What is self-driving car?
Autonomous driving means that cars rely on the collaborative efforts of artificial intelligence, computer vision, radar, monitoring devices, and global positioning systems to enable computers to sense changes in road conditions without any active human intervention. Then, other systems analyze the data to help you safely reach your destination.
Why does autonomous driving need 5G?
Before 4G, internet access was limited to mobile phones and tablets. The 5G era, however, will enable the internet of everything—the Internet of Things (IoT). Autonomous driving technology is a well-established area within IoT, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is a core technology for autonomous driving. 5G can be seen as the next-generation communication technology that breathes life into it. So how does 5G support autonomous driving technology?
01 Low latency. Latency has always been a headache. For example, when playing games, lag can worsen the gaming experience. If this is the case in autonomous driving, one can imagine that accidents are always unpredictable. Therefore, the difference between high and low latency, even a millisecond, can cause serious consequences and lead to tragedy. 5G has low latency, and allocating network processing power according to data priority is the key to ensuring the transmission of driving information in vehicles.
02. High bandwidth is crucial in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. Besides ensuring low latency, it's essential to guarantee sufficient capacity so that every vehicle can connect in real-time, ensuring information sharing and access to precise location information and vehicle status. Just like during rush hour in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, high capacity and high bandwidth are necessary for every vehicle to connect. Furthermore, high bandwidth is the foundation for 5G to achieve the Internet of Everything.
03. Good stability. Nowadays, we often encounter situations such as short buffering when watching videos or sudden loss of signal when entering the subway. 5G can overcome these problems by utilizing its stability and penetration, avoiding signal loss or weakening while the vehicle is in motion, thus ensuring that the vehicle always operates stably and safely.
How will self-driving cars change our lives?
01. Make effective use of driving time and reduce workload.
In large cities, commuting time by car is often very long. With autonomous vehicles, this wasted time can be effectively utilized. When autonomous vehicles are in automatic driving mode on highways, passengers can use their time efficiently, such as eating, making video calls, watching news or movies, or working on their personal computers. Therefore, in the future, even long journeys on highways will not cause fatigue.
02. Prevent traffic accidents caused by driver carelessness.
Many traffic accidents are caused by driver errors in cognition, judgment, and operation. These errors stem from a lack of safety assessment and careless driving. Even when drivers have temporarily stopped or slowed down, reasons such as "failure to adequately assess safety" and "use of car navigation and mobile phones while driving" remain prominent. If autonomous vehicles become widespread, we can expect to see a reduction in traffic accidents caused by carelessness and a decrease in injuries and fatalities.
03. Easing traffic congestion by maintaining appropriate vehicle spacing.
Currently, major traffic jams frequently occur on highways during holidays and peak travel periods for family visits. Anyone who has driven in traffic jams knows the immense mental and physical strain they place on drivers. Autonomous driving can recognize the distance between vehicles and assist in controlling acceleration and braking to maintain a proper following distance. Therefore, with the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles, we can expect traffic congestion to be alleviated.
Autonomous vehicles are intelligent cars that use onboard sensor systems to perceive the road environment, automatically plan routes, and control the vehicle to reach their intended destination. With the rich road traffic information provided by intelligent transportation systems, autonomous vehicles can drive safely on the roads, and it is even possible to reduce the probability of traffic accidents to zero. Its significance lies in significantly reducing highway traffic congestion, improving the efficiency and safety of highway transportation systems; people can work, study, entertain themselves, and rest during their commute, eliminating tedious long-distance driving and improving overall social benefits.
To understand the basic principles of autonomous driving, it is necessary to first understand some basic concepts and the key equipment for realizing driverless technology.
Key equipment - cameras
Cameras are essential sensors for autonomous driving, including front-view, rear-view, and 360-degree camera systems. Rear-view and 360-degree cameras mainly provide a 360-degree view of the external environment, while front-view cameras are mainly used to identify pedestrians, vehicles, roads, traffic signs, etc.
