() The business review of the Board of Directors in the first half of 2023 is as follows:
I. Main businesses of the Company during the reporting period
(a) the industry situation
The company belongs to intelligent network and intelligent transportation industry. With the rapid development of next-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, mobile internet and big data, intelligent networking and autonomous driving are becoming a new generation of intelligent transportation systems. Intelligent networked traffic system is an integrated intelligent network system that realizes real-time and high-precision perception of road traffic environment through advanced vehicle and road sensing equipment such as radar and video, and realizes communication, information exchange and control instruction execution between vehicles, vehicles and roads, vehicles and people, and vehicles and road traffic facilities according to agreed communication protocols and data interaction standards, and finally forms intelligent traffic management and control, intelligent dynamic information service and automatic driving of networked vehicles. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is an efficient, convenient, safe, environmental-friendly, comfortable, real-time and accurate comprehensive transportation management system which effectively integrates advanced information technology, data communication and transmission technology, electronic sensing technology and computer software processing technology into the whole ground transportation management system.
Intelligent transportation and digital transportation are the highlights of future development, and they are also important engines to promote the high-quality development of transportation. In recent years, China has accelerated the development of intelligent transportation and digital transportation, and issued a series of policies, such as the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" for scientific and technological innovation in transportation field and the overall layout plan for the construction of digital China, to guide the industrialization development of intelligent transportation and digital transportation in key areas such as intelligent transportation infrastructure, travel service and vehicle-road coordination. According to the data released by China Intelligent Transportation Association, the intelligent transportation market in China will reach 165.8 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 14% from 2017 to 2020. It is estimated that the intelligent transportation market in China will reach 243.2 billion yuan in 2023. In recent years, China has vigorously developed intelligent transportation and digital transportation, promoted the integration of next-generation information technologies such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, mobile Internet, blockchain and artificial intelligence with transportation, and launched pilot applications of intelligent transportation. The scale of smart transportation technology expenditure in China has been increasing. With the gradual maturity of artificial intelligence technology and the promotion of many policies, the intelligentization, intellectualization and digitalization of expressways have become the main development direction of highway transportation. With the further development of digital traffic construction in China, the market scale of expressway intellectualization and digitalization will continue to climb. The China Commercial Industry Research Institute predicts that the market scale of expressway intellectualization in China will reach 90.3 billion yuan in 2023. The Chinese government has issued policies related to intelligent transportation and digital transportation.Encourage the construction of smart railways, smart civil aviation, smart ports, digital waterways, smart parking, smart traffic control and other fields, and promote the transformation of the transportation system to intelligence and digitalization.
Smart city is an important support of digital China, digital society and digital transportation. The outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China focus on "building a livable, resilient and smart city" to promote the overall situation of Chinese modernization. The new smart city is a new concept and path to promote the modernization of urban governance system and governance capacity, and it is also an important carrier for the construction of a network power and the development of digital economy. On June 17th, 2023, the group standard of Green Smart City Evaluation Index System (T/ZSCPA001—2023) led by the National Information Center was officially released. With the deepening of new urbanization, the continuous implementation of "Digital China" strategy, the deep integration of digital technology and real economy, and the overall acceleration of digital transformation, the digital construction of smart cities is facing new opportunities. The development and integrated application of technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things and driverless help intelligent travel. More and more cities use technologies such as vehicle-road coordination, artificial intelligence, smart parking and cloud computing to monitor traffic flow, congestion index and delay index in real time to improve traffic efficiency. The growing ecology of new industries such as the Internet of Vehicles and the Internet of Things has effectively promoted the digitalization, networking and intelligent development of traditional industries such as automobiles and transportation, and has gradually evolved into a gathering of digital economic development such as smart travel and digital traffic management.
In recent years, relevant government departments have actively promoted the development of intelligent networked automobile industry, and the market scale of the industry has grown rapidly. On June 21st, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that it would start the pilot of intelligent networked vehicle access and road traffic, and support the commercial application of conditional (L3 level) and higher autonomous driving. On July 18th, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Standardization Administration Committee issued "Guidelines for the Construction of National Vehicle Networking Industry Standard System (Intelligent Networked Vehicle) (2023 Edition)", pointing out that the system will form an intelligent networked vehicle standard system that can support the general functions of combined driving assistance and automatic driving from the first stage to 2025. With the accelerated change of science and technology in the industry and the accelerated upgrading of technology, China Commercial Industry Research Institute predicts that the market size of China intelligent networked automobile industry will increase to 150.3 billion yuan in 2023. In the field of vehicle electrification, intelligence and networking, China market is at the forefront of the world, which promotes the rapid improvement of the penetration and performance of intelligent driving assistance products and intelligent networking products. Thanks to the rapid development of new energy vehicles and the continuous strengthening of automobile intelligence, the demand for networked automotive electronic products is growing.
(II) Main businesses of the company during the reporting period
1. Overview of main business
Based on the national development keynote of "transportation is the key to rejuvenating the country and the foundation of strengthening the country", the company fully understands the customer demand and future development trend of the transportation industry based on years of experience and technology accumulation in the transportation industry, and is committed to constantly breaking through the tradition and pursuing innovation in the directions of smart transportation, smart cities and smart cars. The company builds a ubiquitous perception business ecosystem around "car" and "road", and based on artificial intelligence, car-road collaboration and digital twin common technologies, it forms three core driving capabilities of the Internet of Things: global fusion perception, space-time integration digital base, and cross-domain resource sharing and exchange. The main business can be summarized as 5 business divisions, 2 basic support systems, 2 business groups and 2 marketing systems. Among them, the five major business divisions include intelligent networking division, laser products division, automotive electronic products division, ETC products division and weighing products division; The two basic support systems include four R&D centers in Beijing, Wuhan, Suzhou and Shenzhen, and 32 prefecture-level technical service centers in China. Type 2 business groups include seven molecular companies and innovative businesses such as intelligent ETC; The two marketing systems include domestic business marketing and international business marketing.
2. Main products and uses
2.1. Intelligent networking series
2.1.1. Product category
Through years of continuous R&D investment in the field of intelligent networking, the company has gradually gained corresponding advantages in the market competition, forming a full-stack service capability covering "car-road-cloud-network-map".
