From the summer and autumn of 2016, the rapid rise of autonomous driving, to the cold winter of related enterprises in 2019, there is about 2-3 years of operation space.

Depending on the level of intelligence, autonomous driving can be divided into six levels, ranging from completely unintelligent to fully intelligent:

Level 0 autonomous driving: There is no automatic throttle, brake and steering wheel, and the driver controls the whole process.

Level 1 autonomous driving. The system intervenes in certain situations, such as assisting with functions such as the accelerator and brake.

Level 2 autonomous driving. For example, Tesla's self-driving, under certain conditions, the system can control the speed and steering of the vehicle.

Level 3 autonomous driving. In most road conditions, the driver's attention does not need to be focused on the road surface. However, you must keep your hands on the steering wheel. This level of autonomous driving is basically the limit of major companies as of 2023.

In L4 and above, humans basically do not need to intervene in driving at all, and only in rare cases do they need to intervene.

In L5 autonomous driving, humans become completely passengers, and there is no need to install even the steering wheel and accelerator brakes on the car, completely treating the vehicle as a subway.

In the vision of the capital circle, 16 years of continuous breakthroughs in AI technology have surpassed the peak brain of human beings in such a complex chess game as Go.

So in the direction of autonomous driving, not to mention fully automatic at the L5 level, at least the L4 level, so that the driver does not have to pay attention to the road conditions at all times, it should be very easy, right?

With this blind optimism, companies related to autonomous driving have ushered in over-evaluation in those years.

Many related companies are unable to make ends meet, and after burning money for several years, they simply cannot come up with products that meet expectations.

For example, argo.ai received more than $5 billion in investment from Volkswagen and Ford, but the L4 advanced system that it claimed to be going to do was not even scratched.

After all the money was burned, he directly spread his hands and announced his bankruptcy.

The L4-L5 route has come to naught, and the industry market has tended to be calm and rational. Car companies have dominated the L2-L3 level, and the popularity of autonomous driving has also dropped a lot, and the capital bubble has burst.

"At present, autonomous driving is okay as a dream, but not as a business or enterprise. Technology can't decide everything, and advanced technology doesn't necessarily solve market problems. ”

After a decade of observation of the development of autonomous driving, Meng Fanqi concluded that it is not enough to rely on the progress of vision algorithms and bicycle technology alone to achieve autonomous driving.

It requires the transformation and remodeling of the entire urban transportation system, and the overall terminal control and planning to be able to realize it in a real sense.

Without changes at the level of the transportation system, the ethical question of autonomous driving will never be avoided, that is, whether algorithms should be responsible for traffic accidents.

If vehicles and pedestrians are not separated, this problem is expected to remain completely unsolvable for a long time.

To do unmanned driving, it is still necessary to have a mature business plan, including the cost of recall, etc., rather than a simple sales act. In this field, Meng Fanqi will only invest in it in the last six months to a year, and will not pay too much attention to it.

However, Meng Fanqi knows very well that Baidu has launched research and plans related to autonomous driving in 2013, and Li Yanhong will definitely not like or listen to what views he hastily expresses.

There is no need for him, there is no position to remind the other party, in fact, an entrepreneur like Robin Li is willing to invest tens of billions of dollars in this kind of technology, which is always a good thing.

It's better than doing takeout, grocery shopping, and exploiting the money of small restaurants and farmers all day long.

There wasn't much video material to shoot with Robin Li, and after spending more than 10 minutes and filming some footage of the two talking and discussing the formula on a whiteboard from multiple angles, what Meng Fanqi needed to do here was completely over.

Li Yanhong didn't have much follow-up arrangements today, and the two hadn't seen each other since they signed the contract last time, so they chatted a few more words.

"My plan is to finish filming these materials today, and the promotional video will be released the day after tomorrow at the latest." Robin Li's style has always been very decisive, "We have extensively tested the performance and adaptability of the algorithm on different platforms and hardware a few days ago. The algorithm unit you're using is still quite hardware friendly, so there's not much work to be done on our side overall. ”

"Did you design it that way? Or is it unintentional? ”

"We did design with this aspect in mind." The version that Meng Fanqi memorized was naturally made many times, and he was cheeky, and his face was not red and his heart was not beating to take the credit into his arms. "If the promotional video will be released the day after tomorrow, what is the specific time of the technical conference?"

"It's about three or four days late, giving the market and the public a few days to buffer, and we publicize the market department to stir up the heat, and try to mobilize everyone's attention." Robin Li is determined to invest relatively large resources in this area, because in private, he has already used the materials and specific parameters of the test to contact some large leading enterprises.

The other party was shocked by this result without exception. Whether you know about artificial intelligence or you don't know at all, you will be amazed by the performance and speed of this result.

Most importantly, in their view, this intelligence can greatly improve efficiency and save costs.

The feedback and praise of these giant companies are still beyond Li Yanhong's expectations and expectations.

Therefore, for the relevant publicity and release, Robin Li has frequently urged and decisively increased the weight in recent days.

Seeing this young man again today, how he looks and how pleasing he is.

"Let me tell you in private, this technology, the people above are also very concerned about this technology, and they have a high opinion of you." Li Yanhong put one hand on Meng Fanqi's shoulder, pulled him to the corner of the room, and whispered.

"Above? What do you mean.... Official? Meng Fanqi probably understood Mr. Li's hints, and he knew that Mr. Li had been working closely with the government, but he did not expect to attract official attention so soon.

"I can't say much about it now, but I value the potential of this technology in terms of security and military." Li Yanhong smiled mysteriously, "You continue to do your research well, don't think too much, don't be nervous, this is a good thing." They will find Baidu to connect with related needs, and when there is really something to know from you, they will definitely contact you directly. If I don't contact you, it's nothing. ”

"Anyway, when the time comes to the press conference, you can come up and talk about the algorithm, the principle or the story behind it." After Li Yanhong finished talking about the plan, he took advantage of the situation and sent out an invitation.

In fact, he was still telling Secretary Liu yesterday that Meng Fanqi would attend the meeting and had no time to come to the press conference, but the nobles forgot a lot, and today they forgot about it.