On December 29, AUTO announced that its 5G+L4 smart heavy-duty truck Donghai Bridge platoon-following "reduced" operation test project under the high-speed scenario has successfully completed the technical verification of 5-vehicle marshalling and 3 vehicles in the middle that are truly unmanned, and will launch the country's first normalized "truly unmanned" test and operation on social roads.
As a major innovative breakthrough in Shanghai's intelligent connected vehicle management methods, the implementation of the Donghai Bridge's downsizing project is an effective way to promote Yangshan Port's smart heavy trucks from technical verification and test operations to large-scale commercial operations. It is also an important measure to implement the artificial intelligence and transportation power strategy, and promote the high-quality development of the automotive industry . It is also a milestone node for the "unmanned" operation of the autonomous driving industry.
Accelerate the process of "truly unmanned" commercial operations
With the maturity of autonomous driving technology and the intensive introduction of relevant policies by national and local governments, large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving has become the main theme of the industry.
Youdao Zhitu has made bold attempts in multiple business scenarios to promote the rapid implementation and large-scale application of truly unmanned commercial operations. As a national key R&D project and Shanghai’s number one project, 5G+L4 smart heavy trucks have achieved quasi-commercial operation on the Donghai Bridge in 2020. On July 18, 2022, with the implementation of the management measures for the Donghai Bridge’s dedicated autonomous driving test lane, the Donghai Bridge’s “reduction” operation test was officially launched and steadily progressed. The first phase of the two-vehicle formation and safety officer stress test has been successfully completed; the second phase has started The main driver was unmanned on the bridge test, and the continuous operation mileage without takeover exceeded 4,000 kilometers without the main driver, and there were more than 100 cycles with zero takeover; the three-stage closed-site test of a five-vehicle formation with three vehicles and no one was completed, providing comprehensive practical experience for true single-car unmanned.
Youdao Zhitu is the first in the industry to launch normalized "truly unmanned" testing and operations. It will accelerate the large-scale application of autonomous driving in ports, trunk lines, municipal sanitation and other public transportation and public service fields, and promote "unmanned operations" in all scenarios. It is of great significance for improving operational efficiency, achieving cost reduction and efficiency, and assisting the construction of smart ports and the construction of a transportation powerhouse. Taking the Donghai Bridge scenario as an example, smart heavy-duty trucks with L4 autonomous driving capabilities can perform autonomous driving transportation operations in 5-vehicle formations, which will further break the bottleneck of large-volume transportation across offshore islands, alleviate the traffic pressure on the Donghai Bridge caused by the doubling of throughput, improve traffic efficiency by at least 40%, and save at least 80% of labor costs.
effectively solves the long-tail problem of , shows "hard-core" strength, and
is the first to implement unmanned technology. In addition to the support of a series of policies and regulations, the long-tail problem is also an important factor restricting the scale of autonomous driving commercial implementation and needs to be solved urgently. In order to ensure the safety and reliability of the commercialization of truly autonomous driving, relying on the technology accumulation and successful experience of Yangshan Port’s “5G+L4” smart heavy truck project, combined with its own technical strength and the advantages of the industry chain, Youdao Zhitu has overcome various challenges and opened a new pattern for the commercialization of autonomous driving.
Youdao Zhitu is actively developing intelligent driving systems for unmanned commercial operations. Its full-stack self-developed Honghu intelligent driving platform has achieved "four major upgrades" in hardware, algorithm, performance and security. For example: the self-developed algorithm has made the function of changing lanes and detours more anthropomorphic; the intelligent driving system has anthropomorphized intelligent driving functions such as following, overtaking and detouring. The parking time has been reduced from 110 seconds for manual parking to 65 seconds, and the one-time unadjusted parking rate is 99%.
In view of the "reduced personnel" operation test, Youdao Zhitu also conducted a large number of closed scene tests on smart heavy trucks, including full-vehicle unmanned stress tests, real vehicle fault injection tests, scene special tests, extreme safety takeover tests, remote control test risk minimization actions, and passed the test review by experts and third-party professional institutions. For extremely low-probability potential failure modes, a total of 11 categories and 1,216 failure modes have been sorted out, forming 758 fault safety protection plans. The "emergency downgrade" safety decision-making system can realize that when the vehicle detects an abnormal situation that cannot be recovered immediately, it will actively slow down and pull over to the side, adding a layer of support for autonomous driving.At the same time, Youdao Zhitu's full-chain digital cloud control platform has online monitoring, remote vehicle control, path planning and other functions, and supports various vehicle-road collaborative applications, further ensuring the safe and stable conduct of unmanned bridge testing.
As we all know, the more uncertain factors and complex scenarios encountered by autonomous vehicles on the road, the more intelligent the artificial intelligence algorithm becomes. As the only land-based collection and distribution channel in Yangshan Deepwater Port, the Donghai Bridge scene is the world's longest L4 autonomous driving commercial operation scene. The scene is rich and complex, and the changeable weather adds challenges to autonomous driving operations. It has also become a natural "training ground" for iterative upgrades of technical algorithms. Up to now, the cumulative operating mileage of smart heavy trucks has exceeded 4.3 million kilometers, and the number of simulation scenarios has reached one million. The construction of the data factory has continued to enhance the data collection capabilities on the "end" of Youdao Zhitu and the algorithm self-learning capabilities on the "cloud", effectively ensuring data security, promoting iterative upgrades of technology, and providing reliable support for achieving the goals of each stage of "staff reduction" operation testing.
Next year, youdao Zhitu will take the lead in carrying out unmanned commercial operations between the collection and distribution center - Donghai Bridge - Yangshan Phase 4 automated terminal, run through the commercial implementation model of autonomous driving, form a Shanghai standard that can be replicated and promoted, and move towards full-scenario unmanned operation from the Donghai Bridge.
Author: Zhou Yuan
Editor: Shi Bozhen
