Will L4 be mass-produced first? To B or To C? Andi’s high-profile answer is “To B first”

As the competition for new energy vehicles enters the second half, how will ICV technology achieve a "second take-off"? As various car companies are betting on L3 intelligent driving technology, how will the future intelligent driving ecosystem develop? On April 7, a piece of news that "GAC Aion and Didi Autonomous Driving have established a joint venture company, Andi Technology, and the first L4 driverless mass-produced car has entered the substantive stage of development" attracted widespread attention from the industry and public opinion. The two giants have joined forces and invested 420 million yuan to target the Robotaxi (driverless taxi) field, and work hard on the B-end to open up the L4 large-scale commercial closed loop. From this moment on, people may really look forward to the arrival of the driverless era.

(Official announcement)

Shared travel is the key to developing L4

In November last year, four ministries and commissions issued a notice on the pilot work of intelligent connected vehicle access and road access, and ICV technology ushered in a booming trend. As high-end intelligent driving technology continues to become popular, people can't help but ask, will the era of driverless driving come soon?

But the reality is very bleak. From the current situation, many companies that have entered the L4 autonomous driving market are still in the R&D or hype stage. The technical solutions lack the "optimal solution" and the hardware costs are too high, which makes it impossible for the L4 autonomous driving model to enter the C-end private travel field in the short term. Manufacturers cannot produce it, consumers cannot afford it, and there is no way to talk about profitability.

In contrast, the B-side shared travel sector is more friendly to the development of L4 driverless cars. In environments with relatively simple road conditions such as closed parks and highways, existing technologies have already performed well in terms of safety and stability. The operating time and operating efficiency are better than those of human drivers, the cost performance is more prominent, and the commercialization prospects are broader. In fact, at the Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference in March this year, Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aion, pointed out that the best application scenario for driverless cars should be in the field of shared travel, and driverless cars will become the mainstream trend of the market in the future. McKinsey also pointed out in the report that the scale of the Robotaxi industry is expected to exceed US$2 trillion by 2030.

(Gu Huinan, General Manager of GAC Aion, speaks at the Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference)

It can be said that in the current development of the L4 autonomous driving industry, it is better to regard the B-end as the key to breaking through, rather than "faltering" on the C-end. GAC Aion and Didi Autonomous Driving have found this opportunity. The cooperation model of "autonomous driving company + new energy vehicle enterprise" can give full play to their respective advantages in technology research and development, production and manufacturing, and commercial operations, and establish an L4 autonomous driving business ecosystem on the B-end, while continuously cultivating profit prospects, promoting continuous technology iteration and cost optimization, establishing L4 technical standards, and ultimately leading the entire automotive industry to evolve towards the autonomous driving stage.

"AnDi" joins forces, 1+1＞2

As the leading players in their respective fields, GAC Aion and Didi's autonomous driving have aroused great expectations from the outside world. According to the communiqué, the two parties have jointly established Andi Technology Company. The first model has entered the substantive stage of development. It is planned to be mass-produced in 2025, and 100,000 units are planned to be produced during its life cycle. This model is built on GAC Aion's AEP3.0 high-end pure electric exclusive platform, integrating Xingling's high-end electronic and electrical architecture and multi-fusion perception autonomous driving mass production technology. It will give full play to GAC Aion's advantages in ICV and production and manufacturing, effectively reduce hardware cost and ensure production quality. At the same time, the model will also be equipped with Didi's autonomous driving L4 city generalization engine and software and hardware technology solutions, and use Didi's autonomous driving experience in algorithms, software and hardware systems to explore the optimal system assembly plan. Moreover, after mass production, the model will be fully adapted to Didi's unmanned operation and maintenance platform Huijugang, and connected to Didi's travel network in the form of mixed dispatching, efficiently creating a business model and improving profitability.

(Xingling Electronics and Electrical Architecture)

It can be said that the "AnDi Model" jointly created by GAC Aion and DiDi Autonomous Driving has effectively achieved the "1+1>2" advantage of both parties. With the first commercial implementation of L4 by Andi Technology, GAC Aion behind it has also become the first automaker to enter the L4 driverless practical operation stage, building the world's first "technology + smart manufacturing + operation" L4 business ecological closed loop. While other automakers are still exploring L4, it has taken a step ahead to propose a specific mass production plan, and will achieve L4 mass production in 2025, with a production plan of 100,000 units, bringing consumers a safer, more convenient and lower-cost disruptive travel experience; at the same time, it has also rapidly accumulated advantages in Robotaxi, the most complex and largest-scale application scenario of autonomous driving technology, becoming the "leader" and "torchbearer" of industry development.

Zhang Xiong (right), deputy general manager of GAC Aion and chairman of Andi Technology, and Meng Xing (left), COO of Didi Autonomous Driving and director of Andi Technology, conduct a styling review

L3 and L4 work together to lead the "second half" of the ICV competition

In fact, the cooperation with Didi Autonomous Driving is not the only action taken by Aion in ICV recently. Since the beginning of this year, GAC Aion has promoted the popularization of L2+ intelligent driving technology in various ways, including the launch of the Y Plus Intelligent Driving Edition, the official price reduction of the S Max Xinghan and V Plus, which bring users a more stable driving experience, more accurate driving environment monitoring, and more convenient parking, allowing more consumers to enjoy the high-value pure electric travel experience created by Aion's "quality technology blockbuster".

In terms of L3 technology, GAC Aion is one of the first domestic automakers to obtain a road test license. It is in the leading position in the industry in terms of software and hardware research and development. Its models have achieved excellent results in many recent intelligent driving tests. Its Haobo HT and other models have also recently opened city NDAs. In the near future, GAC Aion will also unveil a new car equipped with a pure visual L3 technology solution without images.

In terms of L4, in addition to cooperating with Didi Autonomous Driving, on March 19, Haobo and NVIDIA announced that they will jointly mass-produce L4 models. Haobo's next-generation L4 autonomous driving car will be powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Thor dual chips, achieving industry-leading 2000TOPS computing power, and will be the first to achieve mass production in 2025.

In the field of shared travel, GAC Aion and Didi Autonomous Driving have jointly realized the mass production of L4 technology and created the industry's first L4 business ecosystem; in the field of private travel, GAC Aion and international chip giant NVIDIA have worked together to take the lead in mass production of L4 models, and the BC end has made efforts on both lines to bring driverless technology closer to ordinary consumers. It can be seen that GAC Aion's continued efforts in the L4 field fully demonstrate its strong ICV technology strength, and further consolidate GAC Aion's industry position as the "first camp of full-stack self-developed intelligent driving." With the efforts of GAC Aion, the "leader in intelligent driving," we have every reason to look forward to the early arrival of the driverless era.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.