Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

August 30 news, today Robotruck startup Carey Zhixing (English name CORAGE) announced to participate in the world's first self-driving trunk line logistics dedicated road-"Jiuquan to Mingshui green digital special highway" construction, and will soon carry out self-driving trunk line logistics long-distance scene road test and preparation and operation.

The line, with a total length of 430 kilometers, is planned and designed by China Transportation Construction Group. It is the first autopilot trunk line in China. The special line, which is a closed road, will be put into commercial operation when it is completed in 2025, and the vehicles will be completely unmanned hydrogen heavy trucks.

At present, the number of commercial vehicles in the country is about 40 million, accounting for 10.9% of the total number of vehicles in the country, but their carbon emissions account for nearly 65% of the total vehicle carbon emissions, of which heavy trucks account for 83.5% of carbon emissions, which is the key model of all vehicles with carbon emission reduction.

After the line is put into operation, it will further promote the development of self-driving and new energy commercial vehicles, and really open the commercial landing of self-driving in the trillion-level market of trunk logistics.

In addition, the construction of this autopilot line has also brought to the surface a start-up, Karui Zhixing. Karui Zhixing was founded by Tong Xianqiao, a serial entrepreneur in the self-driving industry, who previously served as CEO of Roadstar, a well-known startup, and then left Roadstar to start a business again to enter the Robotruck market.

First, the special line will run hydrogen energy heavy card, and Karui Zhixing has surfaced that the "Jiuquan-Mingshui Green Digital Special Highway" project (hereinafter referred to as Jiuming Highway), which Karui Zhixing participated in, is located in the hinterland of Hexi Corridor. along the line is a desert no man's land, the terrain is flat, and the local is rich in photowind electricity renewable energy, can achieve low-cost production of green hydrogen.

In the unique natural environment, it will be able to accelerate the landing of autopilot technology.

First of all, the entire dedicated line is a closed road, where the project plans to use hydrogen heavy trucks and build hydrogen filling stations and transshipment yards at the end of the road.

Self-driving heavy trucks are completely driverless when driving on the main road, will not be equipped with human drivers, and only need manual participation in hydrogenation or transshipment and unloading.

The hydrogenation time of hydrogen energy heavy truck is about 10 to 15 minutes, and the satisfactory mileage can be achieved only once a day.

According to the natural environment, logistics requirements and technical requirements of Jiuming Highway, Carrui Zhihang has designed and developed a corresponding low-cost heavy truck self-driving solution.

At present, Carrezhixing has established in-depth cooperation with domestic manufacturers of new energy heavy trucks, and will officially carry out field road tests in Jiuquan area in the near future to prepare for future commercial operation.

Wang Bin, dean of the Traffic Planning and Design Institute of Zhongjiao first Highway Survey and Design Institute Co., Ltd., said that the Jiuming highway project has entered the experimental stage, with an experimental cycle from the second half of this year to next year, and construction is expected to start within next year. The construction period is about two years, and it will be officially put into operation by 2025, and the first batch of 600 vehicles will be put into operation.

According to reports, when Jiuming Highway is completed in 2025, it will be officially put into commercial operation. The line is a closed road and will be transported by completely unmanned trucks.

The reason why Karui Zhixing can be deeply involved in the construction of Jiuming highway is also due to its rich experience in the self-driving industry.

In terms of team and technology, Tong Xianqiao, founder and CEO of Carr Zhixing, once served as CEO of self-driving star startup Roadstar, worked in Apple's special project team and Nvidia autopilot algorithm group, and was the first batch of self-driving entrepreneurs and pioneers in China.

Tong Xianqiao, founder and CEO of ▲ Karui Zhixing

Its core team members have worked for Tesla, Nvidia, Baidu, Huawei, Xilai Automobile and other companies, with the industry's leading level of technology research and development and the most rich experience in test operation.

In terms of financing, Carrezhixing announced that it had completed tens of millions of yuan of angel round financing at the beginning of the year, with investors from Chen Tao Capital, Fengyuan Capital and Japan's PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund.

It is worth noting that Tong Xianqiao, the founder of Carey Zhixing, once founded a self-driving company, Roadstar, which focuses on the field of Robotaxi. But this time it started a business again, but chose a completely different field-Robotruck.

Tong Xianqiao, founder and CEO of Carey Zhixing, said there are four main reasons why he chose Robotruck.

First, heavy trucks are mainly used for transporting goods, and the requirements for safety and comfort are lower than those for carrying people, so it is relatively easier for technology to land; second, the application scenario of heavy trucks is simpler than Robotaxi, and heavy trucks do not run like the complex scenes of urban CBD, so self-driving technology is easier to land; third, trunk logistics self-driving is mainly used to transport goods, which also has great economic value in reducing cost and increasing efficiency. Fourth, new energy is a trend in the automotive industry. The chassis of new energy vehicles is more simple and flexible, which is more suitable for the research and development of self-driving technology.

Second, domestic self-driving trucks ushered in a wave of entrepreneurship, and a number of new companies have been established recently.

Especially with pony Zhixing system as the main. According to incomplete statistics, there are at least three self-driving truck companies founded or participated by former employees of Horse Zhixing, namely, Qianhang Technology, Optimus Smart Card, and go Technology.

In July 2021, Tao Ji, a veteran of Baidu's self-driving team, Sun Haowen, a member of Horse Zhihang's start-up team, and Ding Fei, head of technology travel at IDG Capital, jointly founded a start-up company specializing in L4 (trunk logistics) self-driving trucks.

The office area of ▲ thousand-link technology

In August 2021, Zhao Ruixuan, a former vice president of Horse Zhixing, and Wang Qingzhou, a Waymo technology boss, founded go Technology, which focuses on logistics of L4 self-driving electric trucks.

At the end of 2021, Pan Zhenhao, CTO of Pony Zhika, and Sun Youhan, head of planning and control of Pony Zhika's American team, left the company and founded the self-driving truck company Optimus Smart Card, which serves as CEO and CTO respectively.

In addition to ponies, many industry leaders left to start self-driving truck companies in the first half of this year.

Zhijia technology core staff has also established Weidu technology Windrose, focusing on new energy heavy trucks, line-controlled chassis, powertrain and so on.

Conclusion: self-driving trucks are becoming more and more popular as more and more players flock to the self-driving track, so does the whole industry.

Compared with the high degree of uncertainty of Robotaxi commercialization, the commercial landing of self-driving trucks has more advantages, which is one of the reasons why self-driving trucks have become popular in recent years and are deeply loved by the capital market.

The addition of new players to this track will undoubtedly make the pool of the entire industry more competitive and dynamic, but it is unknown who can withstand the surging changes on the road to entrepreneurship.

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