Introduction
On September 25th, at the 2021 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference held in Beijing, 2021 UISEE (Youdao Intelligent Driving) unveiled its new product UiBox, aiming to lay out a variety of city service applications and further improve its autonomous driving product lineup through on-site and live broadcast releases to the whole country. With the birth of the new product UiBox, this “AI driver” will gradually grow into a skilled operator of “A card + B card + C card + city services”, meaning that UISEE has taken an important step towards becoming the world’s largest AI driving service provider.
Autonomous Driving “All-Scene” Strategy Subverts the Understanding
Autonomous driving is a technology that leads the deep integration of modern automobiles and technology. The difficulty of achieving this can be imagined. It is like a long marathon, how to have a clear plan and control it freely? From the current situation of the landing of autonomous driving, regardless of domestic or foreign, it is mainly in low-speed scenarios. The focus is on easy tasks which are followed by harder tasks, striving to achieve commercial landing as soon as possible.
As early as 2015, the automobile industry proposed to achieve autonomous driving with the ultimate goal of zero accidents as part of the “Vision Zero” initiative. Some companies also regard the “Zero Accident, Zero Emissions, Zero Worries” “Three Zero Vision” as their core future goals, aiming to create a “century-old shop” in the automobile industry with the idea of “Vision Zero”.
However, the idea is good, but reality is harsh!
There are mainly three main development models in the current global autonomous driving industry: autonomous driving unmanned taxis (Robotaxi) services represented by Google Waymo, Baidu and other technology companies; single-car intelligence represented by new energy mainframe factories such as Tesla, Ideal and NIO; and host factory + autonomous driving company mode represented by General Motors and Cruise.
Business Model is Important, but Real Landing is the Key!
In 2016, UISEE was born, and its subsequent actions have amazed us, completely subverting people’s understanding of autonomous driving! It is not an exaggeration to say that UISEE has set foot on the fourth road outside of the three models. UISEE is a benchmark enterprise that first proposed the “all-scene” autonomous driving strategy, dedicated to becoming the world’s largest “AI driving service provider”, and becoming the “AI driver” of the world, serving transportation and logistics.
UISEE’s chairman Wu Gansha believes that: “In the development stage of autonomous driving, only by achieving absolute safety, feasible regulations, low error cost, and the ability to accumulate massive data and self-generation in scenes, can you have the opportunity to get the admission ticket with the lowest cost to the finals. After qualifying for the finals, ecology, cost, and market will be particularly critical.” He believes that: In the second half of the autonomous driving development, after the survival of the fittest, there will exist several companies in the world, including UISEE, dedicated to “all-scene, true unmanned, all-weather” autonomous driving.Based on U-Drive, a self-developed universal autonomous driving technology stack, Envision continually improves its full-scene map and applies its “AI Driver” technology to commercial scenarios such as car manufacturing, hazardous chemical, food processing, agricultural breeding, heavy industry, civil aviation airports, and industrial parks. It has successfully achieved “truly unmanned” commercial operation without a safety officer on hand since 2019, breaking the world record for commercial unmanned driving with over 900,000 miles of operation. “Truly unmanned” refers to the total mileage in customer scenarios that do not require the presence of a safety officer, and does not include scenarios where a safety officer was present.
Envision’s unique full-scene capability is achieved through evolvable AI algorithms and a mature hardware system, which makes it a leading autonomous driving force in China.
Chinese Autonomous Driving is also “World’s Autonomous Driving”
At the press conference, Gansha Wu, Envision’s CEO, stated that “autonomous driving is a long race, and Envision focuses on providing a full-scene “AI Driver” service for transportation and logistics, not just for specific types of autonomous driving, but for every aspect of transportation and logistics, in all fields from production to living.”
He went on to describe how Envision’s technology has been applied in over ten different industries, including car manufacturing, hazardous chemical, food processing, agricultural breeding, heavy industry, civil aviation airports, and industrial parks. He hopes that AI autonomous driving will benefit people around the world and has already been deployed in countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. He emphasized, “Chinese autonomous driving is also the world’s autonomous driving, and China has the richest and best variety of application scenarios. As a start-up technology company, we are committed to developing universal, standardized autonomous driving AI technology. It’s like learning how to drive in Beijing; I can also drive in Shanghai, and I can drive both Beijing Automotive and Shanghai Automotive vehicles. Our model is defined as “π,” with a horizontal line representing universal autonomous driving technology, with all resources dedicated to this line; one leg represents cars, supporting various types of vehicles, and the other leg represents solution operations for different industries.”
