On December 21, the World Economic Forum China Future Of Automobile and Transportation Conference was held in Guangzhou. Three ministerial guests from different countries, dozens of industry think tanks and international organizations representatives, chairmen and CEOs of enterprises in the automotive, transportation and energy fields, and a number of front-line media leaders gathered in Guangzhou to discuss the overall development of the industry online and offline, predicting future automobile and travel trends.
At the meeting, with the support of the World Economic Forum, the world's first terminal logistics autonomous driving unmanned distribution demonstration zone announced its settlement in Huadu, Guangzhou, and carried out a series of project signing ceremonies. In the future, Guangzhou will carry out unmanned distribution demonstration applications of pilot businesses such as express delivery, commercial supermarket fresh food, and catering and retail in some campuses, parks, scenic spots, communities, and commercial areas in Huadu District.
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Merav Michaeli, Minister of Transport and Road Safety of Israel, Xin Guobin, Deputy Minister of Industry and Information Technology of China, and S. Lee, Minister of Transport of Singapore. Iswaran) attended the conference online and delivered a speech. A number of CEOs of industry companies held dialogues on topics such as intelligent networking to empower industrial transformation, cross-sectoral coordinated development of automotive energy and transportation, and the future of autonomous driving, helping to build a global development community in the context of the turbulent period of global change.
International guests share cutting-edge experience to jointly promote the positive development of the automotive industry
At present, the automobile industry is transforming from the traditional machinery manufacturing industry into a future industrial form that combines a new generation of digital industry, artificial intelligence industry and new energy industry. As the core of industry change, autonomous driving and intelligent networked vehicles provide technical support for further digital transformation, and have received great attention from governments and industries in recent years.
At the conference, many guests said that with the rapid development of technology, supporting policies, regulations and regulatory frameworks need to be developed simultaneously. Formulating a secure and flexible governance system to guide the rational development of the industry is a common issue faced by global policymakers. In addition, the goal of carbon neutrality places new demands on the automotive and mobility sectors. The combination of the automotive industry and the energy and transportation industries is also key to achieving the goal of low-carbon development. The guests believed that in addition to continuing to develop new energy vehicles, the industry should also play a key role in the use of materials and parts in the recycling, as well as improve the efficiency of transportation and travel.
Schwab said in a video message that China is the world's largest auto market, and driven by policy guidance, value chain reforms and strong incentives, China is in a leading position in global electric vehicle production. The World Economic Forum will continue to work with key stakeholders in China and around the world to drive positive trends in the automotive industry.
"Over the past two years, COVID-19 has accelerated the development of new digital technologies with many positive results. During the worst of the pandemic in China, it's encouraging that self-driving cars have scaled up to support the delivery of medical devices. Schwab also pointed out that in recent years, Guangzhou's rapid development has been remarkable, especially in the fields of information technology, biomedicine, automotive and transportation, providing cities around the world with experience worth learning, and it is a pleasure to witness the forum strengthening its ties and cooperation with Guangzhou.
▲Schwab video message
"We are eager to share knowledge, learn from each other and create a better, safer and greener future for the world." In his video message, Merav Michaeli, Israel's Minister of Transport and Road Safety, described some of Israel's current attempts at the forefront of the transportation system.
Based on its experience in responding to covid-19, Israel has launched the "National Drone" project, a cutting-edge project dedicated to creating an economically viable national drone transport network. "The network has now operated thousands of drones to deliver medical supplies and goods in the most densely populated areas of Israel." Melaf Michael said.
Known as the "Garden City", Singapore is an internationally recognized model of a "transportation city". At the meeting, Singapore's Minister of Transport, Yi Huaren, introduced Singapore's efforts to alleviate urban traffic congestion and develop sustainable transportation.
"If we want to go fast, we have to go by ourselves, but if we want to go far, we must move forward with everyone." Yi Huaren said that the Singapore government's "2030 Green Plan" has made specific plans for the low-carbon development of its domestic transportation, which requires the joint participation of the government, industry and all sectors of society. "Electric vehicles are the biggest path to emission reduction, so we have to control the number of fuel vehicles and increase the number of electric vehicles."
Intelligent networking will bring profound changes to the future of transportation
Have you imagined a city in 30 years? How will we travel in 30 years? What will our cars or means of transport look like in 30 years?
