Unemployed? Internet exposure Didi deploys driverless trucks!

Posted by bruce zhu on May 19th, 2022

Unemployed? Internet exposure Didi deploys driverless trucks!

When it comes to autonomous driving, many card friends feel that it is far away from us. But recently, a media exposed the news of Didi’s deployment of driverless howo trucks, which shocked us. Are driverless trucks coming? Are we going to lose our jobs? Let\'s talk about this today.

On April 29, a financial website revealed the news \"My younger brother has a self-driving sinotruk truck in a drama, intending to enter the trillion-level trunk logistics market\". The main content of the news is that the media learned from the leading car supplier that the company is working with Didi on the autonomous truck project, and this project has begun to build a team about a year and a half ago. The team is led by a senior executive who has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In Xiaobian\'s mind, Didi has always been a platform-based company. It started out as an online car-hailing company and has grown gradually, and its business areas have also gradually increased. Today, I believe that many card friends have heard the name of Didi Freight. In the online car-hailing market, Didi has teamed up with BYD to launch a customized version of the pure electric online car-hailing model: BYD D1 Didi customized version, and on the road in Beijing, the editor also saw many such vehicles.

According to this routine, it should be nothing new for Didi to cooperate with other auto companies to launch truck-related models, and even autonomous driving technology. On the other hand, in today\'s society, autonomous driving technology has always been a thing on the cusp of the storm. Especially in Beijing, the editor has seen Meituan\'s unmanned delivery vehicles driving on the road (probably a test) on the road in Beijing.

Self-driving vehicles can also be tested in the Yizhuang area of ??Beijing through the online car-hailing situation. However, in the previous self-driving online car-hailing car, there was still a safety officer watching from the driver\'s seat. But I vaguely remember seeing a \"real self-driving car-hailing car\" with the safety officer not sitting in the driver\'s seat recently. It can be seen that autonomous driving technology actually already has certain prerequisites for the road.

It has to be said that any advancement in technology will change the world. If self-driving cars really come and they can get to their destinations on their own, will we truck drivers lose their jobs? The editor thinks that this may be a process of raising the threshold for drivers, and some people may be screened out, but it is unlikely that truck drivers will disappear completely. Why do you say that? Let\'s say one by one.

From a purely financial point of view, some data forecasting companies infer that the potential market size of our domestic intercity logistics has reached 3.3 trillion yuan, while the unmanned driving market in mining areas can reach nearly 670 billion yuan. And these industries are basically the industries that \"stop people and never stop cars\". In terms of the trunk logistics of express delivery, basically there are two drivers in one car, working shifts.

Let\'s assume that the monthly salary of a driver is 15,000 yuan, then two people are 30,000 yuan. If the automatic driving is mature, the number of people in the car may be reduced to confirm. He is responsible for the record of safe driving of the vehicle and emergency response. This will reduce the operating cost of the courier company a lot.

And if this matter is in a closed site such as a port or a mine, the personnel cost may be lower, and unmanned driving may be fully realized. In March this year, Inceptio recently completed the L4 heavy-duty unmanned road test. According to the relevant national regulations, the test was carried out on a closed expressway test section in Laiwu, Shandong, with a total length of about 24km. The test section includes typical high-speed road structures such as up and down ramps with various slopes, large curvature curves, long tunnels, bridges, entry and exit high-speed ramps, and toll stations, and a large number of vehicles are called to simulate real traffic flow. The test vehicle, on the other hand, is unmanned throughout the whole process, without remote intervention, and smoothly completes the road test, calmly dealing with automatic following, automatic lane change, identification and avoidance of construction vehicles and cones, automatic avoidance in the lane, automatic follow-stop and driving. Typical scenarios such as entering a toll station.

Seeing this, some card friends have asked questions. If the car is so smart, what do we need the driver to do? This is based on what I have learned. My own neighbor once interviewed for a driver test for driverless cars, and I contacted my neighbor specifically for this.

It is reported that in the unmanned car-hailing interview he interviewed, their operations on the vehicle must be assessed, including subjects such as piling, emergency avoidance, emergency braking, etc., but he did not pass as an ordinary driver. The editor himself has a period of experience in car testing. From his description, the editor thinks that the avoidance test should be what we often call the \"elk test\". In other words, after the advent of autonomous driving, you may have to rely on these \"skills\" as a driver, as well as the understanding and recording of data to eat.

In addition, self-driving cars still need a lot of verification at present, which may be realized on relatively fixed routes, but in complex road conditions and urban shuttles, driverless cars may not be able to replace human driving. Therefore, the editor thinks that self-driving cars will really appear in the future, and may be the first to appear on highways.

At the technical level, a driverless car needs to place multiple sensors on it, and at the same time have a high computing power chip to perform complex data processing, calculate the data required for driving, and obtain corresponding operations. The price of these things is not low at present, so although the company has already laid out and tested it in a short period of time, it may be very early to actually hit the road.

• Afterwords:

To sum up, the editor believes that drivers will not lose their jobs in a short period of time, but it is absolutely fine to learn more skills, such as driving, foreign languages, mechanics, electronics, etc., to enrich themselves. After all, social development and technological progress are too fast. If you don’t follow your studies, you will likely be eliminated by time. The editor himself is constantly learning and recharging himself, so what do you think?