http://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2021-03-03/1643791.html

Gao Chunhai said that, currently TCT Co., Ltd was constructing a demonstrative engineering in rail transit industry in Beijing, and it might be applied in a certain subway line in Beijing, and the minimum departure interval of 60 seconds might also be possible.

Gao Chunhai, the president of TCT Co., Ltd Source of image: interviewee

Along with the popularization of intelligent traffic, the intelligent degree in the field of traffic becomes higher and higher, “demonstration area of automatic driving” and “micro center of rail transit” have also become the keywords on the development of urban intelligent traffic. In the recent years, a lot of large Internet companies, such as Baidu, began to develop in the fields of automatic driving and intelligent traffic, and they also made this industry a hot spot.

Recently, the journalist of nbd.com.cn made a special interview to Gao Chunhai, the NPC Representative of Beijing and the president of Beijing Traffic Control Technology Co., Ltd (688015.SH). Being an experienced practitioner in traffic field, Gao Chunhai thought that, each time when a new technology emerges, it will always give rise to a new round of application in the field of traffic, and this conclusion can be drawn from the development procedure of technology. Along with the emergence of technical innovations, such as 5G, AI, big data and Internet of Things, etc, as well as the incorporation and innovation of Internet enterprises and traditional enterprises, new vigor has been infused in traffic field, and new energy will also be releases from intelligent traffic.

He thinks that the current rapid development of modern IT and AI technology as well as the prior application of automatic driving in the field of rail transit will provide more commercial activities and scenarios for the development of intelligent traffic. The traditional enterprises and Internet enterprises should cooperate and co-win in the future so as to increase the service quality of intelligent traffic.

On the intelligent traffic: increasing the operation efficiency of “the final kilometer”.

The construction of urban rail transit network is the foundation of developing the intelligent urban rail transit. According to the research data of National Statistics Bureau of Sullivan Consulting Co., Ltd, the market size of intelligent urban rail in China (counted by national construction and investment sum) increased from 10.09 billion Yuan in 2014 to 22.65 billion Yuan in 2018. The rapid development of urban rail transit will also improve the construction of corresponding information system, and it is estimated that the market size of intelligent urban rail in China will reach 44.25 billion Yuan in 2023.

Along with gradual popularization of the idea of intelligent traffic, intelligent urban transit becomes an important support for the development of intelligent city. Being benefited from the information technology of new generation, such as AI and cloud computation, the border of traditional traffic industry has been broken. The operation and service capabilities of intelligent urban rail have realize bi-directional upgrading via the information technology of new generation. This industry has upgraded in an intelligent way comprehensively and entered the times of intelligent traffic.

The changes in the industry have also made the city to increase the intelligence degree of traffic in many aspects. The draft of the syllabus of the Fourteenth Five-year Plan of Beijing raises the concepts of incorporation of station and city and “micro center” of rail. The micro center of rail is sufficiently incorporated with the stations of rail transit, and it has high degree of interaction, accessibility and collective land utilization; it is the urban regional space with diversified urban functions, the sense of place and identification.

Gao Chunhai expressed to the journalist of nbd.com.cn that, the rapid development of modern information technology and AI technology provides important measures and scenario of commercial activities for the urban rail transit to develop traffic flow economy, terminal economy and digital economy, and it will also drive the urban rail transit to increase the quality of traffic service in a further step.

For example, Beijing Subway No.11 Line will shorten the departure interval by “visual coupling” technology, and it will realize the operation of 6-car train at rush hour and 3 or 4-car train in non-rush hour, and the trains can draw up at the stations continually. "Traffic Control Technology is now establishing a demonstration project with Beijing for the rail transit industry, which will be demonstrated on a certain line in Beijing in the future, and a minimum operating interval of 60 seconds will also be possible." Gao Chunhai said.

Besides, Gao Chunhai also expressed that, the intelligent traffic means to put the travel habit and comfort of the people at first. In the future, all traffic systems will be incorporated, such as airports, railway stations, bus and bike sharing, etc. The incorporation among artery railway, interurban railway and urban rail transit will be reinforced, and by constructing the comprehensive rail transit and transportation system with the features of “convenient transfer, shared resources, complementary functions and inter-connection”, the urban space will be supported and guided, the transport resource configuration will be optimized, and the traffic will be more convenient. These are the development tendency of intelligent traffic, and they can also increase the operation efficiency of “the last kilometer”.

On automatic driving: it demands deep thinking on law, ethic and other aspects.

In terms of scenario realization, the automatic driving is also an important technology during realizing the intelligent traffic. Currently many enterprises have been exploring the technology of automatic driving, no matter they are traditional enterprises or Internet enterprises.

At the same time, the large cities are also improving the development of automatic driving. For example, Beijing raised “guiding the development of hi-tech industries with digitization...and improving the construction of demonstrative area of high-level automatic driving”. The core of “demonstrative area of high-level automatic driving” is the entire Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and this demonstrative area will be constructed in the area of about 60 sq km. The construction of five major systems of “intelligent road, smart car, real-time cloud, reliable network and accurate map” will be completed by 2022, and the critical sections on technology and management of online cloud-controlling automatic driving will be realized and the urban-level engineering testing platform will be formed.

Gao Chunhai thought that, the construction of “demonstrative area of high-level automatic driving” will have two effects: the first, the verifying experimental environment covering the entire procedure of unmanned driving will be established in the demonstrative area; on one hand, the construction of the demonstrative area will allow the enterprises to verify their technology, and on the other hand, it will also improve the development of the entire industry of pilotless automobiles; all the technologies can be tested and verified in “demonstrative area of high-level automatic driving” .

On the other hand, by establishing a complete self-driving demonstration zone, we can directly show the future of self-driving cars to the whole society, and it will also facilitate the replication and development of "self-driving" in other areas such as the Science City and Xiongan New Area in the future.