1)V2X vehicle-road coordination
V2X series products adopt a new generation of C-V2X communication technology and support 5G mobile network communication, which is to realize effective data exchange among various elements in the transportation system, including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-road (V2I), vehicle-to-person (V2P), vehicle-to-cloud (V2N) and other technical modes, namely vehicle-to-vehicle information exchange and vehicle-to-outside information exchange. The product has the characteristics of long coverage, low communication delay, large data communication bandwidth, stability and reliability, etc., and can be adapted to intelligent transportation solutions in high-speed mobile scenes. By interacting with the platform and infrastructure, the vehicle-road-cloud collaborative interaction can be realized, empowering assisted driving and automatic driving.
2) Global Fusion Perception of Internet of Things
In terms of global fusion perception of the Internet of Things, the roadside intelligent perception system independently developed by the company integrates the functions of road information perception, data storage and calculation, information relay transmission, etc., adopts advanced sensors to realize accurate perception of traffic information, integrates sensing equipment such as laser radar, millimeter wave radar and AI camera, analyzes and processes the perceived information by using edge computing technology, and transmits the information to surrounding vehicles, mobile terminals and the cloud with extremely low delay through 5G/V2X communication, thus realizing "vehicle-to-cloud".
3) Intelligent networked cloud control platform
Intelligent networked cloud control platform, based on high-precision map, 3D modeling and multi-source sensing data fusion, realizes digital twinning, intelligent networked, vehicle-road coordination and other functions, and is actually applied to intelligent networked demonstration area, vehicle networking pilot area, automatic driving test field, holographic intersection, intelligent expressway, digital tunnel, intelligent service area, digital toll station and other scenes.
2.1.2. Solution class
The company has launched an all-round vehicle-road collaborative solution for smart high-speed and dual-smart cities.
1) Intelligent Vehicle Infrastructure Cooperative Systems solution
Advanced roadside fusion sensing, V2X communication and next-generation Internet technologies are adopted to implement dynamic real-time information interaction between vehicles and roads in all directions.
2) Digital Tunnel Solution
Through the core technologies such as high-precision vehicle positioning and global tracking technology, the functions of global monitoring of two passengers and one dangerous vehicle, highly reliable event detection and release are realized, and the tunnel safety factor is improved.
3) Digital Toll Station Solution
Realize the manager’s one-map global operation state perception, vehicle global tracking, accurate shunting success rate statistics and fare evasion behavior evidence collection, and solve the toll station congestion problem through ramp free flow, lane diversion and lane control.
4) Digital service area solution
Realize the global tracking of vehicles, automatic management of parking lots, and accurate analysis of passenger flow portraits. Through the deep integration of unmanned sweepers and unmanned food delivery vehicles, we can provide customers with richer scene services, reduce costs and increase efficiency while increasing operating income in service areas.
5) holographic intersection solution
Real-time perception and digital conversion of intersection vehicles, queues, traffic trajectories, abnormal behaviors, collision accidents and other information, realizing real-time perception of all elements of intersection dynamic information, enabling intelligent networked vehicles and intelligent traffic control.
6) Smart bus solutions
Through intelligent perception and information interaction, it serves smart buses and passengers, making buses run safely and efficiently.
7) Automatic driving test site solution
Through infrastructure construction, an intelligent networked test traffic scene with automatic driving, traffic simulation, combination of reality and reality and flexibility and plasticity will be built.
2.2. Lidar series
The company’s lidar products cover single-line and multi-line, mechanical and solid-state lidar products, which are used in intelligent transportation, industrial mobile robots, autonomous driving and other fields.
2.2.1. Roadside Sensing Lidar
Roadside sensing lidar is widely used. In the field of collaborative construction of smart cities and intelligent networked vehicles, 3D lidar based on roadside "God’s perspective" can not only provide data basis for optimizing traffic control efficiency for cloud control platform of traffic management, but also provide over-the-horizon and multi-dimensional real-time traffic information for intelligent networked vehicles, enriching vehicle-road collaborative application scenarios. In the aspect of road traffic monitoring and management, products such as high-speed vehicle contour detection system, highway traffic investigation system, off-site law enforcement contour and vehicle identification system, laser vehicle detector, highway entrance and exit vehicle identification system developed based on roadside sensing laser radar can not only realize high-speed non-contact non-stop detection, but also maintain all-weather high-precision data acquisition. In addition, in the fields of mass transit such as rail transit and port terminals, the roadside sensing lidar and its application system can be used in electronic fences, subway gap detection, ship scanning of automatic terminals, protection of quayside and yard bridges, and collision avoidance of unmanned trucks.
2.2.2. Industrial mobile robot lidar
In the field of industrial mobile robots, the company mainly provides navigation and obstacle avoidance lidar products. According to different scenes, different models and different installation methods, the company has formed a complete product matrix of laser radar, which continues to iterate, including short-range anti-collision laser radar, high-precision SLAM navigation laser radar, indoor and outdoor mixed navigation 3D laser radar and indoor target navigation laser radar. At present, it is widely used in industrial AGV/AMR, automatic forklifts, heavy-duty tractors, and commercial service mobile robots such as cleaning, medical treatment, guidance, inspection and distribution.
2.2.3. Vehicle-mounted lidar
Vehicle-mounted lidar is a necessary sensor for advanced assisted driving and automatic driving above L3/L4, which can make up for the shortcomings of cameras, microwave radars and other sensors in specific scenes. The vehicle-mounted lidar developed by the company includes the front-mounted long-range main radar and short-range blind-compensating radar for passenger cars, which can help vehicles to make a three-dimensional, dynamic and accurate perception of the surrounding environment and provide more comprehensive perception information for realizing the NOA function or high-order assisted driving in cities. It can not only meet the pre-installation needs of car companies and OEMs, but also meet the navigation and safety protection needs of commercial vehicles (such as mine trucks and minibuses) and logistics distribution vehicles operating on open roads.
2.3. Automotive Electronics Series
The company’s automotive electronic products mainly include front-mounted V2X vehicle-road coordination and front-mounted ETC series products.
2.3.1. Front-mounted V2X vehicle-road coordination
V2X can be applied to different scenes such as expressways, expressways, urban roads, parking lots, ports, etc., to achieve information services, improve driving safety, improve traffic efficiency, empower intelligent traffic management and realize advanced intelligent driving. At present, the company’s automotive electronics has 4G/5G-V2X in-vehicle communication terminals and a variety of customized products. Through the interaction between the vehicle and the outside world, it solves the information perception problem of over-the-horizon and blind areas of vehicles, enabling vehicles to obtain a series of traffic information such as real-time road conditions, road information and pedestrian information, and supports the expansion of automotive networking applications. The company’s V2X vehicle communication terminal has non-domestic and domestic solutions, which can meet the needs of quick boarding and customized development of the main engine factory.
