Can Shanghai take an unmanned network to get a car? Maybe not as good as mobike.

Following Baidu's promotion of unmanned car rental in Changsha and Guangzhou Gaode, on June 27th, Didi, a travel giant, began to launch self-driving car rental service in Shanghai. This also means that the self-driving that has been called for so long, with the unmanned vehicles of several Internet IT giants landing, finally came to the lives of ordinary people.

Drivers are about to lose their jobs, driving schools are about to close down, and the industry is undergoing tremendous changes ... For a time, the "title party" magnified the importance of this matter and began to advocate revolution. In other words, it is understandable to attract some people who don't have a deep understanding of driverless driving as a chat topic, but if it is subversion or revolution, the current autonomous driving is far from meeting this requirement.

Believe it or not? Open Baidu, Gaode and Didi and go to the scene to experience it. Yes, God's luck may not have a chance to take care of you. It is almost impossible for Didi's server to find a soaked chicken standing shivering in the rain, expecting to be "rescued" by a driverless car.

What an expensive driverless car this is. I don't deserve to ride it. Including the end of April, Gao De also said that Shanghai residents can use the map of Gao De to search for "unmanned vehicles" and sign up to experience driverless taxis for free. Yes, many friends around me applied for the experience, but no one got the chance.

Since I really can't feel it, let's take a look at the live broadcast of CCTV a few days ago. What about this so-called cloud test ride of unmanned vehicles?

First of all, the operating scope of Shanghai Didi's driverless cars is limited, mainly concentrated in the demonstration area of Jiading District, which means that even if your starting point and ending point step out of the area a little, you can't take a driverless car. In addition, getting on and off must also have a fixed stop, just like a bus. Well, it's 2 1 century. Maybe you can also see that there are fixed taxi pick-up and drop-off stations along the daily roads, but when did you see it work?

Secondly, the live broadcast experience of the day, there was light rain in the sky, not a working day, when there were not many participants on the road. Moreover, the turns of vehicles are all right turns, and there is no interference from pedestrians and non-motor vehicles at all. If this is put in the daily traffic situation, it is obviously unconventional. You should know how complicated the roads in Shanghai are. Battery cars, pedestrians and sudden traffic jams are the biggest hidden dangers in daily driving, headaches for old drivers and nightmares for autonomous driving, such as going straight and turning left. At the same time, there are pedestrians and motor vehicles at the intersection, so the running road conditions in Jiading on that day are basically of little reference value.

The third is that even in such a simple road condition, the security officer took over twice. The security officer said, "There is no guarantee that other road participants must obey the traffic rules, and they may interfere with unmanned vehicles. Once this happens, it is necessary for the security officer to take over the vehicle. " You know, China's urban road conditions are the most complicated, and road interference is also the most difficult problem. Can it be said that dealing with interference is to let the security officer intervene, so what is the significance of unmanned driving?

Third, on the day of the live broadcast test, after the live broadcast reporter got on the bus, the unmanned vehicle did not start immediately, but there was a temporary situation, and later it entered the unmanned state after the operation of the security officer. After that, the Didi unmanned vehicle also appeared to be unable to recognize the sudden blockage of the roadside. Finally, the unmanned vehicle stopped eating and had to ask for remote assistance. Finally, it took more than half a minute to change lanes automatically. Looking at this scene, is it like a female novice who just got her driver's license facing an emergency? "What should I do? What should I do? Should I change lanes or wait and see?"

Also at the crossroads, unmanned vehicles almost surpassed the turning vehicles; The speed limit set by the unmanned vehicle in a simple test environment is 40km/h, which is completely out of line with the road conditions at that time. Imagine that you are sitting in a driverless car, suddenly breaking down, suddenly braking, or suddenly encountering the latest situation. Can your little heart stand it? Originally, you were going to get off, but the unmanned vehicle had to stop at a station 500 meters away from the destination. What is the purpose of taking a taxi? Within a few kilometers, riding mobike comfortably, doesn't it smell good?

In addition, judging from the launch of unmanned vehicles, the number of unmanned vehicles in Jiading experimental area is not large, and the price of a single unmanned vehicle plus a full set of laser radar and sensing equipment can easily exceed one million. How to land such a high-cost rental vehicle? Is the way to reduce costs in the future only through scale? There seems to be no answer.

This also means that the entire driverless road is more like a seemingly high-tech gimmick, and there is actually no "show" with commercial value and landing possibility.

Please don't say I'll wait-7 * 24 hours, you? Is it okay? What about you? Up, don't look at the future with the eyes of the present. Of course, we are sure that Didi's driverless test activity is indeed a small step in the history of human autonomous driving. At least we have stepped down from the concept and PPT, and entered a test closer to life, such as V2X technology to identify traffic lights, pedestrians and vehicles and other road interconnection technologies. However, as far as the existing problems are concerned, we still have to spit it out. Perhaps a spit like mine will promote the self-correction of the entire autonomous driving industry. Think about it, this contribution is also quite big.

Yes, both Baidu's self-driving taxi in Changsha and the Guangzhou-Shanghai Robotaxi project, in which Gaode cooperated with Wen Yuan Zhixing WeRide and AutoX, attracted much attention in the initial stage of promotion. However, the threshold is high and there are few experienced people. Even in the long run, without more capital investment, it is almost impossible to make ends meet.

Perhaps it is limited by factors such as the development stage of technology and industry. At present, the unmanned network car rental is still in a relatively primary stage, and it can even be said that it is just an exploration and testing of water. Even Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi, said, "From mature technology, commercial maturity to mature regulations, autonomous driving needs at least a plan of continuous investment for ten years, and it also needs to be prepared to face various difficulties and challenges."

Therefore, at present, the "forced business" of Baidu, Gaode, Didi and driverless companies is like a horse race, or to put it more bluntly, it is just a capital story. Without a good story and Demo, capital will not notice that once it is separated from the cultivation of capital, these so-called projects and innovations are all floating clouds. After all, autonomous driving technology and smart car power have also been included in China's national key development strategy. With the promotion of China's new infrastructure and other policies, the interaction mode of domestic scientific and technological hardware is changing from service robots to unmanned driving.

However, the current unmanned driving field presents a diversified trend. Traditional car companies, new car-making forces, technology companies and shared travel are all vying for this attractive market. In addition, in recent days, there have been more and more actions related to the field. Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA, Amazon acquired Zoox, and Volvo joined Waymo, all aiming at autonomous driving.

According to McKinsey's research report, China is likely to become the largest autonomous driving market in the world in the future. By 2030, new car sales and travel services related to autonomous driving will exceed 500 billion US dollars. Therefore, under the background of the rapid development of unmanned driving in China, key parts suppliers, automotive electronic solution suppliers and intelligent driving car leaders are expected to benefit. Numerous companies related to autonomous driving have also been born in China, and related industrial chains are gradually being built.

Therefore, in the new forces of car-making, because of the frequent outbreak of funds, in which direction should social capital be transferred? It is not difficult to understand why in the past 100 days, Baidu, Gaode and Didi have joined the unmanned network car army one after another, and the flames of the giants will always create a perfect mirage.

China people, or the capital with nowhere to put, have too many complicated and subtle psychology in their enthusiasm for driverless technology. They believe the stories told by Internet companies, and they also believe the inertia of China's rapid progress in the fields of mobile Internet, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in the past decade. How do you think people in the new era can conquer nature?

Text/Du Xinyu

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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.