During the Artificial Intelligence World Congress 2020 held in early July in Shanghai, the manufacturer shared its experience integrating artificial intelligence and the automotive industry.
July 2020.- For the past two years, SAIC Motor (owner of MG Motor) has been working on empowering the automotive industry with Artificial Intelligence technology, exhibiting its breakthroughs at the Artificial Intelligence World Congress 2020, in areas such as driving, manufacturing, and smart mobility.
Last November, SAIC Motor completed operations using 5G and level 4 autonomous driving, using a heavy truck that drove 32 kilometers without a driver from Yangshan Port to Lingang Logistics Park. With these efforts, the manufacturer hopes to improve port operations and traffic efficiency in this industry.
In the smart manufacturing area, SAIC Motor has developed a large-scale C2B (customer-to-business) project where nearly 8 million customers participated in product development, manufacturing, and sales. Besides this, they are also exploring the digitalization of manufacturing systems and supply chains, and have built several smart manufacturing reference plants for vehicles and auto parts.
In terms of smart mobility for people, SAIC Motor continues to expand its online car rental services, gathering more than 22 million users. Available in seven cities, the manufacturer has achieved 100,000 orders per day at peak time. In Shanghai, SAIC Motor has also partnered with China Mobile and Huawei, including others, to build a demonstration area in real-world conditions of intelligent transportation with 5G.
Deep integration of AI and automobiles
“Through tests and past experiences over the years, we are well aware that artificial intelligence, Big Data, cloud computing, and other information technologies are important components driving the scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation,” says Wang Xiaoqiu, president of SAIC Motor.
In the future, through the maturing of 5G, IA, and other technologies, the economy and society must be transferred from networking to intelligence.
Today, the global automotive industry is facing major changes that have not been seen in a century, and the Chinese automotive industry is undergoing significant adjustments which have not been seen in many years. The Covid-19 pandemic has become a catalyst for this economic sector to forge a new pattern. “Accelerating the deep integration of new technologies with the automotive industry and continuously stimulating new drivers are some requirements for transforming and improving the automotive industry,” adds Wang.
For consumption changes, new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence will drive continuous improvement and refinement of automotive products and services. Besides basic travel, people in the future can expect more from the driving experience.
For this purpose, SAIC Motor established a software center in late 2019 intending to accelerate the continuous upgrading of autonomous driving and mobile services by integrating resources and developing a unified data platform. Simultaneously, the manufacturer is striving to independently develop a dedicated structure for electric vehicles and is closely cooperating with domestic and overseas chip research and development.
In the future, SAIC Motor will continue to enhance its AI core capabilities, Big Data, cloud, and internet information security to further accelerate the application of software technology in products and services. Global and local support efforts will further assist in accelerating the implementation of new technologies such as AI in the automotive industry.
Over the past two years, China has issued a series of guidelines to support the innovative developments of intelligent vehicles. As one of the pioneers in China, SAIC Motor is also exploring ways to develop intelligent driving technology that is technically reliable, affordable, safe, and controllable.
Thus, SAIC has developed a third-generation intelligent driving platform on which they have already done nearly three thousand kilometers of road testing and nearly 20 million kilometers of virtual simulation testing. Concurrently, the manufacturer is leading the development of a plan to establish an innovation platform for intelligent cars in Shanghai and to create demonstration areas for Robotaxi, driverless driving in enclosed areas, and driverless buses along fixed routes.