He further stated, “Being a “world AI driver” means not interfering in operating businesses, nor car production; We consider all operators and vehicle factories as our friends, which is why we have so many ecological partners. Besides giving intelligence to various types of vehicles, including A, B, and C-class cars, we also work with other transportation tools. The future-oriented services we launched today cover even more applications.”
Strengthening “Full-Scene,” and UiBox Comes with New FeaturesAt the World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference (WICV), BYD officially launched the UiBox L4 autonomous driving solution for urban services and the first ground-based product of UiBox, the unmanned delivery vehicle, further promoting the commercial application of “AI driver” in all scenarios.
According to Peng Jinzhan, Co-founder of BYD, before the release of the new UiBox product, BYD has already laid out RoboTaxi, mass production of passenger car autonomous driving, unmanned public transportation, and unmanned logistics markets in the “all-scenario” based on years of technical accumulation. UiBox is an L4 level autonomous driving solution for urban services. It adopts the innovative X+1 mode and collaborates with ecological partners to create product forms that meet various urban services. X represents providing various innovative application cooperation modes to achieve unlimited possibilities.
Peng Jinzhan said: “AI technology can be put in different boxes. X hangs on different boxes, and it can serve all walks of life. In X+1 mode, X represents ecological partners, representing infinite possibilities, infinite forms, and ecological business mode, ranking first; 1 represents BYD’s unique all-scenario capability in AI driving technology.”
He introduced that UiBox Basic is equipped with 3 hybrid solid-state radars, 2 LiDARs, and 7 cameras, has complete car + cloud autonomous driving capabilities, and can easily cope with open road complex scenarios, such as urban villages, urban-rural integration areas, downtown areas, etc. At the same time, UiBox is based on BYD’s general autonomous driving technology stack U-Drive®, shares the supply chain with existing models, has cost and quality advantages, and provides basic models, AI driver services, and joint development of three business cooperation models for partners. The product can also flexibly access various business back-ends. Currently, the UiBox series products have launched overseas community delivery services in Saudi Arabia. In the future, BYD will also jointly launch various city service autonomous driving products for unmanned retail, unmanned cleaning, and unmanned inspection with partners.<video controls class="w-full" preload="metadata" poster="https://upload.42how.com/article/image_20210926003938.png"><source src="https://upload.42how.com/v/%E8%A7%86%E9%A2%91%E7%B4%A0%E6%9D%90/%E9%A9%AD%E5%8A%BF%E7%A7%91%E6%8A%80.mp4">
</video>
A video of the operation of China’s urban-rural combined areas shown during the press conference fully demonstrates UiBox’s technological capability to tackle the most complex and open roads.
The Leader of Chinese Autonomous Driving frequently achieves good results
Yutong Technology has established close cooperation with various leading entities in the real economy, and precise innovation to create a long-term advantage, meeting real business needs in the three major areas of intelligent logistics, personal travel, and public transportation. The industry and consumers alike have jointly defined new markets and new demands. The company has already integrated into and served the industry and people’s livelihoods. Yutong Technology is creating new value and developing rapidly.
In January, Yutong Technology completed the strategic investment of the national production and manufacturing transformation and upgrading fund, and entered the “national team”, with a cumulative total of over RMB 1 billion.
Yutong Technology has made the global unicorn list as a leading Chinese autonomous driving company in July, thanks to its outstanding performance in landing unmanned vehicles on the scale, and leading technological strength in providing “AI drivers” services for various industries and scenarios.
In August, Yutong Technology was listed as one of the top 50 leading Chinese automotive technology companies published by KPMG for the fourth time, representing the intelligent network-linked field. Since its creation, it has grown from a new force in autonomous driving to a leading enterprise in the field.
In September, Yutong Technology was selected into the list of national-level specialized, sophisticated, and new small and medium-sized enterprises supported in the first year of the second batch released by the Bureau of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In just one year, Yutong Technology has won the titles of specialized, sophisticated and new small and medium-sized enterprises in Beijing, national specialized, sophisticated and new “Little Giant” enterprises, and rapidly advanced to become a key national-level specialized, sophisticated, and new “Little Giant” for high-quality development.
In September, Yutong Technology once again attracted heavyweight investments from well-known investment institutions such as Shanghai Guosheng Capital, CITIC Securities Investment, Hubei High-Quality Development Industrial Investment Fund, Xiangjiang Investment, Lidong Capital, and Hongzhao Fund, thanks to its outstanding comprehensive strength in the new round of financing.# Yutong Technology emphasizes lightweight and flexible business model, without manufacturing or service operations, but by flexibly accessing various business backends to link the city service ecosystem with autonomous driving technology. Its three business models are co-created with ecological partners: providing basic vehicle models, providing AI driver services (going abroad), and joint development.
