Judging from the present situation of global development, V2X's widespread popularization is really far away. On the one hand, it is subject to the development of autonomous driving technology, the support of supporting facilities and standards, on the other hand, it also comes from the investment of car companies and the hesitation of high cost.
But in China, under the theme of "new infrastructure" in 2020, the situation in China is already changing. China will not miss the opportunity to realize technological transcendence with the concepts of 5G, V2X, vehicle-road coordination and smart city. Judging from the slogans shouted by many car companies at present, V2X will be another prosperous scene in China in the next five years.
America could have taken the lead again.
Autopilot and V2X have built a bright future for us. In the V2X system, cars are interconnected, cars are interconnected with the cloud, and cars are interconnected with infrastructure. Through real-time dialogue and communication, a smooth, efficient and safe travel network can be realized.
This kind of life is no stranger to us. Science fiction literature and film and television works have long existed. We don't deny our yearning for this kind of life, but in the real world, the development of industry and technology is not entirely based on people's preferences.
20 17 is the time node when V2X flourished for the first time. The startup companies related to the Internet of Vehicles technology received more than 500 million dollars of investment in the whole year, which was embodied in V2X technology, vehicle telematics and other aspects, and the financing amount obtained in the whole year accounted for 43% of the entire automobile industry.
Many auto giants, including BMW, Toyota and General Motors, have joined the investment cooperation of related start-ups. No one will question whether V2X can come this year, and the formulation of V2X standard based on DSRC technology route in the United States is coming to an end, and its implementation is imminent. With market soil and policy support, it is obvious that the United States will soon become the most suitable country for developing V2X and autonomous driving, so car companies naturally don't want to miss the opportunity. Volkswagen, Toyota and other car companies have promised in advance the timetable for mainstream models to carry V2X functions.
At this time, the United States has completed the DSRC research for more than 20 years, including Japanese and European V2X, which have chosen the DSRC route, while China, which adheres to the C-V2X technical route, has only started the research for several years. Even though China will become the largest automobile consumption market beyond the United States, car companies are still reluctant to invest in V2X, a cutting-edge technology. After all, the DSRC standard in the United States has been set, and it takes a lot of energy to develop another C-V2X model in China.
Only a few car companies, such as GM, have started research and development in demonstration cities in China.
Things took a turn on 20 19. At the end of last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed to redistribute the communication frequency band of intelligent transportation. The original mainstream DSRC was marginalized in frequency band allocation, and C-V2X was promoted.
One possible reason is the consideration of 5G development. Compared with DSRC, C-V2X has the advantages of direct built-in, real-time update support and more compatibility with 5G networks. When the global automobile market moves towards 5G, DSRC is actually out of touch with 5G, and the United States has to give up its efforts in the past 20 years. But at this time, Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors are ready, and plan to seize the leading position in the new round of intelligent competition with mass production of V2X. The transfer of technical route made them suffer. But it also creates some opportunities.
The goal of V2X in China in 2025.
Similar to the situation of 20 17, the emphasis on the concept of V2X (vehicle-road coordination) in China's new infrastructure in 2020 is also prompting a large number of car companies to invest in it. Starting from 20 15, the route exploration and standard formulation of C-V2X saw the landing of mass production models this year.
It can be guessed that the United States abandoned the DSRC route and paid more attention to C-V2X technology, which became the reason why China further put 5G and V2X on the strategic level.
At the beginning of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources and other 1 1 ministries and commissions jointly signed and issued the "Intelligent Vehicle Innovation and Development Strategy", clearly promoting the interconnection of 5G and car networking, with the goal of achieving a high degree of synergy among people, vehicles, roads and clouds by 2025;
In March, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Notice on Accelerating the Development of 5G, proposing to promote the scale deployment of LTE-V2X; The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly organized and implemented a series of innovative projects including collaborative car networking based on 5G vehicles;
In August, the 3rd Global Smart Car Frontier Summit focused on smart car application scenarios, business models and other issues, and V2X and vehicle-road collaboration became the key discussion topics.
The time node in 2025 has been determined, and the next step is the coordinated implementation of the government and industry. In fact, since last year, many automobile brands have shouted the slogan of V2X landing:
SAIC, Dongfeng, Changan, etc. 14 car companies * * * released C-V2X commercial road signs, which will be gradually mass-produced in 2020-2026, 5438+0;
Volvo signed a cooperation agreement with China Unicom to promote the technical development of cooperation between V2X and Chelu;
By the end of 2020, both Buick and Ford will have new models equipped with V2X technology.
