01 Take a macro look
# Shenzhen takes the lead in legislating for autonomous driving
On July 5, the Regulations on the Management of Intelligent Networked Vehicles in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone passed the deliberation and came into force on August 1, 2022. This is the first domestic regulation regulating intelligent networked vehicle management, which consists of nine chapters and sixty-four articles, including general rules, road testing and demonstration applications, access and registration, use management, vehicle-road collaborative infrastructure, network security and data protection, traffic accidents and violation handling, legal responsibilities and supplementary provisions. The "Regulations" is the first official management document in China to divide important issues such as the rights and responsibilities of L3 and above autopilot in detail, and it is expected that Shenzhen will continue to issue more detailed normative documents in the future.
Comments:In the history of autonomous driving in China, it is a landmark worthy of recording.
# China has completed the first phase of intelligent networked automobile standard system construction.
On July 16th, the National Automobile Standardization Technical Committee said that China has completed the construction of the first-stage intelligent networked automobile standard system, and by 2030, China will add more than 100 intelligent networked automobile standards. It is said that in the first phase of China’s intelligent networked automobile standard system, 39 related standards have been submitted for approval, and China has initially established an intelligent networked automobile standard system that can support driver assistance and low-level automatic driving. There are 19 international standards and regulations led and formulated by China.
Comments:It will provide support and guarantee for the development of intelligent networked automobile industry.
# "Research Achievements of Automotive Chip Standard System Construction" released
On July 20th, China Automotive Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance released "Research Achievements of Automotive Chip Standard System Construction". At present, 15 automobile chip standards have been formulated and published, covering the general requirements, reliability, functional safety, system matching test, vehicle matching test and other fields of automobile control chips, communication chips and power semiconductors.
Comments:The Long March took the first step.
# The junction of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai will be the first to open the autopilot test road.
On July 28th, "Several Measures on Accelerating the Development of Digital Economy in the Yangtze River Delta Eco-green Integration Development Demonstration Zone" was issued, which pointed out that the junction of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang will work together to build a leading vehicle-road collaborative demonstration zone in China. It is reported that the demonstration area will enrich the open test road scenes of autonomous driving, and explore and promote the construction of open test road scenes in water town living room, Huandianshan Lake and National Intelligent Networked Automobile (Jiashan, Zhejiang) demonstration area.
Comments:Integrated development to create the growth pole of autonomous driving.
Take a look at business applications.
# Radish Run Opens the Pilot of Autopilot Commercialization in Wuhan
On July 5, Baidu Apollo announced that its self-driving travel service platform "Radish Run" started a commercial pilot in Wuhan Economic Development Zone to provide self-driving paid travel services to the public. According to the plan, the pilot service will cover 166 kilometers of roads within 30 square kilometers of the Economic Development Zone, and 63 recommended boarding points will be set up. The service time will last from 9: 00 am to 17: 00.
Comments:The scope of self-driving travel services has been further expanded.
# Beijing launches the first commercial pilot of unmanned travel in China.
On July 20th, Beijing officially opened the first domestic unmanned travel service commercialization pilot. Baidu and Xiaoma Zhixing became the first batch of licensed enterprises, and invested 30 main driving unmanned vehicles within 60 square kilometers of the core area of the Economic Development Zone to carry out normalized toll collection services.
Comments:This indicates that the domestic unmanned travel service has entered a new stage of commercialization pilot from demonstration operation.
# Feibu Technology Cheluyun Application Fully Landing in Nantong Port
On July 27th, with the approval of the coastline of the container terminal in Lvsi Qibu Port Area, the application scheme of smart port with integrated vehicle, road and cloud built by Feibu Technology for Nantong Port also passed the acceptance test recently and was officially delivered to customers. The solution includes products and services such as car-side driverless, roadside intelligent perception and cloud scheduling management.
Comments:The commercial application of the automated transport queue composed of multiple vehicles, such as automatic driving truck +IGV, has reached a new level.
Take a look at enterprise dynamics.
# Volkswagen and Bosch cooperate to develop L2/L3 autopilot technology.
On July 6th, Volkswagen and Bosch obtained permission from the German Cartel Office and began to cooperate in developing autonomous driving technology. The two sides will cooperate on L2 /L3 autonomous driving technology, and the new technology will be deployed on the vehicles of Volkswagen Group in 2023. In addition, the two sides will also develop L3-level automatic driving function based on expressway.
Comments:The combination of Bosch and Volkswagen will further enhance their competitiveness in the field of autonomous driving, and it will also promote their smooth electrification transformation.
# Mercedes-Benz and Tencent signed a memorandum of cooperation.
On July 11th, Daimler Greater China Investment Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum of cooperation with Tencent Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. to carry out strategic cooperation in the field of high-level autonomous driving, and use cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence technologies to speed up the simulation, testing and application of Mercedes-Benz autonomous driving technology. According to reports, the cooperation will also establish a joint laboratory for autonomous driving to support the joint research and development of autonomous driving technology between Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA in China.
