What breakthroughs must be made in key technologies for the development of networked self-driving automobiles? How to build the pilot area of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV)? At the Auto Industry Innovation and Development Expert Seminar sponsored by the People’s Government of Chongqing Nanan District and the Management Committee of Chongqing Economic and Technological Development Zone on November 15, industry expert representatives from well-known domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers, colleges and universities, research institutes and government departments discussed the topics above and shared their opinions.
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As Professor of the School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University and Deputy Director of Suzhou Automotive Research Institute, Tsinghua University, Zheng Sifa, admitted that there are still bottlenecks in the existing intelligent networking technology. The technology still needs breakthroughs in many aspects for such reasons as the common bad behaviors of pedestrians, complex road conditions, and severe problems of the coexistence between people and vehicles. The goal of networked self-driving technologies is to relax drivers’ hands and feet, reduce traffic accidents, relieve traffic pressure and improve the fuel economy. The core and key technologies are realizing nearly perfect multi-dimensional coordination of “people-vehicle-road-network-cloud.” Relying on breakthroughs in multi-mode communication, edge computing, and other critical generic technologies, the people will be relaxed and intelligent vehicles, smart roads, reliable network, and flexible cloud will be created.
“Since 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set up demonstration zones in Chongqing, Hubei and other places for the application of intelligent cars and smart transportation based on the broadband mobile Internet,” introduced Jia Bowen, Deputy Director of the Laboratory of the Internet of Vehicles and Navigation, China Electronics Standardization Institute. Led by the demonstration zones, the self-driving technologies and IoV have developed in an orderly manner and achieved remarkable results. Demonstration zones have a specific role in promoting industrial development. Still, they lack the guiding function and sustainability necessary for industrial development and have a limited effect on the part of the industrial example. Thus, the pilot area of the IoV emerged.
“The pilot area of the IoV is aimed at emerging industries with deep integration across industries and fields, which not only include the IoV but also incorporate other fields of artificial intelligence, the Industrial Internet under planning and the future related industries,” said Jia Bowen. He added that the pilot area of the IoV strives to create an advanced industrial area with platform-based management and control, data integration, industry ecologicalization, and large-scale application by gathering helpful industrial resources within the region, strengthening administrative coordination, carrying out basic environment construction, technical product upgrading, and service application promotion.
How will Chongqing construct the pilot area of the IoV next? Jia offered related advice: First, it should consolidate infrastructure construction and accelerate the development of the IoV and road infrastructure, strengthen the superior design, and improve cross-industry coordination mechanisms. Second, Chongqing should support and guide related enterprises in the city to genuinely participate in the construction of regional pilot areas, promote the R&D and application of vital technology products and services, and build public service platforms for information security and other industries. Third, it needs to speed up the institutional innovation, including the test of self-driving vehicles running on expressways and the use of high-precision maps. Fourth, it has to encourage relevant enterprises such as the IoV operators to explore an operating model that can be replicated, promoted, and sustained. Last, the city must actively participate in standardization formulation, strengthen the development of primary and urgently needed standards, and enhance cooperation with standards bodies.