Super Copy of Great Power Technology

Next, the two sides discussed when to pay and when to deliver. After seeing off the buyer, Qiao Ruida followed Shao Heping around the factory. Today, Ruida Automobile Factory has undergone two expansions and covers an area of ​​more than 1000 acres. It has more than employees and produces hundreds of thousands of various types of vehicles annually. It is one of the largest enterprises in Decheng City.

Electric patrol cars were running on the tree-lined avenues in the factory area, and material trucks loaded with auto parts passed by from time to time. What surprised Qiao Ruida was that most of these material trucks were unmanned. "Are these unmanned material trucks also produced by you?"

"Not entirely. The chassis and frames of these small freight vehicles are purchased from friendly suppliers. Only the motors, electronic controls, batteries, powertrains, and autonomous driving systems are produced by ourselves. It can be regarded as an attempt at electric drive and unmanned driving systems in the truck field." Shao Heping waved to stop an unmanned material truck and introduced some core components to Qiao Ruida.

"If this system is mature after testing, we can consider cooperating with express delivery companies to launch unmanned delivery vehicles. If the technology is mature and reliable, the market potential will definitely be huge."

"We also have this plan. We have contacted SF Express and Ruida Express to cooperate with each other to develop an unmanned delivery vehicle that can automatically plan routes, drive automatically, and deliver express parcels automatically. The project has just started, and it will take a long time to implement it."

"Last month, I saw a report saying that you were going to cooperate with the Decheng Municipal Government to launch driverless buses and driverless taxis. Why is there no follow-up? When I returned to Decheng City this time, I didn't seem to see any test vehicles of driverless buses and driverless taxis on the streets." Seeing the unmanned material truck in front of him, Qiao Ruida seemed to remember something and asked.

"The project is still moving forward, but it has encountered considerable resistance. The main concern is that after these driverless vehicles are put into use in large numbers, a large number of bus drivers and taxi drivers will lose their jobs. In addition, some leaders are not confident about the safety of driverless vehicles. If a car accident occurs, they will not be able to find anyone to be held responsible."

Shao Heping sighed helplessly. He was the one who first proposed the unmanned bus and taxi project. He also approved the initial R&D funding for the project. Now that the unmanned bus and taxi have been successfully developed, and the prototype has passed the internal field test, it was stuck at the critical moment of the project's implementation. Shao Heping was also quite helpless.

"Since the project has encountered resistance in Decheng City, we should try our luck in other cities. With so many cities in China, there are always some that dare to be the first. In fact, if driverless buses and taxis are well developed, they can be a city's business card. Autonomous vehicles are a major trend in the future, and we cannot stop eating with the bathwater just because we are worried about drivers losing their jobs. I suggest you contact some southern cities. They have always been bolder than northern cities in trying new things."

"Okay, I understand. I will arrange personnel as soon as possible to go to some large cities in the south to communicate with local transportation departments and implement the deployment plan of driverless buses and driverless taxis as soon as possible."

In the following time, Qiao Ruida and Shao Heping came to the test site and personally experienced the unmanned buses and unmanned taxis that were being tested. Unmanned buses are much smaller than traditional buses, about the same size as a minibus, and can only carry 30 people. The internal layout is similar to that of traditional buses. There is a row of seats by the window, and the middle part is empty. There are crossbars and grabbers on the top for passengers to hold when standing. Because it is a truly full-function unmanned vehicle, there is no reserved driver's seat. Two ordinary seats were originally arranged in the position of the driver's seat, so that the space can be used more fully. Since it is an unmanned bus, there are naturally no staff, and no one supervises passengers to buy tickets. It is obviously unreliable to rely on the quality of passengers to buy tickets consciously. In order to solve this problem, the unmanned bus has an electric crossbar at the front door. Only after swiping the bus card, inserting coins, or scanning the code to pay the fare will the crossbar be opened to let people on the bus. One person, one bar, is similar to the ticket checking system when entering the subway station.

