Affected by the epidemic, the investment may be further concentrated in the head enterprises

Although the cloud of the COVID-19 epidemic has not yet dispersed, there has been a message of spring in the field of autonomous driving.

On February 26th (US time), California Motor Vehicle Administration announced the 219 annual road test report of self-driving vehicles. Among the 36 companies that submitted the report, Waymo and? Cruise's test mileage adds up to 8% of the total mileage of all companies.

however, after the handover data MPI(Miles? Per? In the ranking of Intervention, Baidu surpassed Waymo's 13,219 miles per takeover with a score of 18,5 miles per takeover, becoming the first on the list.

In addition, among the top 1 data of takeover, China companies account for half: Baidu (No.1) and Auto? X (No.4), Pony.ai (Little Horse Zhixing, No.5), Didi (Didi, No.8) and Plus? AI (Zhijia, No.9).

Although the California Motor Vehicle Administration said that the report can't be used to draw any conclusions about the technical capabilities of different autonomous driving companies, it is at least a performance dimension of autonomous driving technology, and China Autonomous Driving Company has done quite well this time.

On February 26th, two domestic autonomous driving companies announced the latest financing progress.

Xiao Ma Zhixing officially announced that it has raised $4 million from Toyota. So far, the company has completed Series B financing with a total amount of 462 million US dollars, and its current valuation is slightly higher than 3 billion US dollars.

Yushi Technology officially announced that it has obtained strategic investment from robert bosch Venture Capital Company affiliated to Bosch Group in the B round of financing.

investment institution Plug? and? Tarek Elsavi, head of venture capital at Play? Elessawi) once said: "The trend of self-driving cars in 216 and 217 is quite optimistic. Then in 218, pragmatism began to prevail. By the end of 218, even industry leaders like Waymo admitted that they were not ready to put fully self-driving cars on the road. "

He judged that self-driving cars are now in the trough of disillusionment.

But look at the two investors in autonomous driving, an international vehicle giant and an international Tier1 manufacturer. If it is now the "disillusionment trough" of autonomous driving, they all choose to overweight.

the choice of giants

let's look at Toyota first.

Akio Toyoda once said in 217: "Toyota will accelerate its expansion in the field of driverless cars and electric vehicles." After that, on the one hand, Toyota devoted itself to the research and development of autonomous driving technology, on the other hand, it began to invest in lidar, an important component of autonomous driving, and started technical cooperation with companies such as NVIDIA, Microsoft and Uber.

In April p>218, Toyota invested in Uber's divested autonomous driving department, after the company established its AI research subsidiary "TRI" in Silicon Valley of the United States to conduct research and development on autonomous driving. In July 219, Toyota and Denso announced that they would set up a joint venture specializing in the development of semiconductor chips for the next generation of cars.

At the end of September p>219, Xiaoma Zhixing and Toyota started pilot projects of open roads in Beijing and Shanghai respectively. This round B investment is an extension of the business cooperation relationship between the two parties, and it is also the first time that Toyota has invested in a self-driving startup in China.

Although unlike GM and Ford, which directly bought the self-driving startup, Toyota's investment in Xiaoma Zhixing is not a simple financial investment, but a strategic investment. Under this year's strategic investment framework, in addition to developing autonomous driving technology, both sides will explore more possibilities of travel services.

at CES international consumer electronics show in 22, Toyota released "Woven? The "City of Weaving" plan indicates that a future travel demonstration city will be established in Japan, and the possibility of future travel, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and other fields will be verified together with partners in various fields, and the development demonstration and development cycle will be shortened.

Now, as an important partner in Toyota's autonomous driving field, Xiaoma Zhixing may play its advantage in Robotaxi in this plan.

In December p>218, Xiaoma Zhixing released the PonyPilot Autopilot Mobile Travel (Robotaxi) project, and took the lead in piloting the normal operation of urban open roads in Guangzhou, becoming the first company to provide Robotaxi services in the China market.

In November p>219, Xiaoma Zhixing took the lead in launching California's first Robotaxi service for the general public in the United States, laying the foundation for it to provide autonomous driving services worldwide.

The relevant person in charge of Xiaoma Zhixing told auto business review: "The goal of Xiaoma Zhixing and Toyota is to realize real driverless technology in 222."

let's look at bosch again.

Ingo, managing partner of Bosch Venture Capital Company? Dr. Ramesohl said, "Yushi Technology will further enrich Bosch Venture Capital's investment portfolio in the field of autonomous driving and bring more cooperation opportunities to Bosch."

Yushi Technology first realized the automatic driving solution in certain scenes such as airports and factory parks. Its automatic driving system includes sensor stack, controller and algorithm, tool chain and roadside unit independently developed by Yushi Technology.

in January, 22, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) announced the completion of the trial operation of Yushi Technology unmanned logistics vehicle, and put it into daily operation to serve the baggage transportation of flight passengers.

Yushi Technology's L4-class autonomous driving technology has been commercialized, and Bosch obviously sees it in his eyes.

in addition to this round of financing by Bosch and Yushi Technology, top VC, PE and local strategic emerging industry funds such as Shenzhen Venture Capital (Shenzhen Innovation Investment Group), Zhongjin Capital, Xiamen Seven Wolves Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Fund and Chongqing Liangjiang Service Fund are also participating.

It may also be the last

For Toyota and Bosch, Jia Guanghong, managing director of BAIC Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., made this interpretation to auto business review: "Recently, Tesla is strong, and traditional OEMs and Tier1 are under great pressure, and China's autonomous driving has been laid out in large quantities."

Tang Rui, founder and CEO of Zongmu Technology, believes that autonomous driving has obviously entered the second half at this stage. "The head enterprises can get investment, not the head will die within the year (or in the first half of next year)", and "only the strategic investors can make a move".

He judged that if there is no clear sustainable business development at this stage, it is likely that even if the investment is obtained, it will be the last one.

auto business review believes that the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the automobile industry and economy is enormous, so both vehicle manufacturers and investment institutions will be more cautious and rational in investing in the field of autonomous driving this year.

in this case, the funds may be further concentrated in the head enterprise.

United market research company (Allied? Market? The global self-driving car report released by Research shows that the global self-driving car market in 219 is about 54 billion US dollars. It is estimated that by 226, the compound annual growth rate of the global self-driving car market is expected to reach 39.47%.

Everything still looks promising, but we can't ignore another voice.

in late February, British media autocar reported that Volvo, as one of the main supporters in the industry who have been pursuing the full automatic driving function for a long time, is giving up this radical goal.

Volvo's new generation XC9, which will be launched in 222, will be equipped with advanced hardware and software, so as to realize the automatic driving function of liberating both eyes or hands on highways where conditions permit. But the premise of this is that the highway environment can be better controlled and predicted by technology.

However, Volvo has made it clear that there will never be a system that means that cars can be fully self-driving 1% of the time.

Perhaps, in the eyes of ambitious autonomous driving enterprises in China, Volvo's judgment is conservative, but it can also be regarded as a useful reminder from the road ahead.

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