Daimler, the world's largest high-end automaker, and Bosch, the largest auto parts manufacturer, announced that they will deploy a pilotless taxi (Robotaxi) in Silicon Valley, California, which Daimler and Bosch announced last year. The most significant news released since.
German car manufacturers have always been considered a conservative force in the field of autonomous driving. Daimler and Bosch's high-profile unmanned taxis will undoubtedly accelerate the process of promoting autonomous driving technology, and also show that the German traditional car manufacturer alliance checks and balances Google and other technologies. The company's determination.
The complexity of autonomous driving technology and the large amount of capital required for research and development have forced the automobile upstream and downstream industry chain to work together. In April last year, Daimler and Bosch formed an alliance to develop a mobile service taxi by Daimler. App application, users can use the driverless car service free of charge in the designated route of the designated pilot city. According to reports, the driverless car will be equipped with a driver to ensure safe driving.
Technical support for Nvidia DRIVE Pegasus is based on NVIDIA. According to NVIDIA, the self-driving cars jointly launched by Daimler and Bosch are L4-class high-level automatic driving and L5-level fully automatic driving. car.
The NVIDIA NvidiaDRIVE ecosystem has been expanded in all areas of autonomous driving, from autonomous taxis, trucks to delivery vehicles, with more than 370 partners.
According to the autopilot development roadmap proposed by NVIDIA founder CEO Huang Renxun, 'L3 level autopilot will be realized in early 2020, L4 level autopilot will be realized in late 2021, and L5 level fully automatic taxi (Robotaxi) ) will be implemented as early as next year. '
Silicon Valley technology giants have rushed into the field of autonomous driving. Google made a major announcement when it announced its earnings in February this year: It will complete the commercialization of its unmanned Waymo taxi business in 2018. Google also said that it is already in every One level speeds up the rhythm of the autopilot test.
This means that people can use the Waymo app to get a self-driving taxi in the future, and Waymo has confirmed that it will increase the production of thousands of self-driving cars in 2018 and put them into the operation of taxis. At the end of last year, Waymo's autonomous fleet has increased by 600, and Google has extended its testing to 25 cities in the United States.
In China, with the launch of the 100th Baidu driverless bus Apolon, Baidu also announced that it already has the mass production capacity to produce L4-class driverless buses. Including Didi, Uber, Lyft and other technology companies The shared taxi service platform has already launched short-distance services including point-to-point, team transportation and shuttle bus services.
According to the Brookings Institution of the United States, in the past three years, the global capital market has invested more than 500 billion US dollars in the unmanned industry. This is only the beginning, the market expects, the future market size of automobile manufacturing and shared travel industry Will reach 100 billion US dollars.
On the one hand, the rise of autonomous driving technology has transformed the power of traditional car manufacturers and emerging technology giants, and is also completely changing the territory of the entire automotive industry. As users increasingly use mobile Internet tools such as smart phones for positioning, Daily activities such as taxis and car rentals, the role of the mobile Internet in the car is becoming more and more important, which has led to the rapid development of the 'mobile as a service' industry. The market research company IHS Markik reports that by 2040, 'mobile as a service' The industry will purchase more than 10 million vehicles, which is much higher than the 300,000 in 2017.
On the other hand, although the world's billion-dollar cars travel 10 miles per year, these vehicles are idle most of the time, and they occupy valuable floor space when parked; even when they are on the road, they are often Trapped on a congested road, this requires an artificial intelligence algorithm like NVIDIA to solve.
Luca De Ambroggi, senior research director of artificial intelligence at IHS Markit, pointed out: 'The collaboration between Daimler and Bosch and NVIDIA shows that artificial intelligence hardware, software, integration platforms and simulation and verification tools can create greater opportunities for autonomous vehicle development. the value of. '
He also said that mobile services based on autonomous vehicles have many advantages. These vehicles incorporating artificial intelligence technology will improve traffic flow, enhance driving safety, and provide better mobile services. In addition, analysts also predict that The cost of a driverless car on the go will be only 17 cents per mile.
In addition, office workers will be able to work on the road, recovering about $99 billion in productivity losses each year, and improving transportation convenience while reducing costs. This capability inherently presents tremendous opportunities. KPMG estimates that By 2030, driverless cars and services will develop into an industry worth more than $1 trillion.