MG, LDV fast-track autonomous tech

SAIC Motor, formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, has revealed ambitious projections for Level 4 autonomous vehicle technology as soon as 2021 or even earlier.

The timeframe was proposed yesterday to journalists visiting SAIC Motor headquarters in Shanghai, China, by Xie Mingshi, the Vice-General Manager of SAIC Motor Commercial Vehicle Technical Centre.

Bringing down the cost of LiDAR is key to this advance, the SAIC executive explained.

“There's no doubt, technically we can move out a level-four solution to passenger vehicles; the problem is the system cost. It costs us at least $15,000 US dollars to buy a LiDAR [light detection and ranging unit]... if we try to use two or more LiDARs for one vehicle, that means at least $30,000.

“I don't think in the near future passenger-vehicle [brands] can afford to do this.”

There's a but, however. SAIC is developing its own software and hardware for commercial vehicles first, to bring down the cost through amortisation of the R&D investment, plus economies of scale – since the same sensors can be adapted equally well to passenger-vehicle applications as commercial vehicles.

As for the LiDAR systems, Xie says that third-party suppliers in Silicon Valley are finding ways to bring down the cost rapidly.

“Their timeframe is looking into two to three years. They will achieve below $US500 [per LiDAR unit].”

According to Xie, new solid-state LiDAR systems currently in development will achieve that goal.

The company's work on Level 2 ('L2') autonomous technology, and 'L2 Plus' is proceeding apace, with the heavy commercial vehicles equipped for self-driving scheduled to commence operations in 2019.

“Personally, I believe autonomy will get into L2 and L4 separately – at different timeframes, with different technology and methodologies,” Xie explained.

“We are not using very expensive sensors,” he continued. SAIC is employing camera and radar sensors that are already in mass production to keep costs down.

“With this combination of well-established technical products the company foresees L2 autonomy becoming a realistic proposition in 2019. L2 autonomy is defined by SAIC as a blend of three operating modes: 'Highway auto-pilot', 'Traffic jam assistance' and 'Self parking'.

“With those three features, we believe we will help everybody with at least 70 to 80 per cent of their daily commuting time.”

By December 2019, Xie expects SAIC to offer buyers in the Chinese market “at least one SUV” capable of operating in L2 mode. But at the forefront of SAIC's autonomous push will be trucks and buses.

Essentially, the heavy commercial vehicles using this technology will be able to thread their way through a predefined route (what Xie calls a “structured environment”) with little to no driver intervention.

The highway auto pilot mode will brake the vehicle for slower-moving traffic in front on the way to its destination. Off the highway, the traffic jam assistance will bring the vehicle to a full halt, if traffic should bank up ahead.

And far from the self-parking systems we've seen to date – systems that often require the driver to be seated behind the wheel, regulating brake and throttle – SAIC's self-parking system will guide the vehicle into a parking spot without the driver inside, and theoretically at a location up to hundreds of metres away from the point where the driver leaves the vehicle.

Xie, who has worked at SAIC for 20 years and has recently spent time in the USA working on autonomous technology in Silicon Valley, explained to his audience that SAIC will introduce heavy commercial vehicles operating at level-four from 2019.

Autonomous motoring systems are just one of the future technology development avenues of research going on at SAIC, which is also highly committed to electrification and connectivity to name two.