After the opening ceremony, the conference set up two sub-forums around the theme of "digital and low-carbon two-wheel drive industry development". At the sub-forum of "Digitalization: Intelligent Networking Empowers Industrial Transformation", Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Innovation Factory, Zeng Qinghong, Chairman of GAC Group, Li Zhenyu, Senior Vice President of Baidu Group, and Wang Qiang, Vice President of JD Group, imagined the development possibilities of automobiles and transportation in the future from the aspects of automobile manufacturing, software terminal and terminal distribution on how intelligent networking can empower the transformation of the automobile industry.
"Driven by electrification and unmanned driving, there will be many opportunities for future transportation, and the entire traffic will be completely subverted." At the meeting, Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Innovation Factory, combined his long-term investment experience in the field of intelligent driving and described the future transportation picture in his eyes.
Li Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu Group, also made a bold prediction, he believes that "intelligent transportation is a major change that will affect mankind in the next 40 years", and intelligent transportation based on vehicle-road collaboration is expected to achieve no longer need to limit traffic and purchase within 5 years, and basically solve congestion within 10 years.
"Today, people are changing more strongly than ever for safe, efficient, convenient and green economy transportation, but the city is getting bigger and bigger, and the population and cars are increasing, all of which makes the solution of traffic problems more urgent than ever." Li Zhenyu believes that future transportation should have the characteristics of reducing the probability of traffic accidents, effectively solving congestion problems, and saving energy and reducing air pollution.
Wang Qiang, vice president of JD Group and head of JD Logistics X Research Department & Intelligent Supply Chain Platform Department, shared the impact of digital and autonomous driving related technology development on the logistics industry from the perspective of logistics enterprises. In the terminal distribution scenario, the gap in couriers is increasing year by year, which has generated greater demand for intelligent automation of logistics. "Through the development of intelligent networking, promote the deep connection between intelligent networking and smart cities, in the next 3 to 5 years, all road traffic scenarios of autonomous driving service logistics will be likely to become a reality." Wang Qiang said.
As a provider of autonomous driving solutions and a demander of the business, Wang Qiang called on enterprises to work with the government and the industry to jointly promote the application of automated driving technology in the logistics industry, and drive the development of the upstream component industry and promote the landing of products from the huge market demand for automatic driving at the end.
Under the current global economic slowdown, weak growth, and repeated impacts of the epidemic, the digital economy has become a new driving force to stimulate the global economic recovery. Specifically, how will digitalization affect the automotive industry? Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, believes that digitalization has brought intelligent changes in products, R&D production and marketing to the automotive industry. Digitalization is the creation of new business models and business values for traditional business empowerment through digital means.
▲Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group
Today's car is no longer just a means of transportation, but also a data terminal, how to ensure the data security of smart cars? In the CEO dialogue session, Zeng Qinghong said that as a car company, it is necessary to carry out legal management, while standardizing and strictly managing, and establishing a hierarchical management system for data to ensure the security of data.
Cao Bin, general manager of Neusoft Ruichi, believes that the relevant regulations on automotive data security will become more and more perfect in the future. Under the premise of ensuring compliance with the requirements of regulations, it is also necessary to put into practice and play the value of data. "The use of data is reflected in the consumer's usage feelings, which is one direction for the real use of our future data."
Han Xu, CEO of Wenyuan Zhixing, said, "If it is a rocket or a car, the algorithm is equivalent to an engine, and the data is the raw material." "Under the premise of ensuring data security, we must run data and promote technological development.
Create a low-carbon travel ecosystem through more scenario applications
In the second theme forum, around the topic of "Low Carbon: Cross-sectoral Coordinated Development of Automotive Energy and Transportation", many guests provided governance experience for the digitization and intelligence of transportation.
"The transportation industry has always been the vanguard of the promotion and application of new energy vehicles in China, and now it has further become the main position." Li Bin, vice president and chief engineer of the Highway Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, pointed out that the promotion of new energy vehicles in the transportation industry has achieved good results, but due to the current level of vehicle technology development, new energy vehicles still have problems such as imperfect supporting infrastructure construction and insufficient maintenance system in the application. "In the next step, we will focus on ensuring the promotion of new energy vehicles in the industry, give full play to the comprehensive advantages of new energy vehicles, and make transportation services more green, low-carbon, safe and efficient."
How can the automobile industry and automobile companies "reduce carbon and decarbonize"? Zhang Yongwei, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, said that the use of green energy plays a very important role in this. "Both green energy and green production mechanisms determine the degree of 'decarbonization' of an enterprise." Zhang Yongwei pointed out that for the field of electric vehicle parts, to deeply participate in the recycling of automobiles, the most important point is to realize the recyclability of batteries and the recovery of some rare materials, which is also the way to make batteries available and recyclable to achieve "decarbonization".