Comments:Can a strong alliance occupy a place in the fierce competition in the field of autonomous driving?
# Amazon Cloud Technology expounds the automotive industry solution
On July 14th, Amazon Cloud Technology announced that it will define the digital scenes of the three major automobile industries around autonomous driving, car networking and software, and empower the digital transformation of the automobile industry. It will help car companies to build an end-to-end closed loop of autopilot data centered on the autopilot data lake, and use its infrastructure in 84 available areas in 26 regions around the world to allow car companies to build a car networking platform. It can also integrate Amazon Intelligent Personal Assistant Amazon Alexa to provide users with voice interaction in the car, and so on.
Comments:The temptation of the self-driving car industry is not small, and the leader in the cloud computing industry has also taken a share.
# BYD or self-developed smart driving chip
On July 15th, it was learned from a number of people familiar with the matter that BYD was planning to independently develop a special chip for intelligent driving. The project was led by BYD’s semiconductor team, and it has already sent a demand to the design company. At the same time, it is also recruiting a BSP(Board Support Package) technical team. If the progress is fast, it is expected that the film can be streamed at the end of the year.
Comments:Intelligence is a battleground for military strategists, and BYD’s layout comes naturally.
# Baidu Apollo RT6 released
On July 21st, Baidu released the sixth generation mass-produced unmanned vehicle-Apollo RT6. The new car has the full unmanned driving ability of complex urban roads, and the cost is 250,000 yuan. Its biggest feature lies in the forward research and development. Apollo RT6 is the first model based on Robotaxi forward design and development. According to the plan, Apollo RT6 will be the first to be put into use in radish fast running, and will be put into trial operation in small batches in the second half of 2023, operating in 65 cities in 2025 and covering 100 cities in 2030.
Comments:Positive research and development helps Baidu to make great strides in the field of autonomous driving.
# Iflytek: It has cooperated with more than 90% independent and joint venture car companies.
Recently, Iflytek said on the investor interaction platform that the company’s cooperation in automotive intelligent products has covered more than 90% of China’s mainstream independent brands and joint-venture brand car manufacturers, including BYD, Weilai, Ideality, Gaohe, Weimar, Zero Run and other new energy car manufacturers.
Comments:Iflytek’s circle of friends keeps expanding.
# Xiaoma Zhixing and Sany Heavy Truck set up a joint venture company.
On July 28th, Xiaoma Zhixing and Sany Heavy Truck announced that they would set up a joint venture company to develop, produce and sell L4 self-driving heavy truck products and jointly build a high-end self-driving heavy truck brand. The joint venture company plans to start small-scale mass production delivery in 2022. In 2024, it will further integrate Xiaoma Zhixing’s virtual driver capability, as well as Sany Heavy Truck’s drive-by-wire chassis and vehicle development capability, and mass-produce high-end self-driving heavy truck products. In a few years, the annual output is expected to exceed 10,000 vehicles.
Comments:The development of self-driving heavy trucks has reached a new level.
04 capital trends a stroke.
# Xinqing Technology completed nearly one billion yuan in Series A financing.
On July 19th, Xinqing Technology successfully completed nearly one billion yuan of Series A financing. The financing funds are planned to be used for the batch supply of existing products and the next stage of R&D and deployment of vehicle-mounted chips with high computing power. This round of financing was led by Sequoia Capital, and Neusoft Capital, Bosch’s Boyuan Capital and SMIC Juyuan participated in the investment. It is reported that this is the largest single financing in the field of automotive chip design in China in the first half of 2022.
Comments:Automotive chips are the best in the industry.
# Weilai Capital leads the unmanned sanitation company Yunchuang Zhixing Pre-A round.
On July 19th, Weilai Capital announced that it would lead the investment in the Pre-A round of financing of Yunchuangzhi, an unmanned sanitation company, which will be used for the research and development of the company’s core technology, the large-scale mass production and the wider commercial deployment. Founded in March 2021, Yunchuang Zhixing is an autonomous driving company focusing on the sanitation industry and is committed to creating an overall solution for unmanned sanitation operations.
Comments:Subdivide the track or take the lead in breaking the bottleneck of large-scale application in the industry.
# Yuntu Semiconductor completed hundreds of millions of A+ rounds of financing.
On July 29th, Yuntu Semiconductor announced the completion of several hundred million yuan A+ round financing. Xiaomi Investment and Lianxin Capital continued to increase, and new institutions such as Jinbang Capital, BAIC Investment, Core Kinetic Energy, Huitianfu and Yongxin Capital increased their investment. It is reported that this round of financing funds will be mainly used for the research and development of next-generation products and the mass production and sales of L and M series chips.
Comments:The strength of the seed player of the car gauge chip should not be underestimated.
