How can the new track of intelligent connected vehicles with an industrial scale of trillions of yuan drive the new development of China's economy?

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out the need to open up new fields and tracks for development, and continuously shape new driving forces and advantages for development. Since the beginning of this year, various regions have actively laid out and continuously explored the vitality and potential of economic development in areas such as intelligence, green, and 5G.

The development of the new track not only gives birth to new economic formats, but also accelerates the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries through radiation and penetration, promoting economic structure optimization and efficiency improvement. Moving towards "new" is becoming the essence of China's high-quality economic development. Starting today, the news channel will launch a series of reports on the new track of the Chinese economy. Let's first focus on intelligent connected vehicles.

The industrial application of autonomous driving continues to accelerate

The information network based on the new generation of communication technology, combined with intelligent vehicles, has given birth to a new industry track - intelligent connected vehicles.

This morning, the International Forum on the Development of China's Automotive Industry will open in Tianjin, which is also known as the "Davos" forum of the automotive industry. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that the innovative application of intelligent connected vehicles in China is accelerating. At present, intelligent connected vehicles have transitioned from small-scale testing and verification to a new stage of rapid technological development and accelerated ecological construction. The national open intelligent connected vehicle test road mileage has exceeded 15000 kilometers, and multi scenario demonstration applications such as autonomous taxis, unmanned buses, trunk logistics, and unmanned delivery have been carried out in an orderly manner.

Nowadays, in Yizhuang, Beijing, consumers can place orders through the app and quickly call an autonomous vehicle to set their destination. In recent years, the autonomous driving system in Beijing Yizhuang has been continuously upgraded, from having a safety officer on the driver's seat, to having an unmanned driver and co pilot with a safety officer, and then to having an unmanned front and rear seat with a safety officer. Now, it has entered the autonomous driving system where all vehicles are unmanned. Recently, Beijing Yizhuang welcomed another technology company to invest in fully autonomous driving services.

Luo Lin, Vice President of Guangzhou Wenyuan Zhixing Technology Co., Ltd.: So far, our average order volume is over 50 orders per day. From this quantity, we can feel that the local residents have a very high acceptance of autonomous driving.

At the end of last year, this technology company in Yizhuang was the first to obtain a fully autonomous driving test license for 10 vehicles. After testing for over 8 months, they felt that the development of autonomous driving would usher in new breakthroughs.

Zhang Ning, Vice President of Beijing Xiaoma Zhixing Technology Co., Ltd.: Currently, we have accumulated over 200000 kilometers of fully autonomous driving without any accidents. From this perspective, the entire industry has seen hope for commercialization.

The reporter learned that in Yizhuang, Beijing, autonomous driving passenger cars have served over 1.34 million people.

In Suzhou, Jiangsu, nearly 40 autonomous minibuses shuttle daily within the high-speed rail new city area, solving the pain point of residents traveling the "last mile".

At present, nearly 30 cities across the country have issued over 1000 intelligent connected vehicle road testing licenses, and various types of intelligent connected vehicles are conducting large-scale passenger and cargo testing demonstrations in specific scenarios and areas.

Rapid improvement of automotive intelligence level

The reporter learned in the interview that autonomous vehicles, which appear to be no different from ordinary cars, are the ultimate goal of the development of intelligent connected vehicles. The first thing to do in the development of intelligent connected vehicles is to make them intelligent. So how do cars become smarter?

How to integrate the various intelligent components of a car and achieve deep interconnection and interoperability between the vehicle and cloud? This requires a new generation of electronic and electrical architecture, which is equivalent to the human brain and nervous system. At GAC, this system is known as the "Star Spirit Architecture" and is the industry's first centralized electronic and electrical architecture that integrates vehicle and cloud.

Liang Weiqiang, Vice President of GAC Research Institute: This system includes three core computers and integrates multiple new technologies such as 5G. An increase of 50 times in computing power, a 10 times increase in data transmission speed, and a reduction of 20 controllers will efficiently support the implementation of intelligent driving and other functions.

The reporter learned during the interview that radar, cameras and other equipment have become standard features for smart cars. The latest statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications show that the intelligence level of China's automotive industry is rapidly improving. Taking passenger cars as an example, in 2022, there were 13.3846 million vehicles with standard configuration of vehicle networking function, with a loading rate of 67.15%. There were 417400 vehicles equipped with 5G networking function, an increase of more than 14 times compared to the previous year.

