Daimler speeds up the rescue of this "high-risk occupation"

In today's driverless field, various changes caused by artificial intelligence are continuing to ferment, while in the logistics industry, this change seems to be more violent than expected and ready to go.

If the promotion is successful, unmanned logistics vehicles will be put into the market on 202 1 and appear on the expressway to transport goods. These logistics vehicles are our trucks in a broad sense.

202 1 year, less than a year before the unmanned logistics vehicle officially went on the road. In this countdown day, driverless technology is infiltrating into the "blood" of the global transportation industry bit by bit, trying to change this huge logistics industry.

Why the truck?

On October 27th, US time 10/KLOC-0, Daimler, who has been keen on the research of driverless trucks, has the latest trend.

According to the news, Daimler will establish a cooperative relationship with Waymo, which is responsible for autonomous driving technology under Google's parent company Alphabet.

In this cooperation, they will build L4-class self-driving trucks, that is, in limited roads and environments, all driving operations can be completed by driverless systems. This technology will be the first to be carried on Daimler Folena brand Cascadia semi-trailer in the future.

When the passenger car market is still trying to drive with L2.5-L3 class, L4 class technology will take the lead in the unfamiliar commercial vehicle logistics vehicle industry. Some people can't help asking, why the truck market?

Trucks will be chosen as the actual testing ground for driverless technology, except that the logistics market has point-to-point standardization in practical application scenarios; Freight driver, a term that always appears in the list of "high-risk occupations", is the most direct driving force of driverless trucks.

It is precisely because of this gap that the driverless truck track has a first-Mover advantage. According to relevant data, the current gap of drivers in the transportation industry in the United States is as high as 63,000, and it is expected that the gap will rise to 1.76 million by 2026. Coupled with the aging of drivers, the slow development of the industry, the reality that young drivers are hard to find has brought pressure to the transportation industry in the United States.

In China, truck drivers of road transport in the freight industry bear nearly 76% of the freight volume. In China, there are about150,000 trucks and more than 30 million truck drivers. In the first half of 20 19 alone, the total cost of social logistics reached 6.6 trillion yuan.

However, the big data report shows that about 20,000 truck drivers die in accidents every year in China, and truck drivers often have high labor intensity, fatigue and high risk factors. No matter from people or the industry itself, this "high-risk occupation" has a realistic demand for the technical operation of driverless trucks.

Compared with the market of driverless passenger cars, the awareness and acceptance of driverless trucks by logistics and transportation enterprises are not high, but for car companies like Daimler who are willing to promote their development, this mediocre status quo means that they will have greater resilience.

Daimler is well aware of preemption, has the initiative in these niche industries, and will always be ready. From 20 14 to 20 15, it was announced that it would start testing driverless trucks. Until 20 19, it launched the world's first Cascadia truck at CES, and Daimler did it step by step.

Now holding hands with Waymo, Daimler can see the fruits of the seeds planted for itself immediately.

Regarding the cooperation with Waymo, roger nilsen, CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, bluntly said: "At present, they are developing the latest Freightliner for Waymo system? Cascadia truck chassis is easier to integrate the automatic driving system into the vehicle, increasing its reliability and safety; The cooperation with Waymo provides the best solution for the personalized needs of brand customers. "

At present, the autopilot system developed by Waymo has completed more than 20 million miles (about 3210.80 billion kilometers) in the United States, and the simulated driving mileage is as high as 65.438+0.5 billion miles (about 24 1 100 million kilometers). Of course, Waymo said that more demanding simulated driving will continue, and they must find more possibilities in the simulation.

Sure enough, strong alliance can create more value.

Business opportunities of logistics and transportation

As one of the world's largest car companies, Daimler's fancy for driverless trucks undoubtedly has a strong industry vane flavor.

With the deepening of artificial intelligence, AI algorithm will automatically drive the optimization of every ecological chain in the automobile industry. The logistics ecology has not been excavated too much, so we must start first.

Industry analysts have also given relevant judgments. "Driverless driving is welcoming the second wave of investment opportunities. For example, L4 autopilot in a closed scene will break out within 2-3 years; It is expected that in 2-3 years, closed, low-speed and on-load autopilot will take the lead in landing; It will take 5-8 years for high-speed, cargo-carrying and trunk logistics-based autonomous driving; Open, high-speed and manned autonomous driving may take more than 10 years; In addition, ADAS technology will gradually develop. "

Whether the driverless trucks can go on the road in 20021or wait for 5-8 years, the centripetal force of the driverless truck boom in the logistics market has been formed, and with the cooperation of Internet, Internet of Things and sustainable intelligent navigation system technology, its maturity and awareness have been further improved.

With the help of high-precision maps, driverless trucks can accurately "point to the place to be hit". All these wonderful helpers are working hard to "improve the efficiency of the logistics industry and enhance its global competitiveness".

The huge logistics and transportation market, like a huge fermentation field, has brought too many business opportunities.

In August of 20 19, UPS, an American logistics giant, announced that it would invest in Tucson Future (in June of 20 19, Tucson Future was selected as one of the "20 19 Forbes China's most innovative enterprises"), and so far it has obtained Series D financing with a total amount of $2150,000; Einride, another Swedish self-driving truck startup, plans to launch a new driverless truck, named Automatic Electric Transportation (AET) system. At present, T-Pod automatic electric trucks without cockpit are being put into use, which can transport products in designated areas.

However, as the industry analysts said, "At present, driverless trucks are still immature, and the incubation period of 5-8 years is inevitable, but it does not rule out that American urban roads have the superiority of developing driverless trucks, and the time may be advanced.

Earlier, the autopilot readiness index (Autonomous? Vehicle? Ready? Index? AVRI) also analyzed the current global autonomous driving data, and selected 20 countries around the world as samples to measure the readiness of each country in the field of autonomous vehicles.

In the preparation index, the United States ranks first, with 65,438+063 autonomous driving companies all located in the United States, and more than 50% of cities are preparing for autonomous driving; Overall ranking of China 16. Compared with self-driving cars, most of China's energy is spent on the deployment of electric vehicle charging station network and the application scenarios of high-precision maps.

Of course, this data comes from the summary of 20 19, which does not represent the latest layout at present, but the application of autonomous driving in more and more fields is an irreversible trend.

Although driverless driving is not a new concept, in the increasingly sound environment of artificial intelligence and AI operation, the impact of driverless driving on logistics scenes is undoubtedly subversive.

Imagine that on a closed highway, a driverless truck is set in a safe and efficient driving trajectory. They can be arranged in a fleet with a distance of 60 cm, or even shorter, which is much higher than the safety factor of manned trucks that can change lanes at will on the expressway at present.

Like the automated production line of the factory, the driverless truck has achieved a breakthrough from quantitative change to qualitative change in the efficiency, speed and quality of the system. This "production line" about expressways sounds particularly attractive.

Text /Aad

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