2.3.2. Pre-installed ETC
Pre-installed ETC, ETC-OBU designed according to vehicle regulations, meets the requirements of enterprise standards and national standards for the environment and reliability of on-board electronic equipment. In terms of installation and communication, it has achieved deep integration with vehicles, such as hidden layout, power taking from vehicles, access to in-vehicle CAN bus, etc., which provides a foundation for vehicle-road coordination and scene expansion of ETC and can meet the needs of different OEMs.
2.4. Special Short Range Communication Series (ETC)
The company’s dedicated short-range communication products include vehicle ETC-OBU, roadside ETC-RSU and a series of solutions for expressway and urban ETC.
2.4.1. Product category
1) vehicle ETC-OBU
The rear-mounted ETC-OBU, including two-piece ETC-OBU and single-piece ETC-OBU, is installed on the inner side of the front windshield of the vehicle. Through the communication between OBU and RSU, the transaction can be settled immediately when passing, and the function of non-stop charging can be realized. This product has Bluetooth function and can realize online recharge and online activation. One-chip ETC-OBU is an iterative product of two-chip ETC-OBU. Without inserting a user card, the transaction data can be directly uploaded to the background for transaction settlement, and the product supports external standard 5V power supply, which can realize the long service life of the product.
Intelligent ETC-OBU is an intelligent vehicle-mounted device, which integrates ETC, driving recorder and 4G network communication functions. It has the functions of professional cloud recorder technology, mobile phone interconnection service upgrade, real-time voice broadcast of ETC transaction records, real-time push of consumption bills, vehicle-mounted power supply to extend the service life of OBU, etc. Combined with the "Xiaowan Travel" APP independently operated by the company, it can provide car owners with value-added services such as refueling, car washing and maintenance.
2) Roadside ETC-RSU
High-speed ETC-RSU includes high-speed roadside ETC products such as portal antenna and lane antenna. Gantry antenna is installed on the gantry of expressway, which is used for vehicle information acquisition and path writing, and is the core equipment of gantry end in ETC subsection charging system. Lane antenna is an antenna installed at the entrance and exit lanes of high-speed toll station, which is used to write the information of vehicle entrance and deduct the fee at the exit. It has the functions of positioning and satellite synchronous timing, and has the characteristics of preventing adjacent channel interference and car-following interference.
Urban ETC-RSU includes urban ETC products such as intelligent parking management roadside unit and intelligent dual-mode identification integrated machine. According to the application characteristics of urban scenes, control, radio frequency and communication are integrated into one, which has the advantages of high transaction success rate, fast installation, easy docking and low operation and maintenance, and can be applied to gas stations, parking lots, roadside parking management and other scenes.
2.4.2. Solution class
1) A series of solutions for expressway toll optimization.
Digital channel fast toll collection system, pre-transaction through ramp, ETC fast channel verification pre-transaction to solve the problems of toll station entrance and exit congestion, vehicle verification and management difficulties.
The accurate restoration route charging system, which is highly integrated with laser-triggered camera capture technology, AI enhanced identification technology, multi-dimensional matching technology and cloud path fitting technology, can effectively restore the real path of vehicles and guide charging, and reduce the loss of owners’ fees.
2) Expanding application solutions for urban ETC.
ETC on-street parking solution, by erecting RSU antenna on the cross section of the road, realizes accurate identification and accurate deduction of passing vehicles, helps parking operators to improve the charging rate and reduce the loss of state-owned assets.
ETC smart parking solution, relying on ETC technology to install RSU antenna at the entrance and exit of the parking lot, taking OBU as the vehicle carrier, realizing fast traffic and charging without stopping.
ETC refueling solution, by installing explosion-proof antenna to realize accurate identification of gas station vehicles, and by connecting with the zero pipe system of gas station to realize accurate deduction, the owner of OBU vehicles has realized non-inductive refueling and fast passage.
2.5. Dynamic weighing series
The company’s dynamic weighing products mainly include sensors, control instruments and a series of solutions for different application scenarios.
2.5.1. Product category
1) sensor class
Digital narrow strip weighing sensor is a new generation of road sensing device, which has five characteristics of digitalization, intelligence, intensification, simplification and coordination, and can realize the sensing of vehicle information such as vehicle weight, axle type, vehicle type, axle load, unbalanced load and tire pressure, as well as the sensing of traffic infrastructure conditions such as road injury and bridge protection.
Multi-hidden road sensor integrates multi-dimensional information such as strain, vibration, temperature, etc. It is constructed synchronously with the road by pre-installation, and integrated with the road. It can detect various kinds of information such as vehicle weight, vehicle type, road vibration and road damage at the same time. It has the advantages of non-inductive detection, safe traffic and reliable data, and can be applied to smart roads, road maintenance, and overload control by science and technology.
2) Control class
The weighing display control instrument is a new type of intelligent dynamic weighing management instrument specially designed and developed by the company for the automatic weighing instrument of dynamic road vehicles, which has the characteristics of high stability, good software compatibility, strong interface expansibility and low maintenance cost.
2.5.2. Solution class
1) Solution for expressway scene.
The expressway entrance overload control system innovatively uses the narrow strip sensor as the core weighing equipment to build the system, and integrates weighing with laser detection technology and ETC technology, forming a standardized construction scheme covering a series of functions such as weight detection, contour detection, vehicle type identification, drive shaft detection, and large vehicle detection.
The expressway provincial boundary overload control system is divided into front-end detection system and station-level management platform, which can form an effective closed loop with the weighing detection at the entrance and exit of expressway toll station, strengthen the information law enforcement supervision such as monitoring and early warning of truck overload, illegal evidence collection and case handling, and better protect people’s lives and property safety and highway assets in good condition.
The expressway exit overload control system, based on free-flow non-stop detection technology, carries out overload detection and recheck of vehicles about to leave the expressway, and forms an effective closed loop with the entrance detection of expressway toll stations. At the same time, it is linked with the ramp pre-transaction system to realize fast and safe traffic and accurate charging of vehicles.
2) Scenario solution for national and provincial trunk highways
The off-site law enforcement system of overload and overrun integrates advanced algorithm technology and stable and efficient data processing equipment, which ensures the stable operation of the system under unattended conditions and realizes accurate and stable detection of any vehicle in free-flow driving state. The system is equipped with a back-end information integrated management platform, which stores and uploads complete law enforcement evidence data, and carries out data sharing and law enforcement linkage with road administration, transportation management, public security and other relevant departments.