05 talk about personnel changes
# Tucson Future Co-founder Huang Zezhen resigned
On July 5, according to media reports, Huang Zehua, the future co-founder and vice president of engineering of Tucson, left his post in October 2021 and will start a business in the field of trucks. According to Tianyan’s enterprise information, in April this year, Huang Zehua established a company called "Zero One Smart Card". According to industry insiders, the direction of Zero One Smart Card is to provide truck hardware for autonomous driving software companies and become the "Wei Xiaoli" in the domestic truck industry.
Comments:The smart truck industry needs new forces to stir the pool water.
# Chen Yilun, Chief Architect of Huawei Car BU, resigned.
On July 13th, according to media reports, Chen Yilunbo, CTO of Huawei’s autonomous driving system and chief scientist of Car BU, recently left his post to join Dr. Zhang Yaqin of Tsinghua and Tsinghua University Intelligent Industry Research Institute (AIR) as the chief expert in the direction of intelligent robots. Chen Yilun led the full-stack research and development of Huawei’s first-generation autopilot system from 0 to 1.
Comments:The result of Huawei’s organizational structure adjustment.
# Former UBS Group AG executive Hou Yanzhen became CFO of Heduo Technology.
On July 18th, Heduo Technology announced that Hou Yankun, the former Asian vice chairman and managing director of UBS Group AG Global Investment Banking Department, was appointed as the company’s chief financial officer, in charge of the company’s capital operation, finance and strategy-related work. According to the data, Hou Yankun has worked in many internationally renowned financial institutions such as Swiss Bank, Nomura International and Lehman Brothers, and has nearly 20 years of experience in securities research and investment and financing in the automotive and machinery industries. He has led a team to complete domestic and foreign capital market financing projects such as LI, Weilai Automobile, BYD, Geely, Volvo, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and Junsheng Electronics.
Comments:With the participation of financial background executives, the operation of Heduo Technology Capital may be smoother.
# Lenovo Group intensively recruits automotive R&D talents.
Recently, Lenovo Group began to intensively recruit automotive R&D talents through official channels. Lenovo’s open positions include autopilot engineering director, in-vehicle infotainment system director, senior hardware/software manager, etc. In addition, LR VC Lab related positions have been opened. Earlier, Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo Group, said in an interview that Lenovo was determined not to build cars, but to put limited energy and resources on a clear track.
Comments:No cars, but layout.
Listen to international news.
# Volkswagen will support the "pay on demand" mode of autonomous driving.
On July 10th, Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of Cariad, a software division of Volkswagen Group, said that Volkswagen will provide a pay-as-you-go mode in the autopilot function, which means that the Volkswagen autopilot assistance system will support the option of paying by mileage in the future. However, he did not disclose the charging standard.
Comments:Volkswagen uses autonomous driving to develop new profit points.
# GM and Ford apply for the deployment of self-driving cars without steering wheel
On July 21st, General Motors and Ford Motor Company applied to the American automobile safety regulatory agency for exemption, allowing the deployment of a certain number of self-driving cars without artificial control devices such as steering wheel and brake pedal. Both automakers hope to deploy as many as 2,500 cars for carpooling and distribution services every year, which is the maximum number allowed by law.
Comments:The form of self-driving cars is evolving to imagination.
#Cruise will launch a self-driving taxi service in Dubai
On July 24th, Cruise has tried to launch a self-driving taxi service in Dubai. According to the Dubai Road and Transportation Authority (RTA), Cruise has sent two Chevrolet Bolt electric cars equipped with autonomous driving systems to Dubai just a few weeks after it officially launched its commercial driverless business in San Francisco, and started to draw a map of the city, in order to prepare for the official launch of autonomous driving commercial services in the local area in 2023.
Comments:The agreement with Dubai marks Cruise’s major expansion plan.
Explore 07 cutting-edge technology
# Tesla will demonstrate Steam integration next month.
On July 16, Tesla CEO Musk said in response to a netizen’s question about Tesla games, "We have made progress in Steam integration and may give a demonstration next month." On February 23 this year, in response to a question from a Twitter user, Musk said that Tesla was studying transplanting Steam games (in batches) into the car.
Comments:In-car entertainment, a valuable gold mine, is being developed.
# Apple applied for a patent for professional mixed reality headphones.
On July 18th, Apple applied for a new patent: a patent for professional mixed reality headphones for self-driving cars without windows. Windows are originally unsafe, which will increase the cost. By providing a virtual view of the real environment or the simulated environment, the VR system can reduce or eliminate the need for windows for self-driving cars, thus allowing the windows of vehicles to be smaller, or directly canceling the windows, thus making self-driving cars safer, smaller and cheaper.
Comments:Virtual reality technology may change the structure of self-driving vehicles.
# Sony will develop new autopilot sensors
On July 19th, Sony Group announced that it will develop a new self-driving sensor, which will reduce the power consumption by 70% and increase the driving range of electric vehicles (EVs). The sensor will be manufactured by Sony Semiconductor Solutions and paired with new software developed by the startup Tier IV. The two companies hope to achieve L4 technology by 2030, allowing cars to drive automatically under certain conditions.
Comments:Sony black technology may make the driving range no longer anxious.