[Text/Observer Network Qi Qian] In recent years, Chinese car companies have rapidly laid out the global electric vehicle field, shaking up the automotive industry pattern. The Financial Times published an article on May 23rd stating that now the battlefield of global car companies is shifting to autonomous driving, and many experts believe that China will take the lead again.

The report said that in this competition, Tesla, Google's autonomous project Waymo and other American enterprises, as well as BYD, Pony.ai, Baidu, and WeRide, are competing. In January this year, BYD launched the "Divine Eye" autonomous driving plan, announcing plans to apply this advanced driving system to 21 new models without charging customers extra fees, which shocked the auto industry.

Tu Le, founder of consulting company AutoChina Insight, said that as a company challenging Tesla's position as the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, BYD seems to be taking the lead in the advanced driver assistance system development race. These technologies include automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, as well as driver attention and potential collision monitoring, and are considered pioneers of fully autonomous vehicles.

"When you ask me 'who wins,' I must first return to the question of 'how many cars were sold,'" Tu Le said. "If this is a numbers game, because we need to point out how much data has been collected and how much data has been input into the algorithms, then obviously BYD will win, because they are making this function standard equipment for every car."

On April 26th, Beijing, BYD electric vehicle test drive body with "Divine Eye" Visual China

The Financial Times said that as the emerging autonomous driving industry continues to develop, logistics and transportation fleets adopting more secure, cheaper, and more efficient vehicles, companies are vying for tens of billions of dollars in potential new revenue.

Goldman Sachs analysts predicted this month that driven by the decline in hardware and algorithm costs, the value of China's autonomous taxi market alone will soar from $54 million in 2025 to $47 billion in 2035. Goldman estimates that by 2035, the unit cost of intelligent driving cars will drop from the current $44,000 to $32,000.

The report noted that with the decline of the internal combustion engine industry, hardware and software companies are also beginning to venture into the autonomous driving industry.

One of the most formidable competitors is Baidu, which is currently regarded as China's largest autonomous taxi operator. In January this year, the company said its Apollo Go autonomous vehicles provided 1.1 million passenger services for the public in the fourth quarter of last year, a 36% increase year-on-year, with cumulative passenger services exceeding 9 million.

Huawei is another rising key challenger. Tu Le said: "Huawei has obvious advantages; they are trying to go completely vertical, meaning: building chips, developing software, developing infotainment systems, and building cloud data."

However, several analysts said that the development of the autonomous driving industry is still constrained by multiple factors.

Firstly, regulatory constraints. Ben Cai Min, a Shanghai-based automotive technology expert at Bain, said: "The primary concern is definitely safety. This technology needs to be validated, there is no doubt about that. The second (concern) is insurance and liability: who is responsible if an accident occurs? The insurance company, the manufacturer, or the owner? These questions need to be resolved."

Fu Shihao, a technical analyst at UK technology research institute IDTechEx, pointed out that regulatory uncertainty, whether in China or the United States, may constrain the development of the industry.

It is reported that in the United States, Tesla will launch an unmanned ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas in June, and begin production of autonomous vehicle fleets next year. However, the U.S. government has not yet clarified whether Musk's so-called "network taxis" are allowed to operate on U.S. roads, as these vehicles do not have pedals or steering wheels.

The U.S.-initiated trade war with China brings another uncertainty to the industry's development.

The report noted that against this backdrop, Christoph Weber, head of AutoForm's China operations, a Swiss engineering software group, said that Volkswagen Group appears ready to continue competing in the autonomous driving field.

Volkswagen was caught off guard by China's progress, suffering significant losses in its share of the largest automotive market in the world. But since then, the company has made a comprehensive adjustment to its global strategy. Weber said that now Volkswagen seems to have basically become "two companies," one in China and one in the U.S., each with its own technology platforms, supply chains, and R&D teams.

"In terms of geopolitics and technology, the divergence between China and the U.S. is becoming apparent, and multinational corporations also have a very clear answer," Weber said. "Some people may not like this answer, because it essentially means you have to bet on both sides, double down on investment and resources. But having two platforms, one in the West and one in the East, is actually reasonable."

This article is an exclusive article of Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507617606917030400/

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