The weather turns cold, but there is no winter for autonomous driving!

on the evening of October 27th, Beijing time, Daimler, two giants in the field of automatic driving of heavy trucks, and Waymo, the recognized leader in the field of automatic driving in the world, announced strategic cooperation on a global scale.

This is the first commercial vehicle autopilot order that Waymo has received since its establishment. Previously, Waymo? Renault-Nissan, Fiat-Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo are also on the list of partners.

According to the plan, Daimler Truck Company (Daimler? Trucks) and Waymo will jointly develop and deploy a large-scale autonomous driving platform to mass-produce unmanned heavy trucks.

according to the details disclosed in this cooperation with Waymo, Daimler will focus on the development of autonomous driving chassis, system integration and safety redundancy.

the development of redundant steering, braking and control systems is very important to the development of this field. This is one of the main limiting factors to promote this technology to the world. This will also be the key cooperation direction between Waymo and Daimler.

Daimler overweight autopilot landing:

In fact, as one of the largest truck manufacturers in the world, Daimler trucks have been increasing the research and development of autonomous driving technology in the past few years. For example, the acquisition of Torc, an autopilot software supplier? Robotics； The Autopilot Technology Group (ATG) was established to build a global autopilot platform and integrate technology, business and market on a global scale.

but it doesn't seem to be going well. An unnamed Daimler executive revealed: "It is very difficult to develop and launch a feasible self-driving car project." This cooperation with Waymo will mean that it is implementing autonomous driving deployment in another way.

at the same time, the person in charge of Waymo also said that he has been thinking about how to integrate with traditional industries and develop a new business model instead of becoming a "destroyer".

compared with some self-driving startups' heavy asset operation mode (operating their own fleet), Waymo prefers to seek cooperation with automobile manufacturers and tier-one suppliers. After all, strong cooperation may be the main direction in the future.

The commercial market makes autonomous driving self-hematopoietic faster:

Waymo was born out of Google, and it launched the RoboTaxi service for passenger cars very early. At one time, the safety officer was removed, but in the end, due to the limitations of bicycle intelligence, the safety officer had to return to the driving position again.

up to now, the RoboTaxi service established by Waymo for many years has not achieved an effective hematopoietic model.

compared with the traditional passenger car industry, the automatic driving in the logistics industry has accelerated, which has enabled many industry chain participants to see more short-term opportunities.

according to the estimation of American trucking association, there is a shortage of 6,8 drivers in this industry, and by 228, the number will exceed 16,.

China regulations also require that commercial vehicles must have AEB function as standard from 22. To this end, in September, 22, China, the largest seller of heavy trucks, announced a new generation of self-driving heavy trucks J7 jointly built by partners such as Zhijia Technology and Zhitu Technology. L3 super truck will be mass-produced in 221.

with the promotion of policies, many domestic ADAS startups, including Minieye, Jimu, MAXIEYE and Jingwei Hengrun, have finally ushered in the harvest period of the market after years of hard work, and have been recognized by the capital.

in March, 22, MAXIEYE announced that it had obtained the strategic investment from Ruili Group, which developed the pneumatic braking system of commercial vehicles;

In June, 22, Jingwei Hengrun, an established supplier, received an investment of RMB 21 million from Huaxing New Economic Fund, and is currently carrying out Pre-IPO financing, with a valuation of RMB 12 billion.

In October, 22, Minieye announced that it had received a series C financing of RMB 27 million from new and old shareholders such as Harvest Investment, Oriental Fuhai and NavInfo.

in addition to the continuous recognition of ADAS suppliers by capital, Zhijia Technology and Weiche Technology, which are aiming 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 Tucson's future with higher valuation, after it was announced in June 22 that it would start and receive 25 million US dollars of financing and start an IPO, it has not yet announced the completion of this round of financing and IPO.

In foreign markets, earlier this year, Waymo said that it would focus on the freight roads between Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to conduct truck autopilot tests.

At the same time, Amazon, the e-commerce giant, has stepped up the deployment of logistics autonomous driving. In addition to investing in Aurora, it also announced the acquisition of Zoox, an autonomous driving startup.

finally, as a global leader in the field of autonomous driving technology, Waymo's every move may represent the change of wind direction in this industry.

Waymo has been releasing rumors since last year: "Robotaxi may not be the first commercial autopilot scene." Now that Daimler Heavy Truck has been successfully held in hand, it can be seen that a new round of commercial competition pattern of autonomous driving has been formed in the commercial vehicle sector.

This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.