"The bus has arrived at Test Station 1. Boarding is at the front door and alighting is at the back door. Please swipe your card and pay with your coin to board. Passengers who have boarded please move to the back."

Qiao Ruida took a "bus card" and swiped it himself to get on the blue and white unmanned bus test vehicle and sat in the front row, which allowed him to check the operation of the bus. Behind him, Shao Heping, Ma Chicheng, and several other R&D personnel also got on the bus and sat down in their respective seats.

"The vehicle will start soon. Please stand firm and hold on. Next stop is test station number two."

After a warning tone, the driverless bus turned on the turn signal and started to move forward. This is the newly opened driverless test track. Various obstacles are set up in the test loop to simulate complex road conditions. For example, cardboard dummies crossing the road, cardboard electric bicycles running rampant, cardboard electric tricycles driving in the opposite direction, etc. The driverless bus can easily deal with these emergencies. Even when some extremely hidden cardboard pets appear in front of the vehicle, the driverless bus can react immediately, either slowing down or turning the steering wheel to let the pet pass.

Seeing this, Qiao Ruida nodded in approval and said, "This autonomous driving system works well. In the situation just now, the pet was completely in the blind spot of vision. Even the most skilled drivers can easily get into an accident. But the driverless bus can detect the presence of the pet in the first place and avoid it. It's really amazing."

"Mr. Qiao, you are too kind. It's not that our technology is so good, but the hardware foundation of this driverless bus is too solid. The entire vehicle is equipped with four lidars, one microwave radar, and eight wide-angle cameras. With these sensors, everything around the vehicle is under monitoring. Small pets that are extremely difficult to spot in the eyes of human drivers are very obvious to these sensors, and they can be easily dealt with with some avoidance algorithms." Ma Chicheng said modestly.

"When this autonomous driving system is working, does it use local vehicle computing power or networked computing power?" Qiao Ruida asked further.

"Taking into account the many high-rise buildings in the city, the blocking and interference effects on satellite and mobile phone signals are very strong, which is not conducive to network computing. Therefore, our unmanned driving system adopts a working mode in which local vehicle computing power is mainly used and network computing power is auxiliary. During normal road driving, most of the time, the local vehicle computer is used for processing. Only when encountering particularly complex road conditions and the local vehicle computer cannot cope with it, will it be connected through satellite or mobile network and apply for cloud computing support." "I remember that the research institute is developing a graphene vehicle computer chip with computing power dozens of times that of existing vehicle computers. Is your unmanned bus using this kind of vehicle computer chip?" Qiao Ruida asked curiously.

"I know the graphene car chip you mentioned, Mr. Qiao, and I have provided some technical support to the R&D team. But the graphene car chip is still in the design stage, and there is no physical output, not even a test version of the chip. The car system of our unmanned bus has increased its computing power by stacking materials like crazy. We have stuffed more than 20 car chips on the control panel of this bus to achieve the current computing power. This is because the internal space of the bus is large enough to accommodate such a huge control panel and cooling module. If it were a family car, I'm afraid it wouldn't be able to fit in at all."

"Stacking chips to increase computing power? This method is really simple. Unmanned buses are huge and carry large battery packs. We don't care about the power consumed by the car computer, so we can operate it this way. Unmanned taxis are much smaller and have very limited battery capacity. If we stack too many chips on the car computer, the power consumption will also be high, which will affect the vehicle's endurance. How do you solve this problem?"

The car chip used in the high-end models of Ruida Automobile is a 5nm chip developed by Ruida Research Institute. It adopts an architecture similar to the M1 chip and has very powerful computing power, but it is still not enough to meet the needs of LV4 autonomous driving. It can only be connected to the Internet through satellite or mobile communication networks, and cloud computing power can be applied to complete the autonomous driving function. But it is only 13 years now, 4G mobile networks have just begun to become popular, and there is no sign of 5G mobile networks. Even within the city, 4G signals have not yet completed full coverage, and it is quite unrealistic to rely on 4G mobile networks to complete the autonomous driving function. If it is in an open area outside the city, you can also use the Tianditong series of satellites to connect to the Internet and apply for cloud computing support. In the urban area, there are many high-rise buildings, dense radio interference, and intermittent satellite signals. It is also not so reliable to rely on satellite networks to achieve autonomous driving.

