Shanghai Port Yangshan Port Pilot Pilot Autopilot Heavy Truck Efficient Service Port Collection and Distribution

In November 2019, Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port launched the "5G+L4" smart heavy truck demonstration operation project (referred to as the demonstration project); In December 2021, Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port automatically drove heavy trucks to complete the transportation task of 40,000 TEUs in that year; In September, 2022, the pilot application of automatic driving for container horizontal transportation and port collection and distribution in Shanghai Port Area was approved, and the first batch of intelligent transportation pilot application projects (referred to as pilot projects) were approved by the Ministry of Transport …

Recently, the three-year development results of the demonstration project released by Shanghai show that up to now, the self-driving heavy trucks in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port have completed more than 4 million kilometers of test operation and transported more than 140,000 TEUs. Among them, the vehicle travels autonomously (without the intervention of the security officer) for more than 2000 kilometers. With the maturity of automatic driving technology, the promotion and application of automatic driving heavy trucks in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port are accelerating, and the port collection and transportation are continuously and efficiently served.

Improve operational efficiency and invest more than 60 vehicles by the end of next year.

According to the requirements of the pilot project, how will the self-driving heavy truck serve the collection and distribution of Yangshan Port in Shanghai Port? The relevant person in charge of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd., the lead unit of the pilot project, told the reporter that in 2021, the container throughput of Shanghai Port exceeded 47 million TEUs, of which the container throughput of Yangshan Phase IV automated terminal exceeded 5.7 million TEUs, up 35.7% year-on-year. According to the planning of the pilot project, by the end of 2023, Shanghai will invest no less than 60 self-driving heavy trucks in Yangshan Port-Donghai Bridge-Lingang Park, and the accumulated container collection and distribution volume will be no less than 300,000 TEUs.

"Promoting the application of self-driving heavy trucks will greatly improve the operational efficiency of Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port." Wang Rui, CEO of Shanghai Youdao Zhitu Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Youdao Zhitu), an important participant in the pilot project, said that in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port, it takes 90 seconds for a skilled truck driver to drive a heavy truck into the operation area, while it only takes 70 seconds to drive a heavy truck automatically. Based on 5G and V2X technologies, the automatic driving heavy truck in this port area has achieved centimeter-level positioning and accurate parking, and the success rate of warehousing has reached 100%. From parking and warehousing to loading and unloading trucks, to entering and leaving Donghai Bridge, automatic driving of heavy trucks has improved the working efficiency of the port area in many aspects.

Donghai Bridge is the only land passage in Yangshan Port Area, and its traffic efficiency is very important for the port development. "On the Donghai Bridge, Youdao Zhitu has realized the automatic driving of heavy trucks, with a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour and a minimum distance of 15 meters, which effectively improves the transportation efficiency of the fleet, thus helping to alleviate traffic congestion." Wang Rui said.

Speed up the reduction of staff and test the vehicle’s "vision" to perceive objects 1 km away.

In July this year, the Traffic Police Corps of Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued a notice to implement the management of autonomous driving test lanes in Donghai Bridge. The relevant person in charge of the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission believes that it is difficult to achieve economic benefits if the number of safety personnel cannot be reduced. The test lane provides the necessary guarantee for the attrition test, which is of great significance for the popularization and application of automatic driving heavy trucks.

According to Wang Rui, according to the requirements of the pilot project, Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port will speed up the attrition test of the self-driving heavy truck queue and reduce the number of security officers equipped in some vehicles. By the end of this year, Youdao Zhitu will realize the formation of five self-driving heavy trucks on Donghai Bridge, among which only one safety officer is required for the first and second vehicles.

The reporter learned from the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission that the pilot project of reducing the number of employees of self-driving heavy trucks in Donghai Bridge will form a number of standards for communication, operation and management of self-driving heavy trucks, and accumulate valuable experience for formulating and implementing relevant laws and regulations.

There is no security officer in the car to take over at any time. How can the automatic driving system ensure the "zero mistakes" in the safe driving of the vehicle?

"As a manufacturer of self-driving heavy trucks in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port, SAIC Hongyan Heavy Truck is based on advanced equipment such as visual perception system, laser radar system, millimeter-wave radar system, satellite and inertial navigation independently developed by Youdao Zhitu, with multi-dimensional and 360-degree perception. It can accurately perceive traffic participants within the range of 250 meters from front to back and 80 meters from left to right, and accurately identify and avoid pedestrians, vehicles and other obstacles." The relevant person in charge of SAIC Hongyan said.

The reporter learned that SAIC Hongyan and Youdao Zhitu belong to SAIC Group. Combined with the actual operation in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port, the two parties have jointly sorted out 11 categories and 1216 failure modes of autopilot systems, and formed 758 fail-safe protection schemes, which have completed simulation and real vehicle testing. At present, the self-driving heavy truck in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port can "see clearly" objects 1 km away, and accurately identify 200-meter cones and 10-centimeter tiny objects.

Collecting and using the full stack of data to solve the bottleneck problem

Both demonstration projects and pilot projects are doing technical accumulation for the commercial operation of self-driving heavy trucks, thus promoting the solution of various bottleneck problems. There are complex weather conditions such as high temperature, typhoon, rain and fog in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port, and the Donghai Bridge has a large traffic flow and many models, which bring certain challenges to the popularization and application of self-driving heavy trucks.

According to the division of labor of the pilot project, Youdao Zhitu will focus on solving the complex scenes composed of weather, roads, traffic participants and other factors, resulting in problems such as difficult perception, difficult decision-making and difficult control of automatic driving heavy trucks.

Collecting data is the first step. According to reports, at present, Youdao Zhitu has 40 self-driving heavy trucks tested in Donghai Bridge every day, of which 20 are tested all day. Through large-scale testing, Youdao Zhitu has accumulated massive operational data and further used the data to promote the upgrade of autonomous driving technology. Taking the Honghu platform as an example, Youdao Zhitu has used its operational data to upgrade its system for more than 90 times.

On the basis of accumulating and making full use of data, Youdao Zhitu and SAIC Hongyan will jointly promote the full-stack self-research of self-driving heavy trucks, and integrate the "soul" (technology) and "body" (vehicle) of self-driving.

"Full-stack self-research is an inevitable way determined by the data-driven model. Only by integrating data into vehicle design can we solve the long tail problem of automatic driving." Wang Rui believes that the full-stack self-research by heavy truck manufacturers and autonomous driving solution providers can better combine the perception, decision-making, control and implementation of autonomous driving technology.

At present, the pilot project is connecting information in series to form an information flow by opening up every related system in Yangshan Port Area of Shanghai Port, thus promoting the upgrading of autonomous driving technology and accelerating the commercialization of autonomous driving heavy trucks.