How to help the digitalization and intelligence of transportation and achieve low-carbon development in synergy? In the roundtable discussion session, the participants contributed their development wisdom through the integration of online and offline.
Li Biao, general manager of China Southern Power Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co., Ltd., gave solutions to meet low-carbon and smart travel from the perspective of smart grid layout. "In the future, China Southern Power Grid will vigorously lay out the smart charging network, develop and upgrade the exchange electricity technology, and meet the travel needs of new energy vehicles." Li Biao proposed that in the next step, China Southern Power Grid will make technological breakthroughs from the following aspects: actively expand large-function fast charging technology to alleviate users' charging anxiety; deep integration of multiple networks, such as integrated development in power grids, transportation networks, internet and other aspects, to further improve the level of intelligent charging; explore the development of wireless charging technology, and integrate and develop in terms of intelligence and scenarios.
What does coordinated and low-carbon development mean for China? What kind of impact will this have on China? "China has great potential for development, and it is crucial to find a suitable development path to achieve low-carbon development and enhance the resilience of development," said Wu Zhenyin, World Bank's Infrastructure Business Director for China. Wu Zhenyin pointed out that China can accelerate the direction of the electrification of automobiles, but the role of technology in electrification cannot be ignored. Second, China needs to focus on more infrastructure layouts, such as charging stations, substations, etc., and create a low-carbon travel ecosystem through more scenario applications. At the same time, China should also expand the use of renewable energy. "On the one hand, China promotes technological iteration through continuous research and development, and also constantly shares its own experience to promote the development of all countries in the world." Wu Zhenyin said.
A number of autonomous driving projects landed in Guangzhou
Huadu took the lead in building a demonstration area for unmanned distribution of automatic driving in terminal logistics
In recent years, China has accelerated the commercial operation of unmanned driving, and the L4-level Robotaxi market has broad prospects. At the meeting, GAC Group, Wenyuan Zhixing and Ruqi Travel reached a strategic cooperation and held a signing ceremony for tripartite strategic cooperation and investment agreement.
The three parties plan to gradually establish a Robotaxi fleet and realize commercial operation in the next few years, with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as the core radiating to the whole country, and launch safe, economical and green autonomous driving travel services for the public. Among them, it is planned to launch Robotaxi operation on the Ruqi Travel Platform in 2022 to provide users with autonomous travel services.
In addition, the People's Government of Huadu District signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with 4 unmanned distribution head enterprises, including Jingdong Logistics Group, White Rhino Zhida (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and Guangzhou Puhua Lingdong Robot Technology Co., Ltd.
Huadu District has the only international air and rail hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, is an advanced manufacturing industry base in Guangzhou, and is also the largest international automobile industry base in South China. In recent years, Huadu District has focused on the agglomeration of intelligent and connected vehicle industry, and actively laid out the fields of unmanned driving and intelligent travel. According to the recently released "Action Plan for the Hub-type Autonomous Driving Innovation Pilot Zone in the Greater Bay Area of Huadu District, Guangzhou", it is expected that in 2023, Huadu District will open more than 150 kilometers of autonomous driving demonstration roads, and by 2025, the scope of automatic driving demonstration will cover the whole area of Huadu. At present, the intelligent network closed test field covering an area of 2300 acres has been planned and started construction, and it is expected that an open intelligent network demonstration area with the air-rail integration development demonstration area as the core can be built within 3 years, and the intelligent networked automobile industry ecosystem will be basically formed.
Since September this year, with the support and coordination of the Guangzhou Municipal Government, Huadu District and the World Economic Forum have gradually docked and reached a consensus on cooperation. In order to orderly promote the construction of the unmanned distribution demonstration area for terminal logistics autonomous driving, with the approval of the Guangzhou Municipal Government, Huadu District formulated and issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of The Unmanned Distribution Demonstration Area for Terminal Logistics Autonomous Driving in Huadu District" as the basis and decision-making reference for the follow-up support for the industrialization of unmanned distribution.
"Huadu District encourages fully verified unmanned distribution enterprises to explore unmanned distribution demonstration applications for pilot businesses such as express delivery, commercial supermarket fresh food, and catering and retail in some campuses, parks, scenic spots, communities, and commercial areas in Huadu District." In terms of safeguard measures, Huadu will further consolidate the support platform of the autonomous driving unmanned distribution industry in Huadu District from the aspects of strengthening organizational leadership, policy support, exchanges and cooperation. The relevant person in charge of Huadu District introduced.
Text/Guangzhou Daily, Xinhuacheng reporter: Zhang Shuhong, Xu Wenwen, Yang Chaolu
Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Yang Yaoye