Recently, Pony Ma announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with Cao Cao Travel and Geely Automobile Innovation Research Institute Intelligent Driving Center. The three parties will do their best to jointly build an open and commercial operation platform for intelligent driving. According to reports, before the end of this year, Cao Cao Travel will provide Pony Smart Travel with fully unmanned vehicles for modification, form a Robotaxi fleet, and take the lead in operating in Suzhou High-speed Railway New City . Of course, there are more than , Geely, , who are bravely entering the Robotaxi track. The competition between traditional car companies and new forces such as SAIC, GAC, Xiaopeng , NIO , etc. demonstrates the ambition of car companies for Robotaxi business.
01 Robotaxi has become the "new favorite"
From testing to commercial operation, from the driver with safety officer to the lack of safety officer in the car, Robotaxi has gradually moved from an out of reach dream into people's real life. Against the backdrop of rapid iteration of autonomous driving technology and continuous improvement of policies in various places, car companies cannot let go of the "big cake" of Robotaxi and have entered this track one after another.
In September this year, Martin Viecha, head of investor relations at Tesla , said that Model X and Model S are Tesla's first-generation platforms, Model 3 and Model Y are the second-generation platforms, and the Robotaxi business will become Tesla's third-generation platforms. At the same time, foreign media reported that Cruise, a self-driving technology company under GM, plans to expand Robotaxi business to Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas within 90 days. In response, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said that the two places will initially invest in a small number of self-driving cars, "bringing a certain amount of revenue" and plan to expand their business next year.
Domestic car companies are also "successfully rolling" on the Robotaxi track. In December last year, Xingdao Travel, a travel platform under SAIC Group, officially launched the autonomous driving travel service - Xiangdao Robotaxi, and started trial operations in Jiading, Shanghai and Xiangcheng, Suzhou, becoming the first domestic car company L4 autonomous driving operation platform. According to a report released by Xingdao Travel , in the 100 days since Xiangdao Robotaxi was launched, thousands of users have completed tens of thousands of rides, and about 80% of users have experienced it multiple times. Xiangdao Robotaxi's historical average response rate exceeds 80%, and the overall user satisfaction is as high as 98%. As of June this year, the overall scale of Xiangdao Robotaxi's operating fleet reached 60 vehicles, and the daily order volume of bicycles was about 20.
In August this year, Geely Cao Cao Travel also joined hands with Pony Ma Zhixing to introduce Pony Ma Zhixing Robotaxi service to Cao Cao Travel platform, and launched Robotaxi service in the 60 square kilometers core area of Beijing's high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone, covering 250 autonomous driving boarding and dropping stations. Users can make an appointment for the Robotaxi service provided by Pony Smartisan through the exclusive "Automatic Driving" portal on the homepage of Cao Cao Travel App and mini program. Before placing an order, passengers need to choose the number of passengers, departure and destination. The ride and payment procedures are no different from ordinary online ride-hailing services.
GAC Group also uses its travel platform - Ruqi Travel to plan its Robotaxi business. In May this year, Ruqi Travel completed a round A financing of over 1 billion yuan. Ruqi Travel, which adheres to the strategic layout of "two-axis drive", starts from the "technical axis" with the autonomous driving industry chain as the core and the "ecological axis" with the construction of the "travel-car service" ecological closed loop as the core. It plans to form a fleet of 200 autonomous driving fleets and more than 1,000 V2X cars this year, and improves the autonomous driving operation system including operation platforms, data platforms, and regulatory platforms. Ruqi Travel said in an interview that Ruqi Travel is in-depth cooperation with GAC Group and Guangdong Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center to promote the transformation of V2X vehicle terminal equipment for more than 1,000 platform vehicles, and realize the interconnection of platform Internet of Vehicles data with the Guangzhou Internet of Vehicles unified data platform. It will start the demonstration operation of mixed traffic between manned and unmanned vehicles in Guangzhou in the second half of this year.
The new car-making forces, which have always been very sensitive to new things, are naturally unwilling to give up Robotaxi's business.In November last year, , founder, chairman and CEO of , , He Xiaopeng, , said that , will begin exploring Robotaxi business in the second half of 2022. Through the operation of Robotaxi in generalized scenarios, test the closed loop of Xiaopeng Motors' related software driving in the entire city, thereby improving the stability and safety of autonomous driving algorithms. In his opinion, through the ability to install Robotaxi software and hardware before mass production, as well as the future cooperation with various travel operators, Xiaopeng can create huge commercial value by bringing a revolutionary experience to users' travel. In July this year, Xiaopeng Motors registered trademarks such as "XPENGROBOTAXI", "Xiaopeng Zhihang", and "Xiaopeng Zhixing".
