Uber has recently made new moves: Joint Volvo Car Group develops the next generation of self-driving cars and technology.
Under the agreement, the new foundation models developed by both parties will not only cover the latest autopilot technology, but also support upgrades, including the development of self-driving cars with fully autonomous driving capabilities. The base model will be produced by Volvo and purchased by Uber. The two companies will invest a total of US$300 million for this project. This is another strong alliance between Silicon Valley Technology Corporation and automotive manufacturers.
Prior to this, Google had already held hands with car manufacturer Fiat-Chrysler in May of this year to jointly develop 100 unmanned minivans as an important part of the fleet expansion plan.
Google and Uber have teamed up with car manufacturers, which marks another step toward the commercialization of driverless cars.
Although in the past there were inextricable links between the two, it is now a direct competitor.
Uber's origins with GoogleGoogle began to develop driverless cars in 2005.
He joined Google after Sebastian Thrun, who taught at Carnegie Mellon University, and led the Google driverless team for years. He led the team to drive in a real traffic environment and “overtake†and “wait†like a human pilot. The Junior, who "observed" and "understood" and made predictions based on this, became the basis for the later Google driverless car. The early members of this team were mainly from Carnegie Mellon University.
Interestingly, Google was one of Uber's earliest investors. At the time, both parties had plans to jointly develop a driverless car. However, the close relationship between the two ended last year.
Prior to this, Google had accumulated 9,000 years in the area of ​​unmanned vehicles.
In early 2015, Uber and Carnegie Mellon University secretly established an organization called Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh, which opened the road to no research and development.
Four months later, Uber incorporated 50 top robotics experts from the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University into his own team, almost emptying out the university’s robot R&D department.
In July, Uber acquired Otto, an unmanned technology company. Its founder, Anthony Levandowski, also brought in a group of technical talents: Lior Ron, Google Maps, who served as Product Manager for 5 years, Claire Delaunay, Director of the Google Robotics Project Team, and Google. A senior engineer Don Burnette and others. Levandowski himself has also held positions such as the Google Driverless Team.
In Kalinick's view, the acquisition is a way to further accumulate talent for autonomous driving. He said: "If Uber wants to catch up with Google and become the leader in the field of automated driving, it must have the best talent."
It can be said that the unmanned team of the Google and Uber companies is basically the same. But the reality now is: When Uber is constantly making up for people, Google is facing talented people.
Levandowski said: "We are really excited about the development of services that can be released as soon as possible." This somewhat hints at the slow progress of the commercialization of Google's unmanned projects.
Building a car is not a goalNot long ago, Google’s unmanned CEO John Krafcik said in an interview with Bloomberg that Google would not build its own vehicle. “Google realized that it would be very difficult to build a car. Building a small model alone would allow us to taste the car. The difficulty is now. We have Roush and Conti helping us. The 100 hybrid mini cars we worked with Fiat Chrysler have doubled our number of test cars."
Uber, which is also known for its expertise in technology and software, will not make vehicles. They hope to cooperate with traditional car companies and present their own unmanned technology to the outside world through the vehicle.
Google has made a fortune in search and software, and has not had commercial experience in the field of travel. At this stage, it has not been able to make a good commercial landing, so they are constantly seeking cooperation with the majority of car companies. They expect to achieve the highest levels of automatic driving around 2020—abandoning the steering wheel, discarding the brake pedal, and completely unmanned driving. It is reported that Google will likely build a chip into autopilot in the future, embed it into the system and sell it.
Uber is focused on travel services because it has a vast amount of taxi resources. Uber CEO Travis Kalanike elaborated on his goal: to replace Uber's more than one million private car drivers with machines, and this must be accomplished as quickly as possible.
Because there is a significant problem with taxi platforms , when dealing with drivers, it is necessary to establish incentive mechanisms, set penalties, and resolve various disputes between drivers and platforms.
If there is no driver in the car, the taxi platform can become lighter, smarter, or even become a virtual enterprise built on algorithms and data. The cost of using Uber anytime, anywhere will become very low. Moreover, “a taxi platform has the most suitable organization for unmanned vehicles, connecting vehicles and passengers, allocating orders, lowering the vacancy rate, and improving the efficiency of social operations,†said one media colleague.
Uber will randomize the driverless fleet in Pittsburgh at the end of August. However, it is still impossible to completely rely on machines. This is also a compromise for that goal.
Experience comparisonPang Chunlin, Secretary-General of TIAA (In-vehicle Information Service Industry Application Alliance), experienced Google’s driverless car in April this year. He described this feeling to Lei Fengwang (search for "Lei Feng Net" public number) :
Google’s unmanned car is very smooth, accelerating and decelerating. You will feel like an old driver in this car, especially decisive. The yellow light was just met the last time, and it was necessary to turn left to change lanes to overtake. Google took a decision on the unmanned vehicle, and then overshot. The average young driver still dared not do this, but Google’s unmanned vehicle is very sophisticated. Google also often said that it is equivalent to a driver who has been driving for two or three decades.
Recently, Bloomberg reporters experienced Uber’s unmanned vehicles. The reporter wrote:
Safe drivers are also a key component of this experience, as Uber's self-driving cars temporarily switch to non-autonomous mode as they cross the downtown Allegheny River. The car horn sounded, which reminded the driver to take control of the steering wheel. A few seconds later a "bang" will be heard, indicating that the car has returned to computer-controlled status.
In the current experience, Google and Uber compete with each other. But the former is not as "radical" as the latter: At the end of this month, residents living in the center of Pittsburgh can use mobile phones to call Uber to experience self-driving cars.
futureGoogle has long been in the driverless area, but there has been no substantial breakthrough for a long time, and it may be possible to use the extensive cooperation with auto companies in the future to realize the grand unmanned goal of 2020. But ultimately, drones need to be commercialized and Google needs to find a profitable path.
Uber, whose goal has been very clear: replace the driver with a machine. Clear business model ideas. What needs to be done at present is to constantly improve the technologies related to driverlessness, enhance the experience and make it reliable.
With the large-scale deployment of unmanned vehicles, Google and Uber still need to mediate their policies, and the infrastructure may continue to improve.
Road resistance and long...