Improve transportation efficiency and reduce logistics costs——

  Domestic smart trucks speed up

  Our reporter Zhao Hao "People's Daily Overseas Edition" (Page 10 on April 22, 2022)

  In recent years, China's smart trucks have flourished, not only traditional car companies have entered this field, but also a group of technology companies focusing on truck autonomous driving technology have emerged.

Where is the development of smart trucks?

How will we smooth logistics and facilitate life?

This reporter conducted an interview.

  Comparable to an old driver with many years of driving experience

  Zhejiang Ningbo Zhoushan Port is an important container ocean trunk port in China. Hundreds of heavy trucks shuttle back and forth in the port every day to undertake heavy container transportation.

Among them is a special heavy truck fleet that is carrying out the loading and unloading operations of the "Tianchanghe" ship.

  From a distance, the convoy is no different, going straight, turning, stopping, everything is in order.

When I got closer, I found that there was no full-time driver in the car, only a safety officer, and the truck was in an unmanned state.

"There are 42 smart container trucks in Meishan port area of ​​Ningbo Zhoushan Port, which have formed a mixed operation capability of 4-way smart trucks and multi-channel conventional trucks, which can support the automatic operation of one berth, and the fully automated operation rate exceeds 80%." Ningbo Jin Cheng, director of the Research Center of Container Terminals in Meishan Port Area of ​​Zhoushan Port, told reporters.

  The 32.8-kilometer-long Donghai Bridge connects Shanghai with Yangshan Port in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, where smart heavy trucks are often seen lining up.

These trucks were developed by Youdao Zhitu, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, and drove into the bridgehead of the Donghai Bridge. The safety officer on the truck pressed the button, and the vehicle entered an automatic driving state.

When the safety officer leaves the steering wheel with both hands, the car can handle gates, obstacle avoidance, lane changing, and overtaking.

"Youdao Zhitu L4 smart heavy truck has accumulated a test mileage of more than 2.1 million kilometers so far, and has achieved quasi-commercial operation." Wang Rui, CEO of Shanghai Youdao Zhitu Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters.

  Mainline Technology is a technology company specializing in truck autonomous driving technology.

The Chinese company, founded in 2017, independently developed the "Trunk Master" autonomous driving system.

"This system enables trucks to have high-level autonomous driving functions of intelligent perception, intelligent positioning, and intelligent control." Zhang Tianlei, CEO of Mainline Technology, told reporters.

Dozens of self-driving trucks equipped with the "Trunk Master" system are being operated and tested in Beijing's high-level autonomous driving test demonstration area (open high-speed road section), Shandong high-speed test area and other road sections that allow testing.

"When driving on a specific high-speed road, the smart truck equipped with this system can control the speed or drive in the center without taking over the situation, which is comparable to an old driver with many years of driving experience." Zhang Tianlei said.

  Traditional car companies have also focused their attention on smart trucks.

China National Heavy Duty Truck Group regards the development of smart trucks as an important breakthrough in the company's product transformation and upgrading, and has successively launched a variety of self-driving heavy and light trucks to seize this blue ocean.

Zhang Hu, director of the Electronic and Electrical Design Department of China National Automobile Research Institute, said that compared with traditional trucks, Sinotruk smart trucks have the advantages of active safety, efficient transportation, intelligent fuel saving, and reduced operating costs.

In specific closed scenarios such as mines, intelligent mining trucks have achieved complete unmanned or remote-controlled driving, and can automatically plan driving routes and automatically avoid obstacles.

  Solve the pain points of the logistics industry

  Autonomous driving is not a new word, but before the R&D focus of car companies and technology companies was mostly on passenger cars, why did Chinese companies start to turn their attention to smart trucks?

  "Logistics is closely related to daily life, and we enjoy the convenience brought by express logistics every day." Zhang Tianlei said, "But there are still many problems in China's logistics industry. The supply and demand relationship is unbalanced, frequent traffic accidents, excessive energy consumption, trucks and trucks. The heavy workload and loss of drivers are the pain points that the logistics industry needs to solve urgently.” Some relevant agencies predict that the gross profit margin of the traditional logistics and transportation industry is 5%. If the commercialization of the autonomous truck model is successful, the gross profit margin is expected to increase to 40% or so.

  Wang Rui calculated an account: a self-driving truck that operates around the clock, if the number of people on the vehicle is reduced, it can save about three shifts (three 8-hour working hours) manpower every day, helping the logistics company save 500,000-600,000 per year. million labor costs.

"For the commercial vehicle market, intelligence is an inevitable trend." Wang Rui said.

  Jin Cheng believes that the use of smart collection cards in the port area can, on the one hand, reduce drivers and reduce the safety risks caused by fatigued driving. And the efficiency of the operation between the yard, to achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase.