If it is a family car with a driver, but encounters network fluctuations and cannot complete autonomous driving, the driver can manually take over the driving authority and continue driving. However, driverless taxis do not have drivers. How should they deal with network fluctuations?

"For safety reasons, we have also installed more than a dozen car chips on the mainboard of the driverless taxi. Even if this affects the battery life a little, we accept it. Of course, we also hope that the graphene car chip can be finalized and mass-produced as soon as possible. The current chip stacking solution is very costly and not so reliable. It is only a stopgap measure. Graphene car chip is the best solution to the problem." Ma Chicheng said helplessly.

"Well, you just need to know the situation. I will urge the chip R&D team to complete the development of graphene car chips as soon as possible to safeguard the autonomous driving system."

The driverless bus traveled on the test loop at a speed of about 40 kilometers per hour. The driving track was smooth and there was no sudden braking or stopping. The riding experience was first-class. After two laps, Qiao Ruida couldn't help but give a thumbs up to Ma Chicheng and several researchers, praising: "This driverless bus is really good, and the riding experience is quite good. I believe that after it is put into operation, it will definitely be welcomed by ordinary citizens."

"We are just driving in the test field now. No matter how good the road conditions are, they are not as complicated as the real road conditions. Starting next week, I will take the driverless buses and taxis out for road tests in Decheng City. Only if the road tests are passed can we prove that the autonomous driving system we developed is indeed excellent."

Qiao Ruida took the unmanned bus and circled the test site three times. When he was satisfied with the experience, he stood up and asked everyone to get off the bus. Qiao Ruida then took an unmanned taxi and drove around the same test site for several laps. Compared with unmanned buses, unmanned taxis are small and easy to turn around. They travel much faster than unmanned buses on the test loop, reaching about 60 kilometers per hour.

The unmanned taxi has limited space, so only Shao Heping and Ma Chicheng accompanied Qiao Ruida. Qiao Ruida sat in the right seat in the back row. He looked around at the interior layout, leather seats, electric windows, and a small touch screen in front of each passenger, which can monitor real-time driving conditions, play videos and music, and kill time.

"Is this driverless taxi modified based on the Ruida SUV?"

"Mr. Qiao, you have a keen eye. This driverless taxi is indeed modified on the basis of the Ruida SUV. We adjusted some of the body shapes, installed an automatic driving system, removed the steering wheel, gear lever and other driving mechanisms, and optimized the vehicle interior and chassis parameters. The original Ruida SUV was tuned for driving, and the driver had a good driving experience, but the passenger experience was only so-so. This driverless taxi is tuned for riding, with more comfortable seats, smoother acceleration and deceleration, and a first-class riding experience."

Ruida Automobile was founded not long ago and has launched a limited number of models. The most suitable vehicle for transformation into a driverless taxi is undoubtedly a five-seater ordinary sedan, but Ruida Automobile does not have such a vehicle model, so it can only settle for the next best thing and choose an SUV model that is similar to a sedan. Fortunately, engineers such as Ma Chicheng originally built cars, so it is very simple to redesign a sedan-like body for Ruida SUV.

"After this driverless taxi is put into operation, if the response is good, we can develop a five-seater family car based on it. We are still short of a car at Ruida Motors, so this car will fill the gap."

"Mr. Qiao, your idea is good. Ruida Automobile does need to launch a regular car. If the price is controlled at around 100,000, the entry-level model will not be too bad. If it can be equipped with an automatic driving function, it will definitely be sought after by more people. I am just afraid that the cost cannot be controlled." Shao Heping, who was sitting next to Qiao Ruida, echoed. (End of this chapter)