure vision" technology solution of BEV+Transforman, and will soon update the OCC occupation network technology through OTA means. Throughout the world, there are only 2 brands that have achieved mass production of pure vision technology, namely Tesla and Jiyue.
Not only that, Jiyue 01 is also the world's first intelligent car to realize voice-controlled parking outside the car, and it is also the world's first to achieve mass production that can easily cope with unmanned automatic parking in mechanical parking spaces, and it is also the first in the industry to realize the mass production of **P valet parking.
Based on the empowerment of Apollo, Jiyue's pure visual intelligent driving solution can be mass-produced and put on the car in a short time, and it has a very high degree of maturity. Jiyue 01 is the only smart car in the world that relies on a "pure vision" perception algorithm to run through China's complex urban roads with "zero takeover". At present, the core function of extremely high-end intelligent driving, point-to-point pilot assistance PPA, has covered 90% of the country's high-speed elevated highways, and plans to land in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities within this year, and will cover more than 200 cities across the country next year.
With the current rapid advance of L3, it is only a matter of time before L4 is also available. Compared with other companies, JIYUE also has a major advantage - Apollo autonomous driving is positioned at the L4 level of unmanned driving system from the place of technology development, which will help JIYUE expand its intelligent driving advantages in the future and usher in a good opportunity for overtaking.
Considering the difficulty of Level 4 autonomous driving, it requires not only the most cutting-edge technology and massive resource investment, but also the strategic determination and determination of enterprises. In the automotive industry, except for autonomous driving companies and OEMs, almost no company challenges L4 as soon as it comes up, and the usual choice is to gradually move from L2 and L3 to L4.
In the past, autonomous driving was regarded as a dark tunnel with no end in sight, but now, with the promotion of policies and the continuous breakthrough of leading enterprises, the industry is gradually seeing the light. For example, after a long period of cultivation for high-level autonomous driving, it will usher in a fruitful harvest season, and Jiyue will undoubtedly take advantage of this.