After it was reported in the market last month that Tesla will use the Gaofu map provided by Baidu Map, the recent cooperation between Baidu and Tesla ushered in a new possibility.
According to media reports, Xu Baoqiang, general manager of Baidu’s self-driving technology department, recently said that for the Robotaxi (shared taxi) to be launched by Tesla, Baidu will consider possible cooperation opportunities according to Tesla’s specific application model and the pace of entering the Chinese market.
With the rapid development of new energy vehicle industry, the importance of automobile intelligence level is becoming more and more prominent, especially intelligent driving has become the core element when consumers buy cars.
Baidu and Tesla, as the two top intelligent driving companies at home and abroad, the cooperation between the two sides will not only accelerate the growth of each other’s business, but also greatly enhance the development of the whole intelligent driving field.
At the same time, based on the layout of both sides, unmanned taxis, as the best embodiment of smart driving technology, as well as the ideal way to commercialize smart driving technology, will usher in new possibilities with the cooperation between the two.
Tesla, with the help of Baidu, pushed FSD in Huali.
Xu Baoqiang’s so-called “cooperation opportunity” is not sudden, but an extension based on existing cooperation.
In late April, it was reported that Tesla would clear key obstacles to the introduction of advanced driving assistance in China through cooperation with Baidu in mapping and navigation functions.
Subsequently, a person familiar with the matter said that among the maps approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources at that time, the GS (2023) 4634 Advanced Auxiliary driving Map submitted by Baidu Zhitu Technology Co., Ltd. for navigation was the lane-level map completed by the two sides, and the cooperation between Tesla and Baidu Map was “exclusive” and deeply customized.
Compared with the traditional ACC adaptive cruise, intelligent driving not only needs to use navigation maps, but also collects road-related information.
Therefore, all domestic intelligent driving systems must be qualified for surveying and mapping in order to run on public roads, while overseas car companies need to cooperate with licensed domestic companies to achieve this.
Musk has no choice but to cooperate with local companies with testing qualifications in order to introduce fully autonomous driving (FSD) systems to the Chinese market.
At present, there are not many companies with mapping qualification in our country.
as of December 2023, the number of enterprises with first-class navigation electronic mapping qualification is 19.
These enterprises include Siwei Tuxin, Gaode, Lingtu, Changdi Wanfang, Kailide, Yitutong, the National basic Geographic Information Center, excluding the partial engineering organizations, and the administrative organizations like the Geographic Information Center, the only ones that can cooperate with Tesla in business are Siwei Tuxin, Gaode, Baidu, and Didu.
It is worth mentioning that Tesla used Baidu Maps on the models sold in China as early as 2020, and the big screen and navigation are based on Baidu Maps.
Perhaps because there is a basis for cooperation, or because Baidu is more mature in high-precision maps, this cooperation can be achieved quickly.
The importance of this cooperation to Tesla is self-evident.
On the one hand, if you can do a good job of autopilot in China’s complex road environment, then your technical strength will certainly be recognized around the world.
second, Tesla’s FSD needs to be paid to use, and Tesla has more than one million cars in China, which also means huge revenue.
As for Baidu, focusing on the field of self-driving for many years, it also needs a good partner to put the technical achievements accumulated over the years into practical application, test and break through in the application.
In addition to the interests of the two enterprises, as a leader in the field of self-driving at home and abroad, the cooperation between the two companies will undoubtedly accelerate the development of the whole self-driving industry.
Join hands to accelerate the commercial landing of self-driving, for any enterprise in the field of self-driving, under the premise of the continuous development and maturity of technology, commercial landing has become the most essential demand.
Only when it is commercialized can the technology be confirmed and its value reflected.
At present, with the constant attempts of players, Robotaxi (self-driving taxi) has become an important scene for the commercial landing of self-driving.
Since there is no driver, the Robotaxi can theoretically operate 24 hours a day, excluding the charging time.
At the same time, because it saves the cost of hiring drivers, the operating costs of operators will gradually decline with the increase of operating hours, which gives operators more room to imagine in the business model.