  "The principle of autonomous driving is simply to rely on various sensors such as cameras, millimeter-wave radar, lidar, etc. to perceive the environment, accurately identify the surrounding environment of the vehicle, and then rely on the planning control algorithm to select the appropriate path and control the vehicle at the appropriate location. speed and direction." Zhang Tianlei said.

  In this process, if the camera and radar are the "eyes" of the vehicle, then the algorithm is the "brain" of the vehicle.

How to make the "brain" smarter and better help vehicles plan routes and avoid obstacles?

Mainline Technology has established the largest autonomous driving cluster in the country, with hundreds of trucks driving on the road every day.

"We will collect real vehicle operation data to help update computing models and upgrade vehicle systems," said Zhang Tianlei.

  Sinotruk has a history of more than 60 years, but it is still a "beginner" in the field of smart trucks, and is currently stepping up research and development to strive for "overtaking on curves".

"Smart trucks include cutting-edge technologies such as supercomputers, modern sensing, information fusion, network communication, and artificial intelligence. The products are technically difficult and have high barriers to entry." Zhang Hu said frankly, "The group has not only established an intelligent network of more than 300 people. The joint R&D team has also carried out in-depth cooperation with domestic universities and foreign first-class technology consulting companies to jointly overcome the key core technologies of intelligent driving.”

  Youdao Zhitu relies on data accumulation and operational experience, combined with SAIC's technical strength and industrial chain resources, to lead the industry in formation technology.

Youdao Zhitu L4 intelligent heavy-duty truck uses vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology to combine bicycle intelligence with fleet driving technology to realize automatic platoon driving at a time distance of 1 second. When the vehicle speed is 60km/h, the smallest number of vehicles in the formation The distance is only 16.6 meters, and the fleet can be dynamically grouped, held, ungrouped, etc.

Wang Rui said that the formation technology can effectively improve the traffic capacity of the Donghai Bridge. If autonomous vehicles are used in large quantities, it is expected that the traffic capacity of the bridge will be increased by 1.5 times. At the same time, from the perspective of aerodynamics, the narrowing of the distance between vehicles can also reduce energy consumption. protect environment.

  Ensuring safe vehicle operation

  On the road, safety always comes first.

In order to ensure that smart trucks are foolproof while driving, what solutions have Chinese companies come up with?

  "Sinotruk's smart trucks use the large computing power intelligent driving computing platform to detect the driving area at all times and respond in time." Zhang Hu said, "The product is based on an 8-megapixel high-definition camera, a 128-line scanning density lidar, and millisecond-level response. Speed, real-time control of the vehicle's running attitude, greatly improving the safety of the vehicle."

  The mainline technology continues to exert its strength in positioning accuracy.

Zhang Tianlei introduced that the positioning of the mainline technology smart trucks can be accurate to about 2 centimeters in some specific environments, ensuring the safe operation of autonomous vehicles.

  Youdao Zhitu completed the construction of a full-service chain security system of "network and data security + functional security + quality security".

Wang Rui said that Youdao Zhitu introduced the vehicle functional safety system and design concept, established a data-driven basic platform and algorithm for the whole process, and improved the adaptability to different scenarios through big data simulation and online testing, so that the vehicle encounters extreme situations. The situation can also be handled calmly.

  For smart trucks to run unimpeded, it also requires the improvement of supporting facilities such as ports and highways.

Jin Cheng introduced that Ningbo Zhoushan Port strives to create a safe, orderly and low-carbon traffic environment for autonomous driving.

On the one hand, based on advanced technologies such as multi-integrated perception, 5G communication network, and edge computing, we have built a three-body vehicle-road coordination system in the port area of ​​"cloud, edge, and end"; on the other hand, we have developed an intelligent dispatching system and equipment management system. , a series of information systems such as the intelligent guidance system for external card operations.

  Shandong Expressway Intelligent Connected Expressway Test Base is located in the interchange section between Boshan and Miaoshan, the former Binlai Expressway of Shandong Expressway Group. The total length of the road is 26 kilometers. The test mileage is long, the test scene is rich, and the test environment is realistic.

At present, Shandong Expressway Intelligent Networking Test Base has cooperated with more than 10 units such as Sinotruk and Mainline Technology to provide support for intelligent trucks to drive on the highway.

  In the future, domestic smart trucks will strive to promote the interconnection between different business scenarios and create an unimpeded transportation network.

Mainline Technology will build a new generation of artificial intelligence logistics network, connecting the two business scenarios of "port automatic driving" and "arterial logistics automatic driving freight".

  "Youdao Zhitu will connect the 'points' of commercialized scenarios such as ports and logistics parks through trunk logistics to form 'lines' and finally gather into 'surfaces', thus opening up the full business link of park logistics and terminal logistics, Form a full-scenario full-service chain autonomous driving network." Wang Rui said.