In the face of the subversive changes brought by artificial intelligence to traditional industries, only by abandoning the wait-and-see attitude and embracing technological innovation more actively can we catch up with the pace of the times.
'In the past, the automobile industry was capital intensive and technology intensive, with a hundred years of experience and high industry threshold, as well as a complex supply chain system, it was difficult for Internet enterprises to subvert it. But recently, the news that Google's waymo has been approved to test driverless cars on public roads and highways in California, the United States, makes people feel that the 'wolf' is really coming Huang Gang, director of Dongfeng Motor's strategic planning department, said recently that Dongfeng is stepping up its assessment of the possibility of direct commercial L4 (highly intelligent) unmanned driving.
Dongfeng is not the only auto company to feel anxious. Volkswagen had intended to spend $13.7 billion to buy 10% of waymo's shares; Honda also invested $2.75 billion in cruise, a self driving company; Toyota invested 10 billion yen with Softbank to establish an autonomous driving technology company after accumulating 5.3 billion US dollars, and was willing to let the other party take control of the company
Google's unmanned car project has been launched for only nine years. Waymo, which operates independently based on this project, is less than two years old. How does waymo break through the various barriers set by traditional car companies for new entrants and gradually develop into a challenger for traditional car companies? What can traditional automobile enterprises and even the whole traditional industry learn from?
Waymo has a lot of experience to learn from, such as being a mobile travel solution provider instead of making cars, developing L4 level unmanned driving in one step, paying attention to user experience, daring to try and error, and constantly iterating. However, in addition to these subversive innovative ideas and differentiated competitive strategies, what is most worth learning is its deep insight into the general trend of artificial intelligence, continuous and intensive R & D investment, and road testing and data accumulation of more than 10 million kilometers so far.
As a strategic technology leading a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, the new generation of artificial intelligence has been highly valued by governments and industries because of its strong spillover effect. In 2017, the State Council issued the development plan for the new generation of artificial intelligence, setting the strategic goal of 'three steps' of artificial intelligence in China by 2030. Currently, the most concerned AI application may be unmanned driving. Optimistic forecasts suggest that it will create a multi trillion dollar market in the coming decades.
Of course, it is not only the automobile industry, but also driven by new theories and technologies, such as mobile Internet, big data, supercomputing, sensor network, brain science, etc., that artificial intelligence is having a significant and far-reaching impact on economic development and social progress. It will restructure all aspects of economic activities such as production, distribution, exchange and consumption, give birth to new technologies, new products, new industries, new formats and new models, trigger major changes in the economic structure, profoundly change the mode of human production and life and thinking, and achieve a substantial leap in the total factor production rate of society.
In the face of the subversive changes brought by artificial intelligence to traditional industries, only by abandoning the wait-and-see attitude and embracing technological innovation more actively can we catch up with the pace of the times. If you don't want to be Nokia, e-commerce and Sears department store, which has fallen behind in the wave of smart phones, e-commerce and Sears department store, those enterprises that still have the leading power in the industry should not overestimate their shock resistance ability, nor underestimate the innovation power of artificial intelligence enterprises. Like the traditional car companies, they choose the path of gradual driverless development. Although the risk is low, the industrial restructuring is not difficult, and it is also in line with the normal development logic, once waymo, such as a 'subverter', makes a breakthrough and then develops into an emerging 'Android operating system' in the field of driverless driving, the traditional car enterprises may be in danger of becoming automobile assembly plants.
Learning from 'subversive' also requires the vision and courage of 'subversive'. It is a feasible choice to break the existing pattern of interests, give up fighting alone, or form alliances, or cooperate with 'subversive' cross-border. It is also important to be able to do the main business well, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and really meet the needs of consumers. Recently, Volkswagen and Ford plan to cooperate deeply in the fields of electric vehicle architecture and driverless driving; in Japan, Toyota, together with Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru, etc., form a research and development team for general electric vehicle architecture In the face of new changes, traditional car companies have begun to act, are you ready?