In addition to passenger cars, commercial vehicles are also becoming a key market for new car manufacturers. The economic observation network reporter learned that on August 1, Weimar Automobile and Hummer Group, ProLogis, Jingdong Logistics, etc., jointly funded A joint venture truck company was formed to enter the commercial vehicle market. According to the plan, the joint venture will mass produce and put its 'smart truck' into the market in 2020.
Among the four joint ventures, ProLogis is the world's leading provider of logistics infrastructure and solutions; Hummer Group has the largest and most extensive private truck capacity in the country; and Jingdong Logistics has a strong e-commerce platform resources. Weimar is mainly focused on the application of its 'three powers' technology, vehicle integration, and unmanned technology to the development of vehicles.
Weimar Motors said that it has sufficient technical reserves in the three-electric technology, vehicle integration and driverless technology, which provides the basis for the new energy and intelligentization of trucks. According to the introduction of Weimar Automobile, In the field of automatic driving, the company has accumulated a lot of core technologies in algorithms, software, core sensors, system integration, etc., mastered the research and development capabilities, and formed independent intellectual property rights.
'The application of some advanced assisted driving or autonomous driving technology in the field of commercial vehicles is of great practical significance', a related person in charge of Weimar Automobile told the Economic Observer Online. For example, such as automatic on structured roads Cruise, line driving and other technologies can greatly reduce driver fatigue and improve safety; low-speed automatic technology in closed areas, avoiding human input in warehouse logistics parks, etc.
According to Weimar Motors, its current L2-L4 autopilot technology will be deployed on commercial vehicles in a rhythmical manner according to different application scenarios. 'The Quartet plans to make technology through joint development. , Scenario, Logistics Ecology realizes the integration of resources and capabilities. 'Talking about the advantages of the truck project, an insider of Weimar Motor said to the Economic Observer Online reporter. The person thinks that the simple side with the traditional car company Or if the two parties form a cooperation, the four-party joint venture truck project will be able to pool more shareholders' resources and quickly open the market.
Weimar Automobile believes that in terms of logistics, the current market capacity is already a relatively primitive way. There is no competitive advantage in terms of efficiency and cost. What customers really need is a product that understands logistics, including services. Sop's implementation and monitoring, warehouse integration ability, intelligent assistant to improve efficiency, driver experience is better... Weimar said that its 'building plan' is to implement a 'breakthrough' truck new The ecological road, this road includes 'forward research and development', 'scenario development', 'upstream and downstream linkage ability', 'digital, intelligent empowerment' and other keywords.
Smart logistics is a hot concept at present, and the joint venture of four companies such as Weimar is also based on smart logistics. The trucks it produces will be able to quickly connect OPEN APIs and logistics maps through smart terminals. Multi-point reception, remote real-time diagnosis, dangerous smart reminders, etc. But compared to this 'smart' concept, the outside world may be more interested in the automated driving of trucks - from the moment, this is a very demanding Market.
When it comes to autonomous driving, most people still have the impression of staying in the passenger car, but in fact, in the field of commercial vehicles, automatic driving or unmanned landing is better. Global car companies have expressed strong Interest. Ford, which has been aggressive in autonomous driving research and development, recently announced that its autonomous driving company 'FordAV LLC' was established in Corktown, Detroit, USA. The company expects to launch a self-driving commercial vehicle in 2021 to promote Ford Motor Autopilot commercialization process.
In addition, domestic car companies, including Futian, Dongfeng, FAW, etc. are studying the automatic driving of trucks, and plans to introduce them to the market within this year and next. In addition, many auto-driving startups, robot companies and logistics platforms, office buildings The park will be based on the limited scene of the unmanned delivery car, sanitation sweeper as the main direction. For example, in March, Shanghai trial run the world's first self-driving cleaning team.
In fact, the demand from terminal operators and customers is also driving such mass production close to the ground. Including trucks in the intelligentization of commercial vehicles, new energy and auto-driving, is considered a potential blue ocean market, insiders It is believed that the automatic driving in the commercial vehicle sector will explode in two or three years. Although the open road unmanned freight vehicles are subject to policy, they cannot really enter the commercial stage. However, in some limited scenarios, such as ports, mining areas, closed 4. In the park, the unmanned commercial vehicle has entered the critical point of the explosion.
A person from Ningbo Daxie Merchants International Terminal Co., Ltd. recently said in a forum that with the increase in the cost of truck drivers, the demand for autonomous driving in ports is rapidly emerging. 'For the port, this demand is very urgent. Why? Because now, after 80s, 90s, they are not willing to engage in such heavy labor, more boring labor, not just unmanned, the operation on our port machine is the same. ' The person said.
China's commercial vehicle market is currently in a recovery period, especially heavy trucks. The domestic heavy trucks increased by 11.5% in the first six months of this year, the light trucks increased by 16.15%, the big customers were as high as 24.15%, and the Chinese passengers also increased by 17.67%. In the same period, the growth rate of passenger cars in the first half of the year was only 4.6%, which was less than half of that of commercial vehicles. It continued to show a low growth rate. In terms of heavy trucks, the cumulative sales volume was nearly 670,000 units, with a cumulative increase of 15%. %. In the first half of the year, only FAW Jiefang, Dongfeng Group, China National Heavy Duty Truck sold more than 100,000 units, up 25%, 8%, 10% respectively.
'The competition in the commercial vehicle market is not much calmer than that of the passenger car, but there is still a lot of room for the intelligent commercial vehicle market.' Weimar Automobile believes that from the domestic development trend, the intelligentization of logistics and transportation vehicles has become the trend of the times. At present, the traditional urban distribution trucks are still relatively backward, and the renewal requires a long period of time, which is regarded by Weimar as its own 'opportunity'. China's new car-making enterprises, there are more companies entering the logistics vehicle. However, there are fewer trucks, and Weimar is the only company currently known.
It should be emphasized that although the commercialization of self-driving trucks has begun to enter the substantive stage, it is mainly carried out in the fields of deep mining, garbage collection, crop harvesting, and specific long-distance transportation. The most important feature of these commercializations is Its autonomous driving scene is carried out in a certain enclosed space, thus reducing the danger.