02 Some people attract "allies" and some people are busy developing
. "From the perspective of business model, most traditional car companies actually carry out Robotaxi business through their travel platforms." Cao He , president of Quanlian Automobile Investment Management (Beijing) Co., Ltd., said in an interview with a reporter from China Automobile News that most car companies do not directly participate in Robotaxi business, but choose to use the travel platform as the main body to promote the development of Robotaxi business. This is true for SAIC Enjoy Road Travel, GAC Ruqi Travel, and Geely Cao Cao Travel. T3 Travel launched by Changan , FAW , and Dongfeng also entered Robotaxi. It started the public beta of commercial trial operation of autonomous driving in Suzhou , achieving a mileage of 230,000 kilometers, attracting more than 60,000 users to try it out. In addition to its travel platforms as the main body, these car companies often build an "iron triangle" model of "car companies + travel platforms + autonomous driving companies" through cooperation with autonomous driving companies. Robotaxi of SAIC Travel has applied Momenta "flywheel L4" technology. In August this year, Xiangdao Travel announced that it had completed a Series B financing of over 1 billion yuan, and Momenta also participated in this round of investment. The two sides announced a joint layout of the Robotaxi travel ecosystem and jointly create a large-scale Robotaxi. It is reported that SAIC mainly provides Feifan MARVEL R models, Momenta is responsible for providing autonomous driving solutions, SAIC Artificial Intelligence Laboratory provides intelligent driving data monitoring platform, and Xiangdao Travel provides C-end autonomous driving travel services.
was entrusted by GAC Group Chairman Zeng Qinghong to "the first Robotaxi self-driving online car-hailing stock in China". Ruqi Travel, who had high hopes, chose to hold hands with Wenyuan Zhixing and and Pony Zhixing in succession. In November last year, Ruqi Travel and Wenyuan Zhixing reached a strategic cooperation to start a comprehensive upgrade of Robotaxi's front-loading vehicle model design, research and development and mass production implementation. In the same month, Ruqi Travel announced that it had reached a cooperation with Pony Max to jointly promote the commercialization of Robotaxi. Subsequently, GAC Group, Wen Yuanzhixing and Ruqi Travel reached a strategic cooperation, GAC Group strategically invested in Wen Yuanzhixing, and Wen Yuanzhixing strategically invested in Ruqi Travel. In April this year, Pony Ma and Wen Yuan Zhixing jointly invested in Ruqi Travel, with a total amount of 1 billion yuan. In May this year, Pony Smart Travel officially connected to the Ruqi Travel Platform in Nansha, Guangzhou. In June, Ruqi Travel publicly released the first truly fully open Robotaxi operation technology platform in the domestic autonomous driving industry, and completed the system and data docking with GAC Research Institute , Pony Zhixing and Wenyuan Zhixing to efficiently promote the deployment and demonstration operation of Robotaxi vehicles.
Before reaching a strategic cooperation with Pony Ma, Cao Cao Travel and Yuanrong Qixing "successfully joined hands" as early as 2020. In August 2020, Yuanrong Qixing and Cao Cao Travel jointly announced that the two parties are conducting test and operation cooperation on autonomous vehicles, with the goal of providing Robotaxi services during 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. Geely provides geometric A and Dongfeng E70 models, and Yuanrong Qixing provides autonomous driving solutions. Now, Geely Intelligent Driving Center, Cao Cao Travel and Pony Intelligent Driving have reached a cooperation, committed to opening up the vehicle data platform of Geely Auto Intelligent Driving Center, Cao Cao Travel Technology Operation Platform, and L4 Intelligent Driving Platform with Pony Intelligent Driving Platform to realize the Robotaxi ecological closed loop.
is different from SAIC, GAC, Geely and other car companies trying to cooperate and join forces to seize the Robotaxi market, while Xiaopeng seems a little independent and tries to expand the Robotaxi territory through self-developed methods.In November last year, He Xiaopeng made it clear that he would enter the Robotaxi market in 2022. "We do not want to be a travel operation company for a long time, and we are more willing to do a better job of travel with our travel operation partners through our products and technologies." He Xiaopeng said. In May this year, Xiaopeng announced the trial operation of the "Youpeng Travel" platform in Guangzhou, investing hundreds of Xiaopeng G3s. After building a travel platform, Xiaopeng announced in August this year that it had built the autonomous driving intelligent computing center "Fuyao" in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, specifically for autonomous driving model training. With his own vehicle, his own travel platform, and his own autonomous driving technology, Xiaopeng's ambition to pass Robotaxi alone is obvious.
Zhang Xiang, director of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, believes that the "iron triangle" model may become the mainstream model in the next 3 to 5 years. Car companies have strong R&D capabilities and their own vehicles, while autonomous driving companies can provide relatively mature autonomous driving solutions. Travel platforms can not only provide richer service scenarios through the application of autonomous driving, but also reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. In the view of Han Feng, chief operating officer of Ruqi Travel, Robotaxi must have four-layer structures for commercialization: the base layer on the supply side, the carrier layer, the travel layer and the user layer on the demand side. Autonomous driving companies, car companies and travel platforms just correspond to the basic layer, carrier layer and travel layer on the supply side, providing technology, vehicles and platforms for the commercialization of Robotaxi. None of them are missing and indestructible.
"Whether it is new forces or traditional car companies, they will eventually go to the road of self-development." Cao He believes that from a technical perspective, all car companies need to reserve and apply autonomous driving technology. Therefore, self-development is the ultimate goal, and traditional car companies and new car companies are just a difference in pace.
