Words? |? Han Xiao? Liumao
On February 26th, Auto News reported that Shi Yu Science and Technology, a startup company in the field of artificial intelligence in China, won a strategic investment from Bosch, a giant component supplier, in the B round of financing.
In the same period, it also invested in Shenzhen Venture Capital (Shenzhen Innovation Investment Group), CICC Capital, Xiamen Seven Wolves Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Fund and Chongqing Liangjiang Service Fund, among which Shenzhen Venture Capital is the leading investor in this round of financing.
After Shi Yu Science and Technology announced the news of round B financing, Che Dongxi also contacted Wu Gansha, co-founder and CEO of Shi Yu Science and Technology, to discuss the details of this financing and the development plan of Shi Yu Science and Technology in 2020.
Wu Gansha said that Bosch divides autonomous driving technology into three major areas: highways, cities and limited scenes. The limited scene low-speed unmanned vehicle technology currently developed by Shi Yu Science and Technology has a good fit with Bosch. At present, the two sides are actively communicating various possibilities.
At present, Shi Yu Science and Technology's low-speed driverless technology has been able to achieve four key features. They are: unmanned driving, no security officer in the car; Normalization, regardless of wind and rain, can work 7×24 hours; Scale, a large number of applications, rather than one or two products for show; After the operation, the unmanned vehicle is delivered directly to the user, rather than being operated by the autonomous driving company itself.
In addition, an interesting thing is that Ma Xiao Zhixing, another self-driving startup in China, just announced today that it has received an investment of 400 million US dollars (about 2.8 billion yuan) from Toyota Motor Corporation.
For the rise of this wave of autonomous driving investment, Wu Gansha believes that the core reason is that the development of autonomous driving technology, especially low-speed autonomous driving technology, has reached a critical point where it can land on a large scale.
First, Bosch, the giant of Tier 1, invested in Shi Yu Science and Technology.
On February 26th, Shi Yu Science and Technology, a startup company in the field of artificial intelligence in China, announced that it had won the strategic investment of Bosch Series B financing.
In the same period, the investment also includes Shenzhen Innovation Investment Group, CICC Capital, Xiamen Seven Wolves Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Fund and Chongqing Liangjiang Service Industry Fund.
Regarding this investment, Ingo, managing partner of Bosch Venture Capital Company? Dr Ramesohl said that as one of the leading autopilot solutions providers in China, the L4 autopilot platform developed by Shi Yu Science and Technology can meet the demand of improving logistics efficiency. At the same time, Shi Yu Technology will further enrich the investment portfolio of Bosch Venture Capital Company in the field of autonomous driving, and bring more cooperation opportunities for Bosch.
Wu Gansha, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Shi Yu Science and Technology, said that the cooperation with Bosch will help Shi Yu Science and Technology upgrade its products and services so as to better serve customers around the world. "We will integrate superior resources, create high-level autonomous driving technologies and products, and promote mass production of driverless technology on a global scale." Wu Gansha said.
Shi Yu Science and Technology was founded in February 2065438+2006. It is a start-up company in the field of artificial intelligence in China, and is committed to promoting the application of AI in travel, logistics and other fields.
According to the previous understanding, in terms of business, Shi Yu Science and Technology has formed L3-L4 intelligent driving system which can be deployed on a large scale, and independently developed a number of driverless solutions based on its core technology, U-Drive autopilot platform.
In 20 19, Shi Yu Science and Technology's autonomous driving technology landed at Hong Kong International Airport, and Shi Yu Science and Technology and Hong Kong International Airport both put unmanned logistics vehicles at the airport to provide luggage transportation services for passengers.
▲ Shi Yu Technology's unmanned delivery vehicle
During the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, the unmanned delivery vehicle developed by Shi Yu Science and Technology based on the U-Drive intelligent driving system will undertake the contactless delivery and express delivery of medical supplies in closed scenes such as hospitals, communities, factory workshops, industrial parks, office buildings and schools.
Second, Wu Gansha: This year, the application scale of Yu Shi will have a "fire-breathing" development.
After Shi Yu Science and Technology announced the news of round B financing, Che Dongxi immediately contacted Wu Gansha, co-founder and CEO of Shi Yu Science and Technology, to discuss the details of this financing and the development plan of Shi Yu Science and Technology in 2020.
1, the driverless technology in a specific scene has reached the critical point of large-scale landing application.
In the B round of financing completed by Shi Yu Science and Technology, there are many investors such as Bosch, Shenzhen Venture Capital and CICC Capital, among which Shenzhen Venture Capital is the leading investor, and the participation of the world's largest Tier 1 Bosch has also added more endorsements.
Bosch itself is developing autonomous driving technology, so will Shi Yu Technology and Bosch have relevant cooperation?
Wu Gansha said that Bosch divides autonomous driving technology into three major areas: highways, cities and limited scenes. The unmanned vehicle technology in specific scenes that Shi Yu Science and Technology is currently studying has a good fit with Bosch. At present, the two sides are actively communicating various possibilities.
