This mapping company wants to do more than just navigate

　　In the two or three years around the turn of the millennium, a number of Internet companies that play a significant role in our lives were born, including Tencent, including Alibaba, and of course, our protagonist Autonavi. In the past five years, Autonavi has been one of the more successful ones in changing from traditional surveying and mapping and electronic map navigation providers to networking. Standing at the current time point and facing the next five years, what new "ideas" Autonavi has that are valuable to consumers can be seen together at the Autonavi 2018 customer conference.

　　● Would you buy such a "mushroom head"?

　　In the field of smart cars, Autonavi this time brings A + Box, a product that we consumers can buy in the future, and we use the most space to talk about it. The name of A + Box is not very down-to-earth. You can simply understand it as an Autonavi version of CarPlay. Of course, it is a combination of software and hardware products, and many places are too different.

　　At present, the models equipped with MirrorLink mapping function in China are mainly some models of Volkswagen, Toyota and other brands. A + Link is even rarer. CarPlay and CarLife have invested a lot of time and money in their development for many years to reach their current size. After A + Box used MirrorLink too much in the early stage, I am afraid that Autonavi and Ali will also embark on such a "horse race" road for A + link.

　　At the meeting, Autonavi and Audi also announced a cooperation based on the A + Box. From the beginning of next year, the production version of the "square box" will be carried on Audi’s models one after another.

　　This makes the process of entering the A + BOX system from the original system less "theatrical", which can reduce the discomfort caused by the "system set system" to users.

　　Geely, SAIC passenger cars, and some Android-based rear-loading vehicles and streaming mirrors all use the Autonavi map car version. Based on past experience, the experience is still guaranteed.

　　The core of this technology was still the algorithm. With the algorithm, it would not be a big problem to put it on a full LCD dashboard or a streaming rearview mirror. It was a pity that there was no chance to actually try the effect of the actual road.

　　The more exciting thing on the display car is the voice control system, which is currently using the IDST solution of Ali Damo Academy, which supports natural semantics better. Of course, overseas brands have always been "inferior horses" in voice control, and Autonavi’s opponents should not be them.

　　The voice supports the OneShot function, which means you can say "Hello, Xiaode" and the command you want to give, instead of having to say the wake word and wait for the voice to wake up before proceeding to the next step.

　　At the same time, the "wake-up word" function is supported under the navigation and music interface. You can directly say zoom in/out of the map, face up, do not take the high speed, exit the navigation under the navigation interface, and say the previous/next song, pause, single loop, etc. under the music interface, eliminating the wake-up step.

　　In fact, voice is a product piled up with a large number of cases. It does not rely on too much creativity. It is a thorough "experience discipline". Everyone knows how to go down this road, and as long as you are willing to go down, you can make a good product, but you also need to know that the implementation of every entry and every detail function requires a lot of time and money. Therefore, similar to our life, there is a path destined to "success", but only a few people can follow it.

　　Of course, there are also problems. The connection agreement limits the sales of this product in the future, and how to prevent it from becoming a "geek-only" niche product. This is the problem that Autonavi faces. In addition, whether it is a "mushroom head" or a "square box", we will definitely have to pay for it. Admittedly, it is much better than CarPlay and CarLife, but whether this gap is enough to make you pay for the device is a question that we consumers need to think about.

　　High-definition maps and autonomous driving

　　If A + Box represents the ideal of Autonavi maps in smart cars and is for humans, then high-definition maps are for autonomous driving and for machines to see.

　　Nowadays, more and more V2X road test sites are landing in Wuxi, Hangzhou, Chongqing and other places. V2X has almost become a hot word in the industry. Many people do not know what it is. V2X is vehicle-to-road coordination, that is, cars and cars, cars and pedestrians, cars and traffic lights exchange data to achieve the purpose of "unlimited line of sight".

　　In order to achieve the high-level stage of autonomous driving, it is necessary to rely on V2X and ADAS systems based on vehicle sensors to cooperate with each other. Low-latency communication technology, networked traffic signal facilities, cloud computing brains, and of course high-precision maps are all important aspects of realizing V2X. However, at present, both V2X and high-precision maps are still in their infancy, and it will take time to truly implement the product.

　　Full text summary

　　Whenever things change, people always feel sad, and there are always friends who say: What’s the use of fooling around with these chores, I love driving! In fact, it is not necessarily love driving, what we repel in our hearts is just to hand over the steering wheel. The approaching of autonomous driving makes the "driving" attribute of the car weaker and weaker, and the "riding" attribute is stronger and stronger. In-vehicle interaction and entertainment are also more and more important. Everyone has their own opinions on change, but we must also admit that for the vast majority of us who are "good at" compromise, the cars we drive are not "driving fun" at all.

　　No matter how far the technology develops, Fox RS can still be a manual transmission, but for ordinary people, for sanitation workers and logistics practitioners, let Autonavi and other ideal companies help people achieve an easy journey. (Author: Zheng Xu)