The source overrun detection system, by arranging front-end data acquisition equipment such as weighing, license plate recognition and image capture in the freight source station, can identify, monitor and warn the state of trucks in the station in real time, and upload the detection data to the management platform to help road management agencies and road transport management departments establish a linkage law enforcement mechanism, and strengthen the supervision of freight vehicles, vehicle drivers and freight enterprises that violate the law and overrun.
3) Scenario solution for highway infrastructure safety monitoring.
Digital bridge comprehensive solution, based on dynamic weighing detection, structural health monitoring, digital twinning, traffic digitalization and other core technologies, enhances bridge structural health monitoring and early warning capabilities, enhances traffic perception and emergency handling capabilities, strengthens bridge health assessment and scientific maintenance capabilities, and ensures bridge operation safety. The scheme can be applied to "structural health monitoring project of highway long bridges" and "lifeline safety project of urban infrastructure".
4) Scenario solution for comprehensive traffic informatization.
The overload management information system is a comprehensive information management and business platform based on big data architecture for the company to combine its own technology and product advantages, integrate the data of all kinds of overload control sites at the front end, and open up key nodes of business processes at all levels, so as to realize cross-regional and cross-departmental overload control data sharing, business collaboration and joint law enforcement, and realize the "one chess game" of overload control supervision service.
Intelligent transportation integrated management platform integrates traffic operation monitoring, asset management, road maintenance, overload control, etc. It comprehensively supervises different types of vehicles such as taxis, buses, two passengers in danger, and builds a public information publishing platform, making full use of small programs, WeChat official account, APP, government portals and other ways and means to make information transparent, and providing the public with various transportation services such as road information and travel guidance.
(3) Business model
During the reporting period, the company mainly made profits by "products+services", and the profit sources mainly included product and system sales and service provision. The company sells intelligent networking, lidar, automotive electronics, ETC, dynamic weighing and other related products and supporting software or platform systems to customers, and carries out civil construction, equipment installation and debugging, system debugging, technical training and other processes according to the requirements of specific products. Finally, after passing the acceptance test, it obtains the completion acceptance form of the other party, collects the project contract money, and obtains income and profit. In addition, the company provides value-added services to customers according to the signed technical service contract, including daily maintenance, repair, update and upgrade of equipment.
(IV) Analysis of business operation during the reporting period
In the first half of 2023, benefiting from the construction of digital intelligent transportation in China, the company achieved an operating income of 322,138,100 yuan, up 2.17% over the same period of last year, and an operating income of 216,527,400 yuan in the second quarter, up 67.94% over the same period of last year. The company’s intelligent network connection and automotive electronics business achieved rapid growth during the reporting period. At the same time, the company continued to increase R&D investment, and continuously improved its product and solution capabilities in intelligent networking, lidar and automotive electronics. In the first half of 2023, the R&D investment was 143,133,400 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.37%; During the reporting period, the company increased the marketing efforts of intelligent network connection and other businesses, resulting in an increase in marketing expenses compared with the same period of last year. Due to the comprehensive influence of the above factors, the company’s net profit decreased year-on-year. During the reporting period, the company’s business operations are as follows:
1. Business development
1.1. Intelligent networking
1.1.1. Technical progress
In terms of intelligent networking technology research, product development and solution capability improvement, the company closely follows the national and local development strategies, and relies on holographic stereoscopic perception ability to propose the overall architecture of urban intelligent transportation, which is divided into infrastructure layer, business support layer, domain service layer and business scene layer. The platform system can provide refined, diversified and differentiated transportation service applications for three types of users, such as government, enterprises and the public. During the reporting period, the company continued to strengthen the four core capabilities of space-time integrated digital base, holographic stereo perception, real-time dynamic twinning, and real-time interaction between vehicles and roads. Based on the all-round technical capabilities of vehicle-road-cloud-network-map, the company comprehensively improved the architectural capability and delivery capability of the vehicle-road collaborative closed-loop solution for high-grade autonomous driving.
1.1.2. Market progress
In the face of complex inter-city and urban traffic scenes, the company puts forward scientific and systematic governance schemes according to different traffic characteristics and respecting people-oriented needs, so as to help the intelligent and digital transformation of inter-city and urban traffic.
In the aspect of intelligent high-speed construction, the company’s intelligent high-speed comprehensive solution is based on global perception, supported by digital space-time base, and carried by intelligent high-speed platform, and integrates artificial intelligence, digital twinning and other technologies to build systems such as "global twinning, operation monitoring, simulation decision-making, emergency command and vehicle-road coordination", thus creating a "digital world" for expressways. Typical intelligent construction projects include Chongqing Yuxiang Expressway Intelligent Project and Yunnan Zhaoyang Intelligent Expressway Project. In the intelligent project of Chongqing Yuxiang Expressway, the company has built a digital space-time base, an edge data center, a digital tunnel system, a digital toll station system, and a risk section perception system of the main line, which has helped users realize the digitalization of infrastructure and improved the traffic efficiency and safety of key nodes. In the construction of Zhaoyang Smart Expressway in Yunnan, the company undertook the safety prevention and control system for tunnels and affected areas, adopted V2X communication system and information release system, and provided timely traffic information prompt and accurate guidance for networked vehicles and non-networked vehicles. The company’s smart high-speed comprehensive solution puts forward targeted strategies according to the pain points of different scenarios, covering the full-service scenarios of expressways such as tunnels, toll stations, ramps, vehicles and roads, bridge monitoring, test sites, etc., and realizing the wisdom of everything.
In the construction of Shuangzhi city, the company has continuously strengthened the four core capabilities of space-time integrated digital base, holographic stereo perception, real-time dynamic twinning and real-time interaction between vehicles and roads, and comprehensively improved the architectural capability and delivery capability of the company’s vehicle-road collaborative closed-loop solution for high-grade autonomous driving. During the reporting period, the company participated in the construction of typical double-smart city scenes in China, and landed in many scenes across the country. Among them, he deeply participated in the construction of Wuhan Intelligent Networked Vehicle Test Site and Qingdao High-tech Zone Intelligent Networked Vehicle Test Road, and provided roadside perception, communication and V2X scene construction support. In-depth participation in the construction of collaborative autonomous driving test sites for high school buses such as Chang ‘an University, Tongji University and Qinghai Jiaotong University, providing products such as virtual and real simulation and three-item mapping. In the third phase project of Jiangxi Jiujiang 5G Smart Science and Technology City, the bus automatic driving assistance system was built through the cooperative infrastructure transformation of vehicles and roads at multiple intersections. In the smart parking lot project of Zhongguancun Software Park in Beijing, the application scenarios such as roadside foundation design and perception sharing safety early warning are provided. The company contributes to the construction of Shuangzhi city by creating a vehicle-road coordination scheme for different levels of perception needs.