At present, the new track of intelligent connected vehicles in China has formed a strong industrial integration effect. It connects a long industrial chain, including the Internet of Vehicles, cloud computing, 5G networks, intelligent transportation, intelligent navigation, vehicle information services, artificial intelligence, high-precision maps, and so on.

Accelerate the integrated development of "vehicle road cloud"

The reporter learned in the interview that the development of intelligent connected vehicles is equally important as the intelligence of roads. At present, China is accelerating the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud development.

CCTV reporter Yan Yan: This is the intersection of Zhenhua Road and Renmin Road in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province. As a national leading area for connected vehicles, more than half of the intersections in the main urban area of Xiangyang have completed intelligent upgrades and renovations.

Under the control of the signal, the traffic lights are not fixed and fixed in duration, but are dynamically adjusted in real-time based on traffic flow. It is equivalent to installing an "intelligent traffic police officer" at the intersection to reduce vehicle waiting time, upgrading from traditional "waiting lights" to "light watching".

Zhao Xin, Technical Director of Tencent in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, China: We capture real-time data of vehicles and pedestrians based on the perception devices such as radars and cameras that have been built in the vehicle networking pilot area. After localization and calculation, we push these results to our signal system to control the traffic lights at the entire intersection in real time.

At present, Xiangyang City has completed intelligent transformation of 244 traffic intersections in the urban area. The transformed intersections can not only effectively regulate traffic flow and alleviate traffic congestion, but also identify uncontrollable factors at intersections and reduce accident risks.

Intelligent roadside facilities are also being promoted synchronously. More than 400 sets of intelligent roadside terminal devices have been installed in the Liuzhou National Connected Vehicle Pilot Zone. It is a key link in the intelligent connected vehicle industry chain, which can achieve information exchange between roads and surrounding vehicles. It is a gathering point for information of traffic participants such as people, vehicles, roads, and clouds, equivalent to the mouth and ears of intelligent roads.

Wang Yizhi, Vice President of Beijing Xingyun Internet Technology Co., Ltd.: Our roadside intelligent terminal equipment covers over 3000 intersections nationwide, accounting for more than one-third of the current national vehicle road collaborative construction.

At present, China has approved the construction of 7 national level vehicle networking pilot zones, and the number of national level pilot zones will be further expanded in the future. At the same time, more than 40 cities across the country have carried out the construction of vehicle networking related infrastructure, and China has initially established a regional environment for vehicle networking infrastructure.

The integrated application of "vehicle road cloud" is constantly accelerating. In the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, a 140000 square meter smart park, more than 20 vehicles of various types, such as trucks, buses, minibuses, and passenger cars, are intensifying their fully autonomous driving tests. This is the first car, road, and cloud integrated autonomous driving smart park in China to be put into use.

Zheng Jihu, Executive Deputy Director of the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center: We need to integrate multiple entities, namely vehicle, road, and cloud entities, and achieve interconnectivity across multiple vehicle models. By the end of the year, we will form around 300 such normative standards.

As of now, infrastructure such as vehicle networking has covered over 5000 kilometers, with over 8500 roadside communication units. Compared to the data of over 6200 roadside communication units nationwide as of June 2022, it has increased by 37%.

Drive strong economic development and form three trillion level industries

Industry insiders say that the intelligent connected vehicle industry covers a very large area, mainly involving the three major industries of automobiles, information and communication, and transportation. In the future, mature intelligent connected vehicles will drive strong economic development and form three trillion level industries.

According to the research of the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center, by 2025, the newly added output value of the intelligent connected vehicle industry alone in the automotive sector will reach 1.06 trillion yuan. By 2030, the newly added output value of the automotive sector will reach 2.8 trillion yuan.

Zheng Jihu, Executive Deputy Director of the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center: If this 2.8 trillion yuan output value is achieved, our country's entire industry chain based on intelligent connected vehicles will be formed, and a very mature industrial supply system similar to new energy vehicles can be formed.

Experts from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology also stated that the driving effect of the new track of intelligent connected vehicle industry on the economy is not limited to the automotive industry.

Yu Bingyan, Deputy Director of the Vehicle Networking Research Department at the Institute of Standards of the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology: We believe that the vehicle networking is definitely a very traction track, whether it is communication, automotive, or transportation, it is actually a trillion level industrial scale.