**10,000 Fan Incentive Plan At an investment conference, Wang Chuanfu expressed his views on autonomous driving, describing it as "the emperor's new clothes", and pointed out that its essence is an IQ tax and a concept that is hyped by capital. Although Wang's remarks were once seen as hubris, it wasn't until TuSimple was abruptly delisted from the Nasdaq that people began to reflect on it.
Founded in 2015, TuSimple successfully went public in just six years, becoming the world's first stock in the field of autonomous driving, with a market value of more than $10 billion. However, the listing lasted less than 3 years, and the company's market capitalization has fallen to 1$100 million.
In addition, Ford's Argo AI and Apple's self-driving projects have announced their closures, and Apple has shut down the research and development of new energy vehicles.
However, at the time of this round of setbacks for autonomous driving companies, Carl Power announced that it had obtained the first intelligent networked vehicle test license issued by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region - "Meng K0001 Trial".
This license marks the first autonomous driving heavy truck test license issued in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and it is also the first L4 license. Autonomous driving technology was once widely hyped, but it was unexpectedly given a cold reception by foreign capital, which caused people to wonder.
Why this high-profile technology is repeatedly used in the international market"Abandoned", but our country continues to invest in research and development? What is the sacredness of the L4 license plate in this regard?
A few years ago, many Western technology companies began to invest in R&D, and the discussion of intelligent vehicles became a hot topic. However, it was not until 2015, when the autonomous driving department was established, that there was a huge boom in Japan.
The R&D team involved in the project quickly received angel investment support, and the stock price soared. The domestic market is gradually expanding, and even in 2020, China released the "2025 China will realize the large-scale production of intelligent vehicles with conditional autonomous driving".
Driven by national policies, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence have developed rapidly in recent years, and driverless taxis have even been operated in some small areas.
However, even so, autonomous driving technology has struggled to win the majority of people's acceptance, and the main obstacle is safety.
Behind it lies a key condition for the development of autonomous driving technology – safety. When a car accident occurs while driving, people ask questions:"Who is responsible in the event of a crash with autonomous driving? This car accident has nothing to do with me! "
Even the slightest safety hazard can become a stumbling block to technological development and prevent it from making further progress in the market.
In 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a regulation known as the Autopilot Act, marking the first bill to provide detailed rules for the production of autonomous vehicles, vehicle safety standards and testing.
Its main objective is to incentivize the testing and commissioning of such vehicles, with a particular focus on the clear definition of liability after an accident.
In contrast, China has not yet fully promulgated such regulations, and only the "Intelligent Connected Vehicle Track Test Management Specification (Trial)" provides relevant specifications for safety issues.
In 2018, there was a shocking self-driving accident in the United States. An Uber driverless car failed to identify a pedestrian in a road test, resulting in the first serious self-driving accident.
It is noteworthy that less than a month later, a similar accident occurred again in the United States. A Tesla self-driving car collided with a white van, and the official explanation was that the car mistook the white truck for the sky.
Even more worrying is the incident of a robotaxi in the United States in May 2022. When the vehicle was checked by the police on the street, it suddenly started and stopped after driving for several tens of meters.
Fortunately, there were no further accidents, but to the distress of **, there was no driver in the vehicle.
When self-driving technology first came to market, it was enthusiastically welcomed by the American public, but then its credibility continued to decline. Problems such as the inability to recognize traffic lights at night and traffic congestion caused by automatic parking have raised public doubts about this technology.
As Wang Chuanfu said, once an accident occurs in an autonomous driving accident, responsibility will become a key issue, which will inevitably lead to a series of controversies.
In addition to this, autonomous driving technology can raise a range of social and psychological problems. For example, it can make people who love driving lose the joy of driving. The roar of the internal combustion engine is also highly regarded. Moreover, passengers' sense of safety will also be affected.
Therefore, this is one of the reasons for the delisting of TuSimple Future Company in the United States. Investing in R&D but failing to find a market. After all, the return on capital is their primary consideration, and meeting the psychological needs of consumers is also crucial.
In addition, autonomous driving technology is divided into six levels: L0 to L5. Only when it reaches L5 can it be considered truly autonomous driving. But Wang Chuanfu believes that autonomous driving can only become a "top level of advanced assisted driving" in the end.
Even many foreign experts believe that autonomous driving technology can only reach the L4 level in the end. It is not possible to achieve L5. So, what exactly do these grades mean? Why is China still developing driverless technology?
There are six main levels of autonomous driving technology. Among them, L0 is the lowest grade, while L5 is the highest grade. Only when it reaches L5 can it be considered truly unmanned. At present, China has just achieved the trial operation of L4 level. There are still some development difficulties in achieving L5.
Safety plays a crucial role in autonomous driving. Even a one-hundredth-of-the-minute mistake is intolerable. Although TuSimple will be delisted in the future due to continuous losses and failure to reach the L4 level, why is China still vigorously R&D?
Robin Li, chairman of the board, once said: "In the future, electric vehicles that lack autonomous driving capabilities will not be competitive. Although Wang Chuanfu has reservations about autonomous driving, he continues to promote the assistance system of BYD's new energy vehicles and is committed to improving its sophistication. This trend is also common in many domestic enterprises.
Behind this situation is the rapid rise of China's 5G technology. On February 27, Huawei released the world's first 5G-A full-series, all-scenario solution, leading the 6G era and running faster than 5G.
With the rollout of 5G, China has not only developed rapidly in terms of communication networks, but also made great progress in various industries such as healthcare.
The emergence of applications such as remote surgery has brought intelligent development to a new stage. Perhaps in the near future, we will be able to break through to the L5 level of unmanned driving technology.
The progress and application of intelligent driving technology has formed a complex and long-lasting development stage. In this process, we must find a balance between technological innovation and social adaptation, because the ultimate goal is to provide services to humanity, not just to pursue a single development of science and technology.
Currently, many tech companies are pushing for their self-driving technology. In addition to showing the rapid development of technology to the public, the main reasons may lie in the realization of commercial development, financing, etc.
Although Inner Mongolia has begun to test run 5G unmanned L4 trucks, this only shows that China has just entered the stage of L4 in unmanned technology.
To truly achieve the L5 level, there is a long and complex process to go through. The participants of this experiment said that this experiment is based on 5G, big data, industrial Internet and other information technologies, and can finally realize real-time perception, real-time positioning, high-precision maps, real-time path planning, and vehicle-road coordination and other functions.
This will greatly improve the safety, stability and work efficiency of new energy autonomous commercial vehicles in non-closed road sections.
5G and the future 6G may be a necessary prerequisite for the real development of autonomous driving. This year, according to official reports, 5.5G may soon be commercially scalable, and 6G will not be far away.
As Li Yongrui, an autonomous driving worker, said: "If you don't develop 55G or 6G, then the rapid response of unmanned driving will be impossible! ”
The reason why China can firmly move towards the goal of unmanned driving is that China has the leading technology of Huawei and other technology giants in the field of 5G.
This leadership provides a more solid foundation for the development of autonomous driving technology, leading many to believe that autonomous driving is about to become commercially widespread. What do you think about this trend?