In the field of urban comprehensive management, with the help of the 13th China Road Traffic Safety Products Expo, the company released solutions for global integrated perception of road network, urban traffic signal control, refined urban management and mobile smart base station products for traffic police, which were applied in Changsha, Suzhou, Jinan and other places respectively, and made an extension from the smart traffic business line to the smart traffic management business line.
1.1.3. Progress in industry standards
In terms of industry standards, the company took the lead in establishing the Data Interface Requirements between Roadside Communication Units and Roadside Infrastructure, which is under the jurisdiction of the Internet of Things Sub-technical Committee of the National Information Technology Standardization Technical Committee. The purpose of this standard is to improve the compatibility between roadside communication terminals and roadside infrastructure, realize the interconnection between roadside infrastructure, and facilitate the large-scale construction and deployment of vehicle-road coordination. In terms of group standards, the company initiated the projects of RSU Equipment Evaluation and OBU Equipment Evaluation in Xiong ‘an Innovation Federation, aiming at further enhancing the influence of the company’s products in xiong’an new area and accelerating the landing of subsequent projects. The company mainly participated in the Technical Requirements for Application-layer Interaction of Cooperative Intelligent Transportation System Part 2: Perceptual Data Sharing, which was centralized by China Automotive Engineering Society. This standard stipulated the technical requirements for application-layer interaction of services of perceptual data sharing, including architecture and functions, general requirements, communication process of application-layer and application definition. The company mainly participated in the Technical Requirements and Test Methods of Roadside Infrastructure RSU for Vehicle-Road Collaboration, which is under the jurisdiction of China Automotive Engineering Society. This standard is suitable for guiding the design, development, operation and maintenance of RSU facilities in Intelligent Vehicle Infrastructure Cooperative Systems, an urban road, to support the development of vehicle-road collaboration application services. The company mainly participated in the Code for Design of Intelligent Accessory Facilities for Expressway Operation, which was centralized by China Technology Market Association and led by Shanxi Intelligent Transportation Research Institute.This standard stipulates the functional requirements, performance requirements and safety requirements of related systems at all levels of intelligent design technology for operating expressway ancillary facilities. The company’s standard team has participated in 59 published standards in the field of intelligent networking, including 5 national standards, 4 industry standards, 49 group standards and 1 local standard. There are 176 standards under compilation, including 23 national standards, 26 industry standards, 26 local standards and 101 group standards.
1.1.4. Progress in scientific research achievements
In terms of scientific research achievements, by the end of the reporting period, there were 119 valid patents in the field of V2X intelligent networking, and 443 patents were under application. During the reporting period, there were 50 new patent applications, of which inventions and PCT patents accounted for 72%. In April 2023, the company’s "Digital Twinning Helps Haidian Changchun Bridge to Create a Digital Holographic Demonstration Intersection of Capital Civilized Traffic" was selected into the list of outstanding cases of urban digital twinning in 2022 published by the Smart City Working Group of the National Signaling Committee.
1.2. Lidar
1.2.1. Technical progress
During the reporting period, the company continued to innovate in technology, and released laser radar products as follows: (1) Roadside 64-line laser radar WLR-733, whose 64-line beam is designed downward, with high-quality point cloud and super-large detection area, 360-degree horizontal field of view and the company’s unique vertical field of view (as low as 0.1-degree vertical angle resolution), and the range of 10% reflector reaches more than 200m. The farthest ground line can realize the stable detection of 110m, which is a rare lidar product on the market at present, taking into account both "measuring distance" and "measuring breadth". At the same time, an SDK with structured data output function and a lightweight edge controller have been developed to facilitate the layout and use of customers. (2) The self-driving 64-line blind-compensating radar WLR-721, with a vertical field of view of 90 degrees and a range of 30 meters (10%), is one of the blind-compensating radars with the largest vertical field of view in the industry at present. The design scheme of VCSEL+ array SIPM is adopted, which greatly reduces the radar volume and power consumption. (3) Single-line small navigation radar WLR-718H, adopting the chip scheme of DTOF not only improves the integration of laser radar and simplifies the production process, but also significantly reduces the size of the whole machine, especially reduces the height of the whole machine to about 40mm, making it more convenient to adapt to the low chassis of hidden AGV and the shelf identification of forklift forks.
In terms of vehicle-mounted lidar, the vehicle-mounted 128-line lidar developed by the company has greatly improved its performance in ranging, blind area and noise suppression (high reflection, ghosting and expansion). The first turn of ASIC chip for vehicle-mounted radar developed by the company has been returned and is being tested in system function. In terms of pre-research, the company has developed the prototype of flash blind-compensating radar at the same time, and it is progressing smoothly at present.
1.2.2. Market progress
In the field of smart transportation, the company continues to increase the market share of roadside sensing lidar products in highway traffic survey, vehicle detector, vehicle detection in service area, vehicle identification and classification, outline size detection, etc., improve the competitiveness of products by reducing the comprehensive layout cost of users (increasing the sensing range, SDK providing structured data output function, etc.), and increase the flexibility of user equipment configuration by decoupling the sensors and algorithms of smart base stations based on lidar. At present, it has successfully entered the supply chain list of many smart transportation solution suppliers. In the field of unmanned commercial vehicles, the company adopts multi-model laser radar to provide integrated solutions for navigation, blind compensation and collision prevention for mobile robot enterprises in a high/low collocation way, and actively sends laser radars to unmanned commercial vehicles such as clean sanitation vehicles, safety patrol vehicles, manned vehicles, logistics vehicles and engineering work vehicles for mass production and supply. The company fully communicates with autonomous driving enterprises, robot head enterprises, internet enterprises and system integrators to provide all-round solutions for laser radar and further enhance customer coverage. In terms of special vehicle application scenarios, the company provides main radar and blind-compensating radar solutions and tests them to further enhance the overall solution capability of lidar.
In terms of industrial mobile robot laser radar, the company started to continuously expand new customers of industrial robots such as AGV and AMR from the aspects of quality, cost and technological advancement, increased the coverage of head enterprises, actively increased the market share in the field of industrial robots, and the overall market share was improved. Expand new customers in the field of service robots such as commercial guidance, distribution, disinfection, cleaning and inspection, and continue to increase the scale of import substitution. At the same time, the company used lidar-related projects in Chengdu ground rail transit, and actively expanded its applications in security protection fields such as ports and railways. In addition, the company actively expands the overseas market of lidar, and has achieved sales in Europe, America, Southeast Asia and other places.
