From the market last month Tesla After using the Gaofu map provided by Baidu Maps, recently the cooperation between Baidu and Tesla ushered in new possibilities again.
According to media reports, Xu Baoqiang, general manager of Baidu's autonomous driving technology department, recently said that Robotaxi (Taxi sharing), Baidu will consider possible cooperation opportunities according to Tesla's specific application mode and pace of entering the Chinese market.
With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, the importance of the intelligent level of vehicles is becoming increasingly prominent, especially intelligent driving has become the core element of consumers when buying cars. Baidu and Tesla are two of the top intelligent driving enterprises at home and abroad. Their cooperation will not only accelerate the growth of each other's business, but also greatly enhance the development of the entire intelligent driving field.
At the same time, based on the layout of both sides, the unmanned taxi, as the best embodiment of intelligent driving technology, and the ideal way to commercialize intelligent driving technology, will also usher in new possibilities with their cooperation.
Tesla uses Baidu to promote FSD in China
Xu Baoqiang's so-called "cooperation opportunity" is not sudden, but an extension based on the existing cooperation.
In late April this year, it was reported that Tesla would clear the key obstacles to the introduction of advanced driving aids in China through cooperation with Baidu in map and navigation functions.
Later, an insider said that among the maps approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources at that time, the advanced auxiliary driving map GS (2023) 4634 submitted by Baidu Zhitu Technology Co., Ltd. for navigation was the lane level map jointly completed by both parties. Tesla and Baidu Maps were "exclusive" and deeply customized this time.
Compared with the traditional ACC adaptive cruise, intelligent driving requires not only the use of navigation maps, but also the collection of road related information. Therefore, all domestic intelligent driving systems must obtain surveying and mapping qualification to operate on public roads, while overseas car enterprises need to cooperate with licensed domestic companies to achieve this.
In order to introduce the Full Automatic Drive (FSD) system to the Chinese market, Musk has no choice but to cooperate with local enterprises with qualification for field testing.
At present, there are not many domestic companies with mapping qualification. As of December 2023, there are 19 enterprises with Class A navigation electronic mapping qualification in China. These enterprises include Siwei Tuxin, Gaode, Lingtu, Changdi Wanfang, Kailide, Yitutong, National Basic Geographic Information Center......
In addition to engineering oriented organizations and administrative organizations such as the Geographic Information Center, there are only four companies that can cooperate with Tesla commercially, namely, Siwei Tuxin, Gaode, Baidu and Ditu.
It is worth mentioning that Tesla has used Baidu Maps on car sales models in China as early as early as 2020, and the large screen and navigation when driving use Baidu Maps as the base map.
Perhaps because of the cooperation foundation, or perhaps because Baidu is more mature in high-precision maps, this cooperation can be achieved quickly.
The importance of this cooperation for Tesla is self-evident. First, if we can do a good job in automatic driving in China's complex road environment, then our technical strength will be recognized globally; Second, Tesla's FSD needs to be paid for use, and Tesla has millions of cars in China, which also means huge revenue.
As for Baidu, focusing on the field of automatic driving for many years, it also needs a good partner to put the technical achievements accumulated over the years into practical application, and test and make breakthroughs in the application.
In addition to their own interests, as the leaders in the field of automatic driving at home and abroad, the cooperation between the two companies will undoubtedly accelerate the development of the entire automatic driving industry.
Strong cooperation to accelerate the commercialization of unmanned driving
For any enterprise in the field of automatic driving, on the premise of continuous development and maturity of technology, commercialization has become the most essential demand. Only when the commercialization is implemented can the technology be verified and the value be reflected.
At present, with the continuous attempts of players, Robotaxihas become an important scene for the commercialization of autonomous driving.
Since there is no driver, Robotaxi can theoretically achieve 24-hour operation except for charging time. At the same time, because the employment cost of drivers is saved, the operating cost of operators will gradually decrease with the increase of operating time, which gives operators more imagination in business model.
As early as 2016, Robotaxi was put on the agenda by Musk and further refined in 2019.
According to Musk, in the first phase, the business model of Robotaxi will be similar to online car hailing and car sharing, and the average cost per mile will be reduced to less than $0.18, while the owners of Robotaxi team can earn $30000 per year.
At the first quarter financial report teleconference this year, Musk confirmed that Tesla would release Robotaxis product, or "Cybercab", in August this year, and said that the company is developing an autonomous taxi Robotaxis which hopes to achieve mass production in 2024, which will be a "huge driving force" for Tesla's future growth.
Compared with Tesla, Baidu's Robotaxi is obviously moving faster.
On August 18, 2021, Baidu released the newly upgraded automatic driving travel service platform "Radish Run" at the Baidu World Congress.
As one of the landing projects, Baidu "Radish 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 Express is expected to operate in 65 cities by 2025 and cover 100 cities by 2030.
Recently, at Baidu's 2024 first quarter financial report conference call, Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li disclosed that as of April 19, Radish Express had provided more than 6 million orders for automated travel services to the public.
Tesla has technology and scale, and Baidu has technology and channels. If the two parties can reach a cooperation, it will promote the popularization of Robotaxi services in China, and the full commercialization of automatic driving will enter the sprint stage.
The ideal is full, but there are still difficulties
The cooperation between Baidu and Tesla will have a huge impact on both mapping and the unsettled Robotaxi. However, it is a commonplace that the difficulty of the comprehensive popularization of automatic driving technology is not only the immaturity of the technology itself, but also the policy and legislation.
At present, there are two factions of automatic driving in the market. One is the pure vision scheme represented by Tesla, and the other is the vision+radar scheme. However, either is far from being able to handle most of the more complex driving environments.
At present, autonomous vehicles are prone to errors, loss of control, conflicts and other situations, resulting in potential safety hazards and risks. It is precisely because of these safety issues that the policy on automatic driving has been very cautious.
Although many domestic cities have released support measures for the ICV industry, it can also be seen that there is basically no legal action.
Taking Beijing Yizhuang High level Automatic Driving Demonstration Zone as an example, we have been fully armed in the process of promoting the development of automatic driving, and gradually released from the stage where the driver has a safety officer, the co driver has a safety officer, the front row has no safety officer, and the whole vehicle has no safety officer, and it has taken several years to steadily push forward.
In contrast, the driverless test in San Francisco, the United States, has always been in a barbaric growth stage, and the failure of autonomous vehicles to be on the road without strict supervision has also become one of the main reasons for frequent accidents.
For decades, drivers' code of conduct, liability determination for traffic accidents, automobile insurance business, traffic ethics guide and other systems have all been established with "people" as the core. However, when L3 and above automatic 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 question is not clear, it will cause drivers, passengers, automobile manufacturers and system software suppliers to fall into the vortex of "back cooking" and "throw cooking", reduce the public's trust and acceptance of autonomous vehicles, and thus harm the development and progress of autonomous driving technology.
In fact, Wang Yunpeng, Vice President of Baidu Group and President of Intelligent Driving Business Group, also said at the "Apollo Day 2024" activity that under the complex road scenario in China, achieving the operation of Robotaxi faces great challenges, especially in the safety issue, which needs special attention.
The true core proposition of automatic driving is bold imagination, careful verification, breakthrough from the technical side to ensure safety, and clear responsibility from the legal side.
What do Baidu and Tesla want to do and what can they do about it? rub one's eyes and wait. (Lu Shiming)