A Series of Heavyweight Collaborations Linking Smart City Services
It goes without saying that autonomous driving is not a historical mission that can be completed independently by any single company. Instead, it requires the cooperation of many different vendors within the ecosystem to jointly promote the landing of autonomous driving. At the press conference, a series of cooperation agreements were signed and about to be implemented:
- Yutong Technology, YTO Express, and Piaoliang Travel signed a strategic cooperation agreement for unmanned delivery, and the three parties plan to cooperate in the intelligent and unmanned application of express end distribution, to explore new scenarios of logistics business applications and solve industry pain points in the express field, jointly promoting the pilot and industry application of unmanned driving technology.
- Yutong Technology, together with Huneng Technology and the New Field Think-Tank, established a joint venture Shanghai Energy-Yutong (Hainan) Smart Services Co., Ltd. as a service operator for smart travel scenarios. The core team of Huneng Yutong appeared at the press conference, announcing that they will fully utilize the policy advantages and development plans of Hainan, focusing on promoting the establishment of multi-scenario, high-security, intelligent driving and leading commercial operation base in Hainan and building a leading Hainan unmanned driving localization application highland and collaborative innovation center.
- The “Unmanned Driving Smart City Service Open and Innovative Laboratory” led by Yutong Technology has also become one of the highlights of the event. By working with domestic and foreign partners such as Beijing High-end Manufacturing Industry Base, YTO Express, China Unicom, Zhongtong Express, Teksbotics, Zhongshang Huimin, Piaoliang Travel, and Alshrouq Express, Yutong Technology will provide open and innovative unmanned driving smart city services based on UiBox.
Leading by Strength
After years of accumulation and commercial accumulation, NIO has made explosive progress this year with its “full-scene, genuine unmanned, and all-weather” autonomous driving technology, constantly expanding the advantages of autonomous driving commercialization in various entity economic scenes.
In January, NIO broke the trend and achieved a 150% growth in performance in 2020, delivering hundreds of sets of “AI drivers” throughout the year. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, various industries have been accelerating the embrace of unmanned trends. The landing of “genuine unmanned” technology and wide industry customer praise greatly promoted NIO’s expansion of full-scene autonomous driving mass production business in travel and logistics fields.
In February, NIO officially joined hands with the international chemical giant BASF to jointly build a smart factory in the chemical industry.
In March, Dongfeng Motor joined hands with NIO and other companies to create the Dongfeng Autonomous Driving Navigation Project, which officially opened and provided RoboTaxi test ride services to Wuhan citizens. NIO’s Wuhan RoboTaxi team has covered more than 300 kilometers of local road networks and more than 100 stations, and will continue to expand its service scope.
In June, at the outbreak of the epidemic in Guangzhou, the unmanned logistics vehicle developed by NIO was officially put into normal operation in the Xufuji Guangdong Dongguan production base, responsible for the transfer of food raw materials in the factory area.
In July, NIO joined hands with Sichuan Tobacco to land the first unmanned driving application in the tobacco industry at the Chengdu Cigarette Factory.
In September, NIO and Great Wall Ant Logistics jointly developed the world’s first Great Wall Cannon EV unmanned logistics vehicle, and the first batch of 10 vehicles has been used for the transfer of parts in the factory area.
So far, NIO has established partnerships with dozens of top companies. Host factories that have carried out multidimensional cooperation include SAIC-GM-Wuling, Dongfeng Motor, FAW Hongqi, SAIC Volkswagen, etc. In the field of logistics, in addition to the aforementioned cooperation, it has also teamed up with Hong Kong International Airport, SAIC-GM-Wuling, FAW Logistics, and Changan Minsheng Logistics to create unmanned logistics benchmarking projects.
“Old Drivers” Make a Sprint
At the opening ceremony of the 2021 World Intelligent Connected Vehicle Conference, Xiao Yaqing, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated in his speech: “Intelligent connected vehicles are the future trend, with strong development momentum and are transitioning from testing and verification to a new stage of multi-scenario application, where multi-scenario application is the key to implementation.”
We can see that in terms of application scenarios, NIO, a global leading autonomous driving company, has already taken a step ahead. All unmanned logistics vehicles transporting goods day and night are promoting unmanned driving technology to change human travel and cargo transportation. China’s self-developed full-scene AI autonomous driving technology is making everything possible!
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.