In terms of vehicle-mounted lidar, the company’s 128-line vehicle-mounted lidar actively conducted joint testing with the main engine factory and the autonomous driving company, and obtained a letter of designation from a vehicle company. The company simultaneously carried out the construction of the vehicle-mounted lidar automatic assembly production line, and made preparations for production and supply chain for subsequent mass production. At the same time, the company officially launched a global promotion of vehicle-mounted lidar to international automakers to enhance the visibility and influence of the company’s vehicle-mounted lidar in the global market.
1.2.3. Progress in industry standards
In terms of industry standards, the industry standard "Vehicle-Road Cooperative Roadside Lidar Detection Method" compiled by the company in china communications standards association is being solicited for comments. This standard plays an important role in unifying roadside lidar testing methods and standardizing the development of roadside lidar industry. The company has participated in the development of standards in the field of lidar, and has published two group standards, namely, Laser Vehicle Detector for Traffic Information Collection (the company is the lead unit) and Detection Method for Vehicle-mounted Lidar, and 16 other standards are being compiled, including 2 international standards, 3 national standards, 4 industry standards and 7 group standards.
1.2.4. Progress in scientific research achievements
In terms of scientific research achievements, as of the end of the reporting period, there were 388 valid patents for lidar products and 390 patents under application. During the reporting period, there were 15 new patent applications in the field of lidar, of which inventions and PCT patents accounted for 75%, and OPA Fang Xiangxin added 3 invention patent applications and 3 PCT patent applications.
1.3. Automotive Electronics
1.3.1. Technical progress
For the front-loading V2X, in order to meet the requirements of different customers, such as price and localization rate, the company has designed corresponding non-domestic and domestic solutions and cost reduction, which can cover the boarding needs of most OEMs. On the technical standard level, the company participated in the parts verification of the first recommended national standard "Technical Requirements and Test Methods of Vehicle Information Interaction System Based on LTE-V2X Direct Communication" in V2X field, which fully verified the compliance of the products. In terms of software design, the company has the ability of self-research of software, and has developed SOA system architecture for distributed services and software architecture based on AutoSar, which is in line with the current advanced domain centralized EE architecture and can realize flexible deployment of services. At the application scene level, the company continues to carry out the research and development of the second phase scene and the high-level automatic driving scene based on V2X, accelerating the scene landing and deepening the user’s perception, and further empowering the high-level automatic driving.
For the front-loading ETC, in order to strengthen the development strategy of vehicle-road coordination and deeply implement the policy of vehicle-road coordination integration based on the concept of "traffic watcher", the company has launched the technical scheme of vehicle-road coordination, and has completed the debugging of the first version of the scheme in cooperation with the road network center, and completed the testing of the scheme in the demonstration area. The technical route of ETC-based vehicle-road cooperative extended broadcasting scheme is as follows: the roadside unit RSU uses the 5.8GHzDSRC protocol to interact with the vehicle-mounted unit OBU and ETC partners, among which the ETC partners adopt the broadcasting form. At the same time, we will expand the cooperative application of vehicles and roads in off-highway scenes (such as the release of events under municipal roads, the release of mobile events for special vehicles such as rescue and maintenance), and issue the events after verifying the legality of the pre-installed ETC.
1.3.2. Market progress
During the reporting period, the company continued to promote the innovative application and practice of vehicle-road coordination and autonomous driving technology, consolidate the foundation of data information interconnection and help the development of intelligent transportation.
As the key technology of intelligent transportation system in the future, the front-mounted 4G/5G-V2X is the future development direction of intelligent transportation and intelligent networked vehicles. The company has established a research and development team, a supply chain team, a quality management team and a production team for vehicle networking, implemented the integrated development strategy of vehicles and Lu Yun, and provided overall solutions for the industrial chain. During the reporting period, the company completed the construction of the automated 5G car networking production line, which provided a solid guarantee for the company to deliver the 5G car networking products of the OEM. The company carries out visual management of manufacturing, improves the management level of warehousing and logistics, completes mass production delivery of products for designated car companies, and ensures the high-quality operation of production and supply chain systems. At the same time, the company actively communicated with more car companies, pre-installed 4G/5G-V2X before testing, strived to obtain more car companies’ fixed points, and supported the application expansion of car networking. During the reporting period, the company started the development of a new generation of integrated TCU products, which can meet the needs of most car networking in OEMs, and has conducted technical exchanges and tests with mainstream OEMs in the industry.
In terms of pre-installed ETC, in response to the system planning and related facilities construction of the smart expressway pilot project, the company responded to the requirements of the Ministry of Transport on deepening the application of the portal frame of the electronic toll collection system (ETC) of expressways, and promoted the coordinated construction of vehicles and roads based on the ETC system to meet the diversified needs of automakers, and continuously optimized and upgraded the pre-installed ETC products. On the premise of multi-functional applications (such as optional CAN communication module, online release activation, remote program update and other value-added services, as well as multi-functional expansion of rearview mirror, DVR, central control and T-BOX, etc.), the technical scheme based on vehicle-road coordination is introduced. At the same time, the pre-installed ETC installation rate and activation rate of the company’s original customers have been improved, and the overall loading rate has steadily increased. The company and a number of internationally renowned brand car companies have determined the long-term ETC scheme, established a long-term cooperative partnership, and fully cooperated with the smart transportation scheme of the Ministry of Transport and the road network center.
1.4. Dedicated short-range communication (ETC)
1.4.1. Technical progress
As the leader of domestic ETC technology, the company applied advanced technologies such as DBF phased array technology and spatial array positioning technology to ETC free-flow system, and made major breakthroughs in key technologies such as RSU dynamic area control, ETC-OBU dynamic tracking and accurate positioning, ETC-RSU/OBU transaction scheduling, and ETC-OBU concurrent processing, which greatly improved the adaptability of multi-lane free-flow products to high-speed passing cars and vehicle tracking.
1.4.2. Market progress
1) After-loading OBU.
The company completed the cost reduction of single-chip and double-chip OBU, continued to promote single-chip OBU, completed the promotion of new Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangxi and other places, and conducted docking debugging with Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Guangdong and other provinces. During the reporting period, the company obtained the Beijing Alipay ETC4.0 project, continued to expand its market share, and jointly studied motorcycle OBU with the Beijing ETC issuer. Based on the original functions such as voice interaction, Beidou positioning and 4G communication, the company’s intelligent OBU develops more new functions of vehicle-road coordination to meet the requirements of the optimization and upgrading scheme of expressway networked toll collection system.
