The Internet of Vehicles Makes Cars Smarter

The Internet of Vehicles is an emerging industrial form that deeply integrates the automotive, electronics, information and communication, and road transportation industries, concentrating on the application of cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, AI, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain. Accelerating the development of the Internet of Vehicles has significant strategic importance, as it helps improve the intelligence level of China’s automotive industry and further promotes the construction of a strong manufacturing, transportation, and network nation. The Internet of Vehicles, through the use of new technological means, helps solve increasingly severe social problems such as energy, environmental protection, and congestion. The technology of the Internet of Vehicles involves many intersecting fields and has high requirements; therefore, pilot testing, trial-and-error optimization, and timely promotion are inevitable choices for its development. Large-scale, city-level infrastructure construction for the Internet of Vehicles is a necessary prerequisite for its development.

The “New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)” previously published proposed promoting the deep integration of new energy vehicles with energy, transportation, and information communication, and coordinating the advancement of smart network infrastructure construction. The “Internet of Vehicles (Smart Connected Vehicles) Industry Development Action Plan” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed that China will gradually achieve high-level automatic driving functions for smart connected vehicles and large-scale commercial applications of 5G-V2X, promoting the high-level coordination of “people-vehicle-road-cloud”. In addition, a series of policy documents such as the “Guidelines for the Construction of Cybersecurity and Data Security Standards for the Internet of Vehicles” and the “5G Application ‘Sail’ Action Plan (2021-2023)” have also been successively released, all aimed at encouraging the development of the Internet of Vehicles industry.

However, it should also be noted that the Internet of Vehicles in China has not yet achieved large-scale application nationwide and faces many challenges. For example, the technology of the Internet of Vehicles is limited to specific regions and specific scene requirements, with slow progress in universal application and commercialization; the collaborative operation of infrastructure construction across regions and departments is difficult, various technical indicators are not unified, and business systems and related data have not yet achieved interconnectivity; and so on. In the next stage, we should fully utilize new technologies in the digital field to accelerate the coordinated development of intelligence and connectivity, making cars smarter.

On the one hand, we must fully break through the shortcomings in technology, management, and operation. For the technical shortcomings in the fields of automotive intelligence perception, decision-making, and control, as well as key components with high demand and high external dependency, we must concentrate our efforts to break through as soon as possible. Encourage Internet of Vehicles companies to explore business models in the field, support the development of third-party service agencies in the Internet of Vehicles field, and explore the establishment of a complete market-oriented development model for the Internet of Vehicles industry that spans research and development, manufacturing, sales, service, financing, and talent. Break down barriers between regions, industries, and systems, promote collaborative management of infrastructure operations, and facilitate the interconnection of information, data, and business, forming a network of “infrastructure + industry” with integrated development across various industries and shared construction and coordination across regions.

On the other hand, we should assist national-level pilot zones for the Internet of Vehicles in pioneering trials and innovative explorations. Encourage pilot zones to enrich “car-city integration” commercial application scenarios based on differentiated resource endowments and unique local scene requirements, exploring development paths that deeply integrate automotive industry upgrades and urban construction transformations. Focus on intelligent driving, software algorithms, and automotive-grade chips, cultivating a number of unicorn and gazelle enterprises with development potential. Accelerate the improvement of safety shortcomings related to the Internet of Vehicles industry chain, enhance monitoring and early warning, risk assessment, and emergency response capabilities, strengthen the security protection capabilities of key devices, network systems, service platforms, applications, etc., and promote the transformation of security assurance capabilities from reactive response to proactive prevention.