Key Equipment - Radar
Autonomous driving requires multiple radar sensors, which function as wireless detection and ranging devices, primarily used for applications such as blind spot detection, collision avoidance, automatic parking, brake assist, emergency braking, and automatic distance control. Current radar systems are mainly based on 24GHz and 77GHz. Compared to 24GHz, 77GHz offers higher accuracy and angular resolution in measuring distance and speed, and also has advantages such as smaller antenna size and less interference.
Autonomous driving principles
Autonomous driving involves intelligently synthesizing data from different sensors (such as radar and cameras) to achieve complementarity, redundancy, and cooperation among different information sources, thereby making better and safer decisions. For example, cameras have the advantage of distinguishing colors (to identify signs and road signs) but are easily affected by adverse weather conditions and lighting conditions, while radar has advantages in ranging and penetrating rain and fog. The complementary integration of the two can make more accurate and reliable assessments and judgments.
However, currently, most autonomous driving technologies on the market rely solely on a single onboard device for data processing to make road segment decisions. This presents many limitations, thereby reducing the safety of driverless vehicles.
5G has become the most mainstream topic in the world today. In fact, not many people can give a standard answer to what 5G is, but many people know that 5G will be a new technology that can change the operation of the entire human society. Compared with the changes from the 3G era to the 4G era, 5G will not only change the way people use the network, but also change the entire society.
Another current hot topic is autonomous driving. In fact, the highest level of evolution of so-called autonomous driving is driverless driving, a technology that currently only appears in science fiction movies. Driverless driving directly means that cars no longer need drivers, which is another revolution for human society as a whole.
So what would happen if 5G met autonomous driving—two technologies powerful enough to change the entire world—by combining?
Creating new ways of travel
On July 12th, SAIC-GM-Wuling held the "Creating a New Life of Mobility: Automobile + 5G Intelligent Connectivity" Summit Forum in Liuzhou, Guangxi. The forum announced several significant developments, including the official completion of the world's first four-in-one public test road for autonomous driving. More notably, the world's first truly 5G intelligent connected vehicle was also unveiled at the same time.
In fact, as early as the beginning of 2019, SAIC-GM-Wuling had already partnered with a number of companies, including Huawei, to build the world's first automated 5G test road in Liuzhou, Guangxi. More importantly, SAIC-GM-Wuling had also completed nine 5G base stations during the same period. This is, in fact, the first 5G base station system specifically designed for automobiles in China, and even the world.
In fact, the completion of this test road is of great significance. First, it means that my country has officially entered the fast lane in the research and development of autonomous driving. Second, unlike the model in other countries where enterprises undertake the work independently or the state promotes it, SAIC-GM-Wuling and the Guangxi government have cooperated to create a new model of government-enterprise cooperation. Under this new model, the efficiency of enterprises will be released more effectively.
For consumers, the most important benefit is that this public test road, being the first of its kind in China, has set a good example. It is certain that a second and third such road will follow. At the same time, the birth of the first 5G car also means that China has made progress in the research and development of 5G smart cars. SAIC-GM-Wuling's move may directly ignite the intelligent trend of the entire domestic automobile market.
5G and autonomous vehicles have become highly anticipated new technologies. Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, stated at the forum that the Ministry has made general plans for 5G applications and estimates that 5G licenses will be officially issued sometime this year. He also mentioned that autonomous vehicles are likely to be one of the earliest areas to see the application of 5G technology.
During the forum, reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Online visited a pilot project for the collaborative application of 5G and autonomous vehicles in Boao, Hainan. This is the first "5.9GHz frequency band pilot project for intelligent connected vehicles" in China. In a 5G environment, five domestic automakers, including Baidu, SAIC, and Yutong, provided L4-level autonomous vehicle services and experienced real-world scenarios such as sharp turns, traffic light speed guidance, road construction, vehicle avoidance, and overtaking on a 1.1km test track.
