This newspaper (chinatimesnet.CN) reporters Liu Kai and Yu Jianping report from Beijing.
In 2023, the automotive industry will "roll" for a whole year, from ** to configuration to marketing, etc., which has become the focus of competition between car companies. By 2024, the automotive industry will extend the tentacles of "volume" to intelligent driving.
A reporter from China Times saw in Tianyancha APP that a few days ago, Guangdong Guangqi Kaitou Autonomous Driving Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) was established, with a capital contribution of 11RMB 300 million, the executive partner is Guangzhou Yingpeng Private Equity ** Management *** under GAC Group, and its business scope is to engage in equity investment, investment management, asset management and other activities with private placement.
Car companies have increased investment
With the development of new energy vehicles, the penetration rate has continued to double, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has reached 35% in 2023, which also means that kinetic energy conversion has entered an inflection point. In this regard, Guotai Junan said in the latest research report that the penetration rate of China's smart electric vehicles is moving from a period of 40% rapid growth to a mature period of 80%, at this stage, the proportion of conservative customers of electric vehicles has become larger, and the transformation has become more difficult.
In this context, various car companies have also begun to increase investment, launch corresponding software and hardware solutions for intelligent driving, and accelerate testing. In addition to opening a new joint venture, the reporter learned that after GAC Group obtained the L3 autonomous driving road test license in December last year and was allowed to carry out tests on designated high-speed roads in Guangzhou, in January this year, GAC ADIGO Pilot intelligent driving has started full-scene road tests including highways, urban expressways, and urban roads.
The reporter learned that GAC ADIGO PILOT intelligent driving can realize "city + high-speed" NDA intelligent navigation assistance. On urban roads, urban NDA can not only cope with complex scenarios such as protected left turns, autonomous U-turns, ramps merging into the main road, going straight at traffic lights, and detouring obstacles at "T" intersections, as well as complex situations such as missing and blurred lane lines, but also seamlessly switch with high-speed NDAs, and realize automatic on-ramp and off-ramp, autonomous lane change, autonomous switching of high-speed, and high-curvature curve traffic on highways and urban expressways.
Talking about the follow-up development trend of new energy vehicles, Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aion, told the China Times: "In the future, GAC Aion will continue to adhere to the leading strategy of technological innovation and focus on the core areas and key technologies of EV+ICV." In terms of EVs, GAC Aion aims to achieve mass production of all-solid-state batteries in 2026. In terms of ICV, GAC Aion will vigorously promote leading intelligent driving technology in all models of Aion and Haobo dual brands, accelerate the implementation and popularization of cutting-edge intelligent driving technologies such as L3 and urban NDA, and plan to land urban NDA functions in April, and strive to achieve L4 intelligent driving in 2025. ”
In addition to GAC Group, at the beginning of 2024, BYD, Leap, Chery, and VOYAH will also focus on promoting the development of intelligent driving. Among them, BYD demonstrated its intelligent driving technology and follow-up planning at the Dream Day. It is understood that BYD will launch more than 10 high-end intelligent driving models in 2024, and will invest 100 billion yuan in the field of intelligent driving. "To accelerate the intelligent transformation of the automotive industry and accelerate the popularization of intelligent driving, BYD has the confidence and ability. Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD Group, said that BYD has made full preparations in high-end intelligent driving, through full-stack self-developed intelligent driving technology and the integrated manufacturing strength of the whole industry chain, BYD can greatly reduce the experience threshold of intelligent driving for users, and in the future, high-end intelligent driving will become the choice of BYD's more than 200,000 models and the standard configuration of more than 300,000 models.
On January 22, VOYAH announced a strategic partnership with Huawei on intelligent driving solutions. Ping An**'s research report pointed out that today, the VOYAH brand has a certain brand awareness, and it is expected that the strategic cooperation with Huawei's intelligent car solution will be similar to the cooperation model between AVATR and Huawei, and the two sides will join forces to improve the intelligent level of vehicles.
Increased user acceptance
While car companies continue to increase investment, the user experience is also improving. "After using intelligent driving, I can never forget this feeling. The owner Li An (pseudonym) told the "China Times" reporter that during the Spring Festival, driving home, from Beijing to Xuzhou, Jiangsu, a distance of 700 kilometers, after turning on assisted driving, as long as he controls the steering wheel, the vehicle will automatically identify the lane, keep the distance between cars, and do not have to step on the accelerator and brake all the time.
Before I experienced it, I saw that the Internet said how good intelligent driving is, and I felt that I was bragging, after all, I felt that the computer was not as safe as a human to operate. However, after using it, it was found that intelligent assisted driving has a safe distance, and it will automatically brake when it encounters the brake of the car in front, and it will also give way to the vehicle that changes lanes, which feels safer than human operation. Ang Lee said.
Mr. Wang, who lives in Handan, Hebei Province, also has the same feeling as Ang Lee, who told reporters that intelligent driving is definitely a good assistant when driving on the highway. When you set up the navigation while driving, the vehicle will drive according to the navigation route, and you can automatically merge lanes, get on and off the brakes, and control the speed. "However, it is still necessary to hold the steering wheel to prevent accidents, and if the steering wheel is not held properly, the system will sound an alarm and then stop the driver assistance function. ”
From this point of view, intelligence has been recognized by more and more consumers, which also provides impetus for car companies to continue to increase their weight. At the same time, policies are also supporting the implementation of intelligent driving. Among them, in terms of high-end intelligent driving, in August 2023, the ** departments of Chongqing and Wuhan took the lead in releasing the pilot policy for the commercialization of autonomous driving, and then expanded the scope to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities. In November of the same year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Intelligent Networked Vehicle Access and Road Access, which put forward requirements for accelerating the promotion and application of intelligent networked vehicle products and ensuring the safe operation of intelligent networked vehicle products.
According to the reporter, up to now, more than 30 provinces (municipalities and districts) across the country have launched policy plans to support smart vehicles. In addition to GAC Group, at present, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, AVATAR, Deep Blue, Lotus and many other car companies have obtained L3 road test qualifications. Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the Passenger Association, said that after preliminary testing and verification, some products have met certain conditions for mass production, and the implementation of the pilot work will further stimulate technology iteration and ecological optimization, and promote high-end intelligent driving into the countdown to mass production.
Editor-in-charge: Li Yanan Editor-in-chief: Yu Jianping.