In 2023, Guangzhou Automobile Group realized L4 product operation based on vehicle-road coordination.
To realize the coordination between vehicles and roads, both vehicles and roads are indispensable. The state has given support from the level of policies and standards, followed by construction tasks and models. The construction of smart cities is one aspect. The new infrastructure defines the cooperation between cities and communication operators in the construction of roadside facilities, including road test units and road intelligent sensing equipment (such as cameras). However, its high investment determines its limited promotion scope.
Ford made statistics when he invested in the research and development of C-V2X in the past few years. Laying an optical fiber with C-V2X technology on an 80-1 20km expressway costs as much as110,000 USD. In addition, there is a huge amount of information capacity. For example, a kilometer network using C-V2X technology needs to support sending 2 billion messages per hour.
We are not worried about China's determination to launch V2X. For example, it can provide financial support to relevant enterprises, or it can be stipulated in policies that all new cars launched in 2025 must be equipped with V2X function. However, its practical application scope is unpredictable, on the one hand, it supports the road construction progress of V2X, on the other hand, it is the V2X carrying rate of vehicles on the road. According to statistics made by General Motors, more than 25% of vehicles need to be equipped with vehicle-road coordination technology within a specific travel range, and the intelligent vehicle infrastructure coordination system within this range can play a role.
Car companies are moving forward in wait-and-see and hesitation.
In the face of policies and standards, car companies are often active, whether in the United States or China. For example, in the years when GM adopted DSRC technology in the United States, GM took the lead in carrying Cadillac CTS and chose C-V2X in China. GM also started research and development on 20 16, and launched the first vehicle equipped with V2X technology this year.
However, the positive response of car companies may be "just talk, be honest." No matter from the aspects of consumers' purchase intention, product experience or function landing, V2X will not bring positive economic effects to car companies in the next few years. Contradictory emotions come from this: car companies know that V2X and autonomous driving are the future, and no one wants to miss this wave of development; However, the slow development of V2X in the global market in the past few years, including the route change in the United States, has once again slowed down the pace of car companies.
Development is inevitable, and how much energy to develop is the choice of every car company.
Taking the booming year of 20 17 as an example, the investment related to V2X and vehicle telematics accounts for 43% of the whole automobile industry, but the investment specific to each automobile enterprise is not too much.
For example, Nauto, a startup company, takes the route of autonomous driving technology, collects all road information, and focuses on developing V2X technologies, including Toyota, BMW and GM. However, compared with the investment of autonomous driving companies such as Argo and Cruise, Nauto has not received much attention.
Another performance is that these car companies that invest in Nauto only enjoy the priority of their latest technology, but do not have exclusive rights. Nauto's original product is similar to a driving recorder, which is placed outside the front windshield for data collection and analysis. Each device costs $400. For car companies, the purpose of cooperation with Nauto is to further improve the level of their autonomous driving system with the help of the information collected by them. Nauto has obtained the investment from car companies, and can further develop V2X technology with the goal of developing built-in equipment.
Compared with the advance investment layout of car companies, suppliers move faster. On 20 17, both mainland China and Aptiv completed the acquisition of related technology companies, and Huawei also initiated the establishment of a C-V2X cooperation ecosystem on 20 18, and cooperated with many car companies to promote the landing of V2X technology. For car companies, they can enjoy V2X's progress and leading technology at a lower cost, and suppliers of technical solutions can also get more product support from car companies to speed up technology research and development.
The core power of the communication company lies in who can realize the landing of C-V2X faster, thus taking the lead in the seamless access between the automobile industry and 5G. In China, Baidu, Gaode, Ali and Huawei have all laid out their own technical solutions in advance, such as the V2X roadside construction of Baidu, the communication module of Huawei and the smart transportation industry of Ali and Gaode.
In contrast, the task assigned to car companies seems to be less onerous: in the face of the national goal of "people-car-road-cloud" in 2025, car companies only need to work closely with suppliers and adjust the mass production of V2X according to the progress of policy implementation. In addition, the task for car companies is to popularize and educate consumers about V2X.