Robotaxi was put on Musk’s agenda as early as 2016 and was further refined in 2019.
Musk has previously said that in the first phase, Robotaxi’s business model will be similar to car-hailing and car-sharing, when the average cost per mile will fall to less than 18 cents, while owners who join the Robotaxi fleet will make a profit of 30, 000 dollars a year.
During the earnings call in the first quarter of this year, Musk confirmed that Tesla would release Robotaxi products, or “Cybercab”, in August this year, and said that the Robotaxi, a self-driving taxi being developed by the company, hopes to achieve mass production by 2024, which will be a “huge driving force” for Tesla’s future growth.
Baidu’s Robotaxi is obviously faster than Tesla.
On August 18, 2021, Baidu launched a new and upgraded self-driving travel service platform “radish run” at Baidu World Congress.
As one of the landing projects, Baidu “radish fast run” has now fully opened its manned operation services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha, Yangquan and other cities, among which Beijing, Chongqing and Yangquan have carried out pilot commercial operations.
According to Baidu’s plan, radish fast is expected to operate in 65 cities by 2025 and cover 100 cities by 2030.
Recently, at Baidu’s earnings call for the first quarter of 2024, Baidu founder, Chairman and CEO Robin Li revealed that as of April 19, radish Express had accumulated more than 6 million orders for self-driving travel services to the public.
Tesla is skilled and generous, Baidu has technology and channels, if the two sides can reach a cooperation, it will promote the popularization of Robotaxi services in China, and the full commercialization of autopilot will also enter the sprint stage.
Ideal fullness, but there are still difficulties, whether it is mapping, or the undecided Robotaxi, Baidu and Tesla cooperation will have a huge impact.
However, it is a clich é that the difficulty of the overall popularization of self-driving technology lies not only in the immaturity of the technology itself, but also in the policy side.
, legislative end.
, At present, autonomous driving companies on the market can be roughly divided into two factions.
One is a pure vision solution represented by Tesla, and the other is a vision + radar solution.
However, either one is far from being able to handle most of the relatively complex driving environment.
At present, self-driving vehicles are prone to errors, loss of control, conflicts, etc.
, causing safety hazards and risks.
It is precisely because of these safety issues that policies on autonomous driving have been very cautious.
Although many domestic cities, Miduji, have released support measures for the intelligent connected automobile industry, it can also be seen that there are basically no legal actions.
Taking the Beijing Yizhuang High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone as an example, it is fully armed in the process of promoting the development of autonomous driving, starting from the main driver having safety officers, the co-driver having safety officers, the front row having no safety officers, and the entire vehicle having no safety officers.
Gradually let go and steadily advance over a few years.
In contrast, driverless testing in San Francisco, USA, has always been in a barbaric growth stage.
Autonomous vehicles on the road without strict supervision have become one of the main reasons for frequent accidents.
For decades, systems such as driver behavior norms, traffic accident liability identification, automobile insurance services, and transportation ethics guidelines have all been established with “people” as the core.
However, when L3 and above autonomous driving systems replace human drivers as traffic participants, the punishment mechanism for road traffic safety violations and vehicle insurance business will face great challenges.
If any issue is unclear, it will trap drivers, passengers, car manufacturers and system software providers into the whirlpool of “taking the blame” and “shaking the blame”, reducing the public’s trust and acceptance of autonomous driving cars.
, and in turn harm the development and progress of autonomous driving technology.
In fact, Wang Yunpeng, vice president of Baidu Group and president of the Intelligent Driving Business Group, also said at the “ApolloDay2024” event: Under China’s complex road scenarios, realizing Robotaxi operations faces greater challenges, especially in terms of safety issues.
Pay special attention to it.
Boldly imagine, carefully verify, achieve breakthroughs from the technical side to ensure safety, and clarify responsibilities from the legal side are the real core propositions of autonomous driving.
What do Baidu and Tesla want to do and what can they do in this regard? Wait and see.
(Lu Shiming), return to the home page of First Electric Network>.
