The outbreak of COVID-19 impacts the global economy unprecedentedly. In this epidemic, the state has repeatedly stressed the investment plan of “New Infrastructure Construction”, which aroused strong response.
The “New Infrastructure Construction” is comprised of seven major sectors, including charge stations for new energy vehicles (NEVs), which also highlights the importance of NEVs.
The industry of new energy intelligent cars is also included in the development strategy of the automobile industry, so major global technology companies are investing a huge sum of money in its research and development.
On April 9, Alibaba DAMO Academy announced that they have independently developed an ISP (Image Signal Processor) for on-board cameras, which can greatly improve the safety of autonomous driving. At present, ISP has been applied to autonomous driving logistics vehicles, and the performance in drive test reaches at the industry-leading level.
From the trend of major companies like Alibaba, we can see that the development of intelligent commercial cars is stepping up.
Recently, Wuling Motors and UISEE joint together to manufacture higher-quality products of intelligent new energy commercial vehicles. Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co.,Ltd., a holding company under Wuling Motors Holdings (HK0305), announced that it has entered into a “Letter of Intent for Strategic Cooperation” with Uisee Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. The Parties will cooperate on a multi-scene, high-level intelligent autonomous driving system to jointly promote business. The main subjects of the Parties include their subsidiaries, joint research center and joint R&D projects. The Parties are willing to establish a long-term strategic cooperation relationship and become strategic partners in the development of automobile business. Beyond doubt, this is a great step for Wuling Motors towards the development target of intelligent commercial cars in intelligent, connected and dynamoelectric trend of automobile industry.
UISEE, the target of Wuling Motors’s strategic partner, is the leader in the commercialization of unmanned driving in China, with significant technical advantages in the research and development (R&D) of autonomous driving core components such as automatic driving algorithm, full-function automotive grade intelligent driving controller and intelligent driving service cloud platform.
Meanwhile, UISEE is also active throughout the country. Its headquarters is in Beijing with a R&D center, and its branch company is in Shanghai with a R&D center, and test and application innovation center in Zhejiang. In addition, there are many offices in Shenzhen, Liuzhou and Chengdu.
Currently, UISEE has formed an L 3-L 4 intelligent driving system that can be deployed on a large scale in business, and collaborated with many important customers to innovate and apply intelligent driving in a variety of business scenes. In 2019, UISEE will cooperate with SGMW to operate normal unmanned logistics in Baojun Base. The unmanned logistics project at Hong Kong International Airport has also been operated normally, which is the first unmanned logistics vehicle operation project at an airport in the world.
We are familiar with Wuling Motors’s high-level technology and rich experience in traditional automobile manufacturing, but few of us know that Wuling Motors is also a leading enterprise in developing unmanned sightseeing cars. In August 2018, Wuling 5G remote control autonomous vehicle was put into trial operation in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications for the first time and succeed. Wuling 5G intelligent driving car was developed based on 5G mobile communication platform. As one of the important achievements of the national 5G network construction and application demonstration project, Wuling 5G remote control autonomous driving sightseeing car was unveiled and operated at the 12th China (Nanning) International Garden Exposition in December 2018. In the Exposition, the tourists have opportunities to drive and ride the car. By the first week of the opening, the 2-hour live video streaming of autonomous driving car has gained million views!
In October 2019, Wuling Motors’s 5G intelligent driving sightseeing car was put into trial operation in Banbianshan Intelligent Scenic Zone, Xiangshan County, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. The customers purchased services of unmanned sightseeing car and Wuling Motors provided customers with multiple security services in vehicles, technology, network, on-site safety officer training. By this way, Wuling Motors can promote the introduction of 5G intelligent driving sightseeing cars into the tourism park and realize the commercial operation of intelligent driving sightseeing car. According to the news on its official WeChat, Wuling Motors’s another operation site was located at Liyuan Resort, Nanning in May 2020. The new-type ring-seat Wuling intelligent sightseeing cars have undergone multiple technological upgrades: the new model, without traditional steering wheel but equipped with the handle remote control function allowing people to drive the car instantaneously under special road conditions, can be operated by the remote control handle to start, move forward and backward, turn and stop. Moreover, anti-epidemic devices such as intelligent face temperature measuring equipment are also arranged in the car to ensure the safety of passengers.
It is reported that Wuling Motors has been committed to the commercial operation of unmanned technical products under closed scenes, so the company has strong resource advantages in intelligent driving vehicle manufacturing, operation service and after-sales guarantee. Now, Wuling Motors is also developing intelligent driving commercial vehicle models and innovating scenes modes with partners including Nankai University, Roadover Technology and China Mobile.
It is said that Wuling Motors is planning to expand the applied range of unmanned vehicle products into the field of commercial logistics through this cooperation, i.e. distribution scenes of production materials such as raw materials, semi-finished products and products for large-scale factory areas and logistics parks. What is more, UISEE has rich and successful experience in the technical research and commercial operation of unmanned logistics vehicles in the factory. Thus, the cooperation between the Parties will contribute to flexible deployment and quick application of unmanned logistics solutions in the factory area, so as to introduce more efficient, economical and safe unmanned logistics vehicles and enable enterprises to improve production capacity and gain more benefits in development.
We believe that Wuling Motors will not only realize the operation of Wuling intelligent sightseeing car, but also show striking performance in intelligent logistics products and provide intelligent driving experience soon after.
The “New Infrastructure Construction” is driving China’s economy to release new momentum, and the new four ways for realizing modernization (“industrialization, informatization, urbanization, agricultural modernization”) also draw higher requirements for traditional car companies. In the good external development environment of intelligent new energy commercial vehicles, whether Wuling Motors can be a dark horse in the intelligent commercial vehicle market with the positive market guidance of the state and its own efforts? We are always looking forward to the answer.