2) Highway application.
Combined with the upgrading direction of the networked toll collection system, the company expanded the application value of ETC system and launched an intelligent portal frame system based on the vehicle identification technology of laser vision fusion. The scheme has achieved normal operation in many provinces and cities across the country, and established provincial boundary electronic fences in Sichuan Expressway to achieve accurate empowerment audit and escape; Establish a vehicle portrait system at the boundary of Guizhou province to provide effective evidence for inter-provincial splitting and analysis of charging differences; Help Beijing Shoufa Group to improve the capture ability of snap cameras, improve the accuracy of billing system, and improve the charging amount and audit ability. At the same time, the company mainly promotes a number of new system schemes, such as audit work order robot, global digital road network based on ETC portal frame, standardized toll station solution, ETC service area vehicle monitoring scheme, ETC long bridge vehicle monitoring scheme and so on. The above new schemes will soon be implemented in Zhejiang, Guizhou, Sichuan, Henan and other places.
3) Urban application development.
The company has formed a product portfolio covering parking hardware, management platform, ETC multi-scenario solution and city-level smart parking overall solution. During the reporting period, the company actively promoted the ETC expansion application platform and reached cooperation in Liaoning, Hubei and other places to drain the parking lot resources to the issuer. In terms of product research and development, the company improved and optimized the antenna series products in the parking lot, and completed the joint debugging of antenna development with partners. The company extended the overall solution of city-level smart parking to large and medium-sized cities in China, and implemented ETC parking projects in landing cities such as Hunan, Liaoning and Shandong.
1.5. Dynamic weighing
1.5.1. Progress in technology
The company combines the dynamic weighing business with laser, and puts forward the application solution of multi-line laser radar in off-site law enforcement of truck overload and road traffic flow survey. Based on the point cloud information and accurate point cloud ranging provided by multi-line laser radar, it can carry out holographic perception, accurate perception and trajectory tracking for traffic participants, provide multi-dimensional visual evidence chain support for off-site law enforcement of overload and overload, and provide scientific data support for traffic management decision-making and traffic planning and design in road traffic flow survey scenarios, thus providing a comprehensive solution for urban traffic governance.
1.5.2. Market progress
During the reporting period, the company implemented the comprehensive management and control plan for the provincial boundaries of expressways, insisted on stabilizing the overload control through science and technology, mainly promoted the off-site law enforcement system for overloading, optimized the off-site software platform, and landed projects in Shandong, Chongqing and other places. The "Intelligent Monitoring Scene of Overloaded Vehicles at the Entrance of Beijing Expressway" adopted the company’s expressway entrance overload control system and was selected as "Zhifu Baijing" in the National Pilot Area of Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Application of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
1.5.3. Progress in scientific research achievements
In terms of scheme output, based on the deep cultivation and accumulation in the intelligent transportation industry and core technologies such as dynamic weighing detection, traffic infrastructure monitoring and traffic digitalization, the company has launched a comprehensive digital bridge solution, which greatly improves the bridge structure health monitoring and early warning capabilities, enhances the traffic perception and emergency handling capabilities, strengthens the bridge health assessment and scientific maintenance capabilities, ensures traffic operation safety and road assets safety, and assists bridge managers to realize the optimal layout of comprehensive benefits of operation management and safety emergency. At the same time, the company also released new comprehensive solutions, such as in-service trunk highway digitalization scheme and highway intelligent operation and maintenance scheme, to improve the digitalization level of highway infrastructure and scientific decision-making, enhance highway safety guarantee capability, and further help traffic powers.
1.6. Strategic development of globalization
During the reporting period, with the goal of global strategic planning, the company focused on ITS products (LiDAR) and systems (WIM, C-V2X) and robotic lidar.
The company’s first overseas intelligent networked holographic intersection project (C-V2X) was successfully delivered to Bangkok, Thailand. The complex intersection situation in Bangkok was simulated in real time with digital twins, and channelized design suggestions and refined law enforcement were made to alleviate the extreme congestion and chaotic intersection situation in megacities and make travel safer and more convenient. As a revolutionary in ITS industry, the company’s ITS laser provides high-value data for the global digital road and successfully sells it to Mexico, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brazil and other places. The company’s robot lidar business focuses on the developed markets in Europe, America, South Korea and Japan. In the first half of 2023, the robot lidar products were successfully sold to markets in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, India and other places, and delivered with head robot customers in Singapore, Canada and other places. The company has obtained OIML-R134 certification issued by NMI of Netherlands Metrology Institute, which means that the company’s WIM system has been recognized by the international metrology community. The company’s weighing products have been successfully sold to Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Hungary and other places.
During the reporting period, the company filmed laser radar, intelligent networked holographic intersection and other related promotional videos, and comprehensively promoted products and solutions in the international market. At the same time, the company actively participated in international exhibitions, such as CES Consumer Electronics Show in the United States, HannoerMesse in Germany, Logimat in Stuttgart, IRC World Road Congress in Czech Republic, etc., and applied more lidar and ITS systems to the world.
2. Technology development and innovation
In terms of intelligent network connection, the company continues to invest in research and development of roadside intelligent sensing system, intelligent network connection cloud control platform and V2X communication terminal. While the original digital solutions have been continuously upgraded, the company has actively laid out and developed new scene application solutions such as expressway open test site, highway reconstruction and expansion digital security solution, intersection signal control solution and automatic driving direction holographic intersection solution, further enhancing the company’s four core capabilities of time-space integration digital base, holographic stereo sensing, real-time dynamic twinning and real-time interaction between vehicles and roads.
In terms of vehicle-road collaboration, the company focuses on vehicle-road collaborative autonomous driving technology, and continuously improves the vehicle-road collaborative data service capability and the full-stack closed-loop scheme, thus realizing the scale landing and industrialization of vehicle-road collaborative autonomous driving. Specifically, it includes roadside data service, L2+ networked vehicle roadside scene service, bicycle autopilot service and vehicle-road cooperative autopilot service. Through the complete data center platform architecture, the company has realized the closed-loop management from edge management, data collection and storage to intelligent application, and at the same time continuously expanded the data business requirements, thus mining the value of data elements and developing data products.
