After travel companies, who will take the next initiative in autonomous driving?
Release time：2024-09-29click：1
In recent years, under the continuous invasion of the autonomous driving boom, various companies are integrating, deploying and developing around autonomous driving. Among them, when traditional mainstream car companies and modern technology companies are accelerating their transformation into travel services and are eager to open the door to commercialization through self-driving taxis, self-driving buses, etc., real travel companies are also beginning to show their swords. Their rapid development in the field of autonomous driving has gradually transformed them into an industry "dark horse", which has had an important impact on the industry structure and future of the industry.
Autonomous driving is gradually approaching, and travel companies are rising strongly
At the recently held 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference , Didi Chuxing, a large domestic emerging platform, announced that it had obtained a Shanghai autonomous driving road test license on August 28. It has obtained the road test qualification of another city after California, USA and Beijing, China.
According to the person in charge of Didi, the company hopes to accelerate the promotion of autonomous driving manned experience, and plans to open about 30 vehicles and more than 10 kilometers of manned testing in Jiading, Shanghai, with a view to realizing it in the future "Hybrid dispatch" mode of manned and autonomous driving. At the same time, earlier, the company also split off its autonomous driving department and established an independent company.
It is reported that Didi is currently considering an IPO, and it has been revealed that it may cooperate with Weilai Travel. It can be seen that autonomous driving has become its next main stage.
Coincidentally, Shouyue Automobile has also undergone a legal change recently. Baidu, which has specialized in the field of autonomous driving for many years, has become one of the shareholders of Shouyue Automobile. The two parties will reach cooperation in the field of autonomous driving. In addition, in April this year, Uber also received a huge financing of US$1 billion before going public; in March last year, Lyft also launched self-driving open road testing and subsequently launched a paid program.
In summary, it can be seen that whether it is foreign Uber and Lyft, or domestic Didi and Shoyuyou, the development and layout of travel companies in the field of autonomous driving are not inferior to any other companies, or even Its commercialization process still has a slight advantage. In the future, compared with traditional car companies and technology companies, the commercial implementation of autonomous driving may depend on banking companies.
Three major advantages help to seize the commercial high ground
Why do you say that? Because in addition to the current rapid development and promising situation of the travel company, its three major advantages in the commercial field of autonomous driving are also important conditions for its success.
First of all, in terms of travel data, travel companies have unique first-hand data. As we all know, the commercial use of autonomous driving cannot be separated from the support of real-life test data, and this is not a problem at all for travel companies. Take Didi for example. Currently, its more than 500 million users contribute an average of 100TB of vehicle trajectory data every day. This data can very well help it estimate routes, prices and vehicle demand at a given time, and pave the way for the commercial development of autonomous driving. Save a lot of trouble.
Secondly, in terms of safety experience, travel companies also have higher service quality and guarantee. For travel companies, they already have a complete set of security measures and are very experienced in operations, regulations, processing, and compensation, so it is relatively easier to succeed. In addition, using safe operation experience as a bargaining chip, travel companies can also get the opportunity to jointly explore safe practice guidelines for autonomous driving operations with the government and relevant parties, and take a more active role in development.
Finally, in terms of platform advantages, travel companies also have better and more complete services. With the help of existing platforms, travel companies can operate better and make more profits during the commercialization of autonomous driving, with less pressure than other companies. At this stage, many car companies choose to cooperate with travel companies to jointly develop commercial applications. On the one hand, they value data, and on the other hand, they value the platform.
The future of the industry is changing. What is the market ownership?
Generally speaking, when autonomous driving technology is not yet mature, it is impossible for unmanned vehicles to be sold directly to consumers in the short term. The commercial development in the travel field will It is the main form of transition. Travel companies have used their own data advantages, safety experience and platform advantages to enjoy early benefits, and their development momentum has surpassed traditional car companies and technology companies.
So, will the commercial market for autonomous driving still be like this in the future? Maybe we’ll have to take another look!
In 2017, a car service company conducted a survey abroad. The result was that more people were willing to "bet" on traditional car companies and technology companies. One-third of people believed that traditional cars Companies are more suitable for developing self-driving cars. One-fifth of people trust technology companies such as Google, while only 4% support travel service companies.
It can be seen that although the current industry attaches great importance to travel companies, the public does not believe that travel companies have the ability and technology. This is also the current situation of autonomous driving companies. Traditional car companies and technology companies have technology but no experience; travel companies have experience, data, and market but notechnology. In the future, it may not be easy for a single company to succeed. Seizing the commercial market may have to rely on strong alliances and teamwork to win.
