With the acceleration of China's "vehicle road cloud integration" process and the gradual commercialization of Robotaxi, intelligent driving is quietly changing our lives.
The rapid "heating up" of intelligent driving cannot be separated from the strong support of the country and the active exploration of various regions. In early July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced 20 cities (consortia) as pilot cities for the "Vehicle Road Cloud Integration" application. The importance of vehicle road cloud collaboration as a key technological means to optimize traffic operation efficiency and improve urban governance level is increasingly prominent. The integration of vehicle, road, and cloud has become the key to the "Chinese solution" for intelligent driving.
01. The development of intelligent driving continues to accelerate
Intelligent driving requires the synergistic support of two major technologies: "bicycle intelligence" and "vehicle road cloud integration". Bicycle intelligence "is the foundation of" vehicle road cloud integration ", which is an upgrade of" bicycle intelligence ", but the two are not independent of each other. The integration of vehicle, road, and cloud relies on a highly complete and systematic approach, freeing up complex computing tasks such as long tail perception and data acquisition from the vehicle side. It is combined with roadside and cloud control platforms, allowing roadside facilities in the system to provide more comprehensive real-time perception information. This is equivalent to opening the eyes of the sky for vehicles, enhancing their perception range and environmental adaptability, thereby achieving safer intelligent driving.
In recent years, the construction of China's vehicle networking infrastructure and testing areas has been steadily advancing. At present, a total of 17 national level intelligent connected vehicle testing zones, 7 vehicle networking pilot zones, and 16 "dual intelligence" pilot cities have been built nationwide. More than 32000 kilometers of testing roads have been opened, over 7700 testing licenses have been issued, and the testing mileage has exceeded 120 million kilometers. More than 8700 sets of intelligent roadside units (RSUs) have been deployed in various regions, and cloud control infrastructure platforms have been developed in multiple areas.
Chinese car companies have shown a positive attitude towards "bicycle intelligence". With the significant increase in computing power and the decrease in the cost of sensors such as LiDAR, high-end intelligent driving is becoming a standard feature for top smart car brands in the Chinese market. In 2023, the penetration rate of L2 level (autonomous driving) passenger cars in China will reach 47.3%, and from January to May 2024, it will exceed 50%, with some functions approaching the level of L3 level intelligent driving.
In June 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and four other departments released the "Orderly Implementation of Pilot Projects for Intelligent Connected Vehicles Access and Road Traffic", identifying the first nine consortia to enter the pilot, including Changan, BYD, GAC, SAIC, BAIC, FAW, SAIC Hongyan, Yutong Bus, and NIO.
For the advanced "vehicle road cloud integration" of intelligent driving, China is accelerating its layout. The Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work of "Vehicle Road Cloud Integration" Application of Intelligent Connected Vehicles issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposes to build intelligent roadside infrastructure, achieve full coverage of 5G communication network in the pilot area, deploy C-V2X infrastructure including LTE-V2X direct communication roadside units, carry out networking transformation of traffic signals and traffic signs, and achieve a networking rate of over 90%. Integrating people, vehicles, roads, and clouds through the new generation of mobile communication technology, establishing a systematic data platform, and implementing industrial scale applications is the "Chinese solution" for intelligent driving.
Looking at the international community, the United States has clearly stated in 2023 that it will deploy C-V2X nationwide, achieve 100% coverage of C-V2X on highways nationwide, and 75% coverage at urban intersections by 2034. It has also formulated a plan for C-V2X boarding, with a focus on addressing traffic accident issues. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission has allocated dedicated spectrum from 5.905GHz to 5.925GHz for C-V2X and transferred 10MHz of the 5.895GHz to 5.905GHz frequency band from DSRC to C-V2X. Although there is no clear C-V2X route in Europe, C-V2X and ITS-G5 have become two coexisting technical standard systems. South Korea officially announced in December 2023 that it will abandon DSRC technology and adopt LTE-V2X as the country's only connected vehicle communication technology.
02. The scale of "Car Road Cloud" still needs time
Although "vehicle road cloud integration" started relatively late in China, after years of effort, it has gone through the research and functional testing stages and is now moving towards commercial exploration.
China has formed a relatively standardized "vehicle road cloud" collaborative construction plan, mainly composed of end side, communication services, cloud infrastructure, cloud platform, vehicle road collaborative applications, and vehicle road collaborative security. Among them, under the project promotion led by government agencies, the construction of roadside infrastructure and platforms has taken the lead. However, there are still significant challenges in terms of application richness, exploration of essential applications, and penetration rate of passenger cars. The construction of "vehicle road cloud integration" in various regions is still in its early stages, and a complete system architecture has not yet been established. There is a phenomenon of "fragmentation" in infrastructure construction, which makes it difficult to support the large-scale application of autonomous driving technology and networking functions.