03 Technology is the main target
According to IHSMarkit's forecast, by 2030, the total market size of shared travel in China will reach 2.25 trillion yuan, of which Robotaxi will account for 60%. The trillion-scale Robotaxi track is naturally quite attractive to car companies. As Zhang Xiang said: "With the popularity of autonomous driving in the future, fewer people will buy cars, and most consumers will choose Robotaxi to travel. This is why car companies will deploy Robotaxi."
However, in the view of Shao Yuanjun, a senior expert in the automotive industry in , it is too early to talk about the commercial value Robotaxi brings to car companies. "The autonomous driving technology is not yet mature, and Robotaxi may not be expected to be implemented after 10 to 15 years. The uncertainty during this period is too high and it also requires long-term and large-scale investment. Whether these travel platforms and autonomous driving companies can survive until then is still a question." Shao Yuanjun bluntly stated that autonomous driving cars, roads, laws, regulations, and business models are not yet mature, and it is difficult to make profits by relying on Robotaxi at this stage. It is reported that the initial investment of a Robotaxi alone costs about 200,000 yuan. When the overall technology, regulations and operating model are not yet clear, Robotaxi can only be used as a story to tell, not a way to make money. The
Robotaxi track will eventually usher in a big explosion, but this explosion will not appear in the short term, which is currently a consensus in the industry. Therefore, in the view of the above experts, car companies currently choose to layout Robotaxi business not for new profit points, but for technical accumulation. Cao He pointed out that the current autonomous driving technology is not yet mature, and technologies such as lidar , high-precision maps, vehicle-road collaboration, etc. still need a long time to explore, and some core technologies are even in a blank state. Therefore, it is almost impossible to achieve the full promotion of Robotaxi in the short term. However, he pointed out that car companies currently pay attention to autonomous driving technology before they can apply it. Robotaxi is a currently achievable first-hand trial route. "Although commercialization is not mature enough, technology and products need to be accumulated and tested from now on, so these car companies choose to use small-scale Robotaxi operations to achieve testing of technology and products." Cao He said.
"Developing autonomous driving is not simply a process of algorithms, but a process of continuous optimization of algorithms. It is easy to have a set of algorithms, but how to ensure that the algorithm is reliable and can cover all scenarios is the most critical."Shao Yuanjun bluntly stated that the rapid development of autonomous driving technology requires a large amount of data to feed back and accelerate algorithm iteration. If you rely solely on test vehicles of autonomous driving companies, data accumulation is far from enough. Car companies can not only obtain a large amount of sample data through a large number of sold vehicles, but also accumulate data through Robotaxi to verify and correct the autonomous driving algorithm.
04 The road ahead is uncertain. "C-bit" is to be determined
" Now the Robotaxi market is still in its early stages of development, and the domestic Robotaxi ownership is only about 1,000 vehicles, and the future development is still very variable. "In Zhang Xiang's view, due to the constraints of technology, cost, etc., the market size of more than a thousand vehicles is not worth mentioning at present. Even if a complete vehicle company enters the market, it is difficult to improve the current situation in the short term. In addition, he also pointed out that the Robotaxi industry is "high thunder and little raindrops". Some autonomous driving companies have moisture in cost publicity and technical publicity, and the competitive landscape cannot be judged.
Despite this, Zhang Xiang said that travel platforms will play an important role in the Robotaxi market. He believes that if you want to seize the Robotaxi market, both funds and users are indispensable. "In the current travel industry, Didi can stand out. First of all, it started early and obtained a large amount of user resources; secondly, Didi has a lot of financing and has sufficient financial support. "Zhang Xiang said. Based on this, choosing to enter the Robotaxi field to accumulate popularity and rely on large automakers may have a place in the future Robotaxi market.
In Cao He's view, whether it is Baidu , Pony Ma Zhixing, Wenyuan Zhixing and other autonomous driving companies that have previously dominated the Robotaxi field, or car companies that have now brought a large amount of resources to enter, it is not an opposition relationship, they should be united. "Robotaxi itself is the product of the combination of market and technology, so all parties are more conducive to the progress of the entire industry. "He said.
Secretary-General Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference, believes that although alliance is a trend, car companies may occupy a dominant position in the future and play a role in coordinating the design of vehicle products, effectively integrating autonomous driving technology, and using data to provide services to consumers, so as to truly form a closed loop of autonomous driving ecological.
Shao Yuanjun also has confidence in the "C position" of the car company. First of all, car companies have far more advantages in accumulating autonomous driving data than autonomous driving companies. Secondly, whether Robotaxi can develop is the market demand of consumers, and car companies can directly reach users and gradually promote Robotaxi according to user needs. "Now, Robotaxi's market demand has not been established, and user habits have not been cultivated. Everyone is more just curious, and the real market demand is still very small. "He said that the online car-hailing model equipped with drivers can fully meet the needs of current consumers. Robotaxi, which has high initial investment, immature technology, and long verification time of
is not so necessary. Therefore, in his opinion, compared with the autonomous driving companies that bet on Robotaxi, car companies that understand user needs and have resource advantages such as data and funds can better promote the development of the Robotaxi industry step by step.
Text: Zhang Yiwen Editor: Huang Bei Layout: Li Peiyang
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