▲ Wu Gansha Hong Kong Airport checks the operation of unmanned vehicles
Some executives of autonomous driving companies told automobiles that besides Shi Yu Technology, many other low-speed unmanned vehicle companies, such as Zhixing, have already obtained or will soon obtain a new round of financing, and there is quite a trend that the investment in autonomous driving circle will be hot again.
In fact, just before Shi Yu Science and Technology announced its acquisition of Series B financing, Pony.ai Ma Xiao Zhixing, which focuses on the research and development of driverless taxi technology, also announced its acquisition of Series B financing of $462 million (about 3.2 billion yuan) led by Toyota.
Talking about the reasons for the current wave of investment in autonomous driving, Wu Gansha believes that the core is autonomous driving technology, especially low-speed autonomous driving technology has developed to a critical point where it can land on a large scale.
"The unmanned logistics vehicle we deployed at the Hong Kong airport removed the security officer, and the unmanned vehicle was directly handed over to the operator for use, not operated by our own engineers." Wu Gansha said, "The investor only chose to shoot after seeing the possibility of low-speed unmanned vehicles landing."
In addition, he added, the epidemic has further expanded the understanding and demand for low-speed unmanned vehicles.
2. The landing scale of Shi Yu Science and Technology in 2020 will meet the development of "fire injection".
2065438+0919 At the end of February, Shi Yu Science and Technology deployed an unmanned logistics vehicle at Hongkong International Airport to transport the luggage carried on the plane.
Shi Yu Science and Technology said, "This is the world's first unmanned normal operation project running in the actual combat environment of the airport, and it is also the first unmanned freight commercial service."
▲ Unmanned logistics vehicles launched by Shi Yu Science and Technology in Hong Kong.
Wu Gansha told Auto that the driverless technology of Shi Yu Science and Technology has been able to achieve four key functions in specific scenarios.
Unmanned driving, there is no security officer in the car; Normalization, regardless of wind and rain, can 7? x？ Work 24 hours a day; Scale, a large number of applications, rather than one or two products for show; After the operation, the unmanned vehicle is delivered directly to the user, rather than being operated by the autonomous driving company itself.
"Only by meeting these four characteristics can autonomous driving technology be truly mass-produced and quoted." Wu Gansha concluded.
In terms of scale, Wu Gansha revealed that Shi Yu science and technology will have a "fire-breathing development" this year.
In the first half of this year, the number of unmanned logistics vehicles of Shi Yu Science and Technology in Hong Kong Airport will reach double-digit level.
It is precisely because Shi Yu Science and Technology has been able to achieve the above four characteristics that it will further expand other unmanned areas besides airport unmanned logistics vehicles.
Specifically, it is to focus on a core technology and achieve multi-line flowering with partners.
"The core of Shi Yu technology is to develop artificial intelligence drivers that can be used for various scenarios." Wu Gansha said, "We cooperate with vehicle manufacturers and vehicle users to realize the landing operation of low-speed unmanned vehicles for different scenarios."
According to Wu Gansha, the L4 driverless minibus has been built through cooperation with Yutong and other bus companies, and it was displayed and operated at Boao Forum for Asia last year, and manned operation was opened in Zhengzhou.
At the same time, we are also cooperating with our partner * * * to develop products such as unmanned logistics vehicles and unmanned delivery vehicles in specific scenarios.
"Yutong and other partners are vigorously promoting the application of driverless cars." Wu Gansha said.
In addition to unmanned vehicles in the logistics field, Shi Yu Science and Technology will also have a series of actions in the passenger car field this year.
Wu Gansha revealed that in 2020, its passenger car autopilot technology, including L2/L3 autopilot and AVP technology, will also usher in major mass production progress this year.
Its partners in passenger cars include SAIC Volkswagen, Dongfeng, FAW, SAIC-GM-Wuling and many other players.
▲ Self-driving passenger car jointly built by Shi Yu Science and Technology and SAIC Volkswagen.
Conclusion: the sub-field of automatic driving is "spring blossoms"
20 16 self-driving entrepreneurship is on the rise in China. With the blessing of capital, a series of start-ups appeared in 20 17 and 20 18, and achieved rapid development.
However, after entering 20 19, due to the economic slowdown and the long-term application of high-end autonomous driving technology, the investment in the field of autonomous driving has been significantly reduced, and there are even signs of the winter of autonomous driving.
Then, during the epidemic in 2020, low-speed unmanned vehicles played a key role in the fields of logistics, distribution, cleaning and disinfection, and made more people realize the maturity and application ability of driverless technology.
The industry's attention to low-speed unmanned vehicles has increased significantly. Coupled with the higher maturity of the low-speed driverless technology with limited scenes, it has reached the eve of mass production application, so this wave of spring blossoms has appeared.
I believe that next, there will be more cases of low-speed unmanned vehicle applications landing.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.