There is no winter for automatic driving of heavy trucks: the strongest giants cooperate in mass production, and suppliers set a financing record of 270 million.
On the evening of1October 27th, Beijing time, 10, Daimler, two giants in the field of automatic driving of heavy trucks, and Waymo, a recognized leader in the field of automatic driving in the world, announced that they had reached a strategic cooperation on a global scale, aiming at realizing the mass production of L4 self-driving heavy trucks.
On1October 28th, Beijing time, 10, Minieye, a domestic self-driving startup company (the current shipment volume is mainly in the field of heavy truck ADAS), announced that it has completed a series C financing of RMB 270 million, with investors including new and old shareholders such as Harvest Investment, Oriental Fuhai and Siweituxin. This is the largest single round of financing in ADAS field to date.
Previously, in September 2020, faw liberation, the largest heavy truck seller in China, announced a new generation of self-driving heavy truck J7, which was jointly built by Zhijia Technology and Zhitu Technology. L3 super truck will be mass-produced on 202 1. ?
The above information shows that in addition to the all-round development of passenger cars, the development of heavy trucks is also surprising. Whether it is a low-level self-driving heavy truck currently in mass production, an advanced self-driving heavy truck being planned for mass production, or even a completely unmanned self-driving heavy truck, its progress is gratifying. ?
In fact, the trunk logistics market of heavy truck service is no less than the passenger car market. No matter in China or the United States, there are not a few entrepreneurs who work hard for automatic driving of heavy trucks. In America, the leader is Waymo. At the beginning of 2020, Waymo announced the launch of Waymo, a service that cooperated with passenger car RoboTaxi. A parallel heavy truck RoboTruck serves Waymo Via.
In the field of automatic driving of heavy trucks, Waymo also believes that it is necessary to seek the cooperation of the main engine factory and mass-produce automatic driving heavy trucks like passenger cars. For heavy truck OEMs, it is better to cooperate with leading autonomous driving technology companies than to develop them by themselves. Therefore, with the global strategic cooperation between Waymo and Daimler in mass production of L4-class self-driving heavy trucks, this idea has been exemplified in China, that is, the strategic cooperation between Zhijia Technology and faw liberation. ?
It will take time for mass production of high-level autonomous driving, but regulations require that heavy trucks should be equipped with L2-level automatic driving (ADAS) functions, such as AEB, as a standard to improve safety. Therefore, this market has naturally become a battleground for military strategists. After all, mass production means getting closer to commercialization and making money.
In China, regulations require AEB function to become a standard from 2020. With the continuous record-breaking monthly sales of heavy trucks, the ADAS market of commercial vehicles completely broke out. After years of efforts, many ADAS start-ups in China, including Minieye, Jim, MAXIEYE and Jingwei Hengrun, finally ushered in the market harvest period and were recognized by the capital.
In March 2020, MAXIEYE announced that it had obtained the strategic investment from Ruili Group to develop the pneumatic braking system for commercial vehicles.
In June, 2020, Jingwei Hengrun, an established supplier, received an investment of 2 1 100 million yuan from Huaxing New Economic Fund, and is currently carrying out Pre-IPO financing with a valuation of1200 million yuan.
In June 5438 +2020 10, Minieye announced that it had obtained a series C financing of 270 million yuan from new and old shareholders such as Harvest Investment, Oriental Fuhai and Siweituxin. ?
According to Che Zhijun, in addition to the continuous recognition of ADAS suppliers, Zhijia Technology and Yuche Technology, which aim to drive heavy trucks at a higher level, will soon complete a new round of financing, and strategic investors will also enter the market. As for the future of Tucson, which has a higher valuation, after it was announced in June 2020 that it had started and received $250 million in financing and started the IPO, it has not yet announced the completion of this round of financing and IPO progress, and I hope there will be good news.
Automatic driving of heavy trucks, whether Minieye, Jim, MAXIEYE, etc. Suppliers of ADAS functions (L 1, L2 Autopilot) that have been mass-produced, or Waymo, Zhijia Technology, Vehica and Tucson that aim at more advanced autopilot or completely unmanned autopilot, will occupy their own place in the market in the future.
At present, from the development trend, some companies aiming at higher-level self-driving heavy trucks have begun to explore the lower-level self-driving market with faster mass production, and the competition between them will be inevitable. Dr. Liu Guoqing, the founder of Minieye, believes that the experience of mass production is their greatest advantage, and more importantly, they can expand into the passenger car market. However, some ADAS practitioners also said that autonomous driving companies aiming at L4 are more likely to become guests of heavy truck OEMs, thus forming business cooperation.
Anyway, the heavy truck autopilot market is huge enough to support two listed companies in China and the United States. Therefore, the startups that have worked hard in it are striving to make heavy trucks safer, thus making human travel safer, which is worthy of tribute.
Self-driving cars, whether passenger cars or commercial vehicles (heavy trucks), are in the golden period of rapid development. Anyone involved will make great progress in his career. I have to say that it may be the next 29 years (20 19 means the next 30 years), hahahahahahaha. Come on!
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.