In terms of multi-line laser radar, the company’s on-board 128-line laser radar successfully passed the harsh winter extreme cold test, which enhanced the accuracy, cold durability and anti-interference performance of laser radar products in extremely cold environment. The test results showed the high reliability and stability of laser radar under extreme conditions, which was more conducive to improving the safety of driverless cars and further empowering driverless cars. At the same time, the company increased the R&D investment of silicon-based all-solid-state laser radar OPA, and improved its ranging range and long-distance research.
During the reporting period, the number of patents granted by the company continued to increase, and new patents were granted in intelligent networking, V2X, lidar, pre-installed ETC, ETC-RSU and dynamic weighing system. During the reporting period, 53 authorized invention patents, 50 authorized utility model patents, 3 authorized design patents and 19 software copyrights were added. The company’s patent applications increased by 63% compared with the same period of last year, and the patent applications in the fields of laser and intelligent networking increased by 71% compared with the same period of last year, accounting for 79% of the company’s semi-annual applications in 2023. By June 30, 2023, the company had 1,110 valid patents at home and abroad and 262 software copyrights. The valid patents include 306 invention patents, 732 utility model patents, 71 design patents and 1 patent authorized by the United States. Another 1,051 patents are under review, including 2 American patents, 2 European patents and 24 PCTs. Among them, there are 388 valid patents for lidar products and 390 patents under application; There are 119 valid patents and 443 patents under application for V2X intelligent networking.
3. Operation management
During the reporting period, the company continued to implement digital operation management, optimized the rules and plans for the use of funds, effectively controlled the net working capital, and maximized the input and output. The company promotes intelligent manufacturing technology and intelligent manufacturing system from three aspects: process control, equipment management and information application, so as to realize full digitalization, automation and intelligence of the production process and improve production efficiency and quality. The company continuously optimizes the industrial product supply chain, system integration supply chain and automotive electronic supply chain to realize the value transfer and value-added of the supply chain and enhance the overall core competitiveness of the company.
The company continued to implement information construction management and continuously improved the overall operating efficiency of the company. TMS transportation management system improves the management ability of logistics through various methods, and plans to go online in the second half of the year; BI report system (management data visualization) is combined with big data, data warehouse, data mining and data analysis to support data-driven decision-making. The second phase of PLM localization promotion project has started the internal demand investigation, and it is planned to go online in the second half of the year; Financial information construction (financial center+shared service) applies advanced software system and computer technology to implement modern management of financial information. At the same time, the company optimizes and perfects the processes of automotive electronic supply chain, system integration and industrial product supply chain.
4. Investment M&A and capital operation
During the reporting period, the company invested 15 million yuan to increase the capital of Shanghai Xuehu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Xuehu"). After the capital increase, the company held 5.0847% of the shares of Shanghai Xuehu. Intelligent networking business and laser radar business are the key directions of the company’s ecological strategic layout. Based on the company’s technical ability in the field of laser radar and Shanghai Xuehu’s technical ability in the field of FPGA, both parties are committed to developing programmable chips that can reduce MEC power consumption and improve adaptability. The self-developed 3D point cloud AI hardware acceleration engine and algorithm owned by Shanghai Xuehu can provide computing support for the company’s multi-source heterogeneous data fusion and further enhance the company’s comprehensive competitiveness in the fields of intelligent networking and laser radar. By complementing each other’s capabilities and sharing resources, the two sides will jointly cooperate in many fields such as intelligence at both ends of vehicles and roads to enhance the core competitiveness of their technologies and products.
Second, the core competitiveness analysis
(A) R&D strength and technological innovation advantages
The company is a high-tech enterprise recognized by Beijing Science and Technology Commission, Beijing Finance Bureau and State Taxation Administration of The People’s Republic of China Beijing Taxation Bureau. It has participated in the national torch plan project and actively participated in the formulation of industry standards. At the same time, it is also a communication member of the National Intelligent Transportation System Standardization Technical Committee, and has joined the working group on digital infrastructure and vehicle-road coordination, intelligent driving, etc., a member and governing unit of China Highway Society, a standing governing unit of China Geographic Information Industry Association and a governing unit of China Intelligent Transportation Association. Obtained Beijing Municipal Enterprise Science and Technology Research and Development Institution and Beijing Design Innovation Center issued by Beijing Science and Technology Commission, Beijing Enterprise Technology Center issued by Beijing Economic and Information Technology Commission and Beijing High-tech Industrial Design Center issued by Beijing Economic and Information Technology Bureau. Beijing Wanji Intelligent Networking Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, was awarded the "Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Beijing" by Beijing Economic and Information Bureau.
After years of continuous R&D investment, the company has made a lot of technological innovations, and built an independent core intellectual property system in the fields of intelligent networking, lidar, automotive electronics, special short-range communication and dynamic weighing.
In the first half of 2023, the company’s patent applications increased by 63% compared with the same period of last year, and the patent applications in the fields of laser and intelligent networking increased by 71% compared with the same period of last year, accounting for 79% of the company’s semi-annual applications in 2023. During the reporting period, 53 authorized invention patents, 50 authorized utility model patents, 3 authorized design patents and 19 software copyrights were added. By June 30, 2023, the company had 1,110 valid patents at home and abroad and 262 software copyrights. The valid patents include 306 invention patents, 732 utility model patents, 71 design patents and 1 patent authorized by the United States. Another 1,051 patents are under review, including 2 American patents, 2 European patents and 24 PCTs. The company has continuously strengthened the intellectual property training for managers and R&D personnel, enhanced the awareness of intellectual property protection, and passed the certification of GB/T29490 intellectual property management system. The company fully understands the market development trend of this industry, and according to the overall development plan, it has formed the advantages of technology research and development through a series of differentiated competitive strategies leading manufacturers in the same industry, such as constantly improving product lines, stabilizing product performance, providing technical standards and independent innovation.
While developing products, the company actively participates in the formulation of technical standards, and a standard team composed of standardization personnel and R&D personnel participates in the formulation of a number of standards to provide technical support for standardizing market development. By June 30, 2023, the company had participated in 72 published standards, including 10 national standards, 5 industry standards, 2 local standards and 55 group standards. There are 195 standards in compilation, including 3 international standards, 27 national standards, 27 industry standards, 26 local standards and 112 group standards.
In the field of intelligent network connection, the company has been deeply involved in the field of intelligent network connection for many years. With the deepening understanding of the industry, the company deeply understands the traffic business and industry needs. Facing the complex urban traffic scenes, the company respects the people-oriented use needs according to the traffic characteristics of different cities, and puts forward scientific and systematic governance plans to help the intelligent transformation of urban traffic. Based on the advantages of artificial intelligence, multi-perception, edge computing, ubiquitous network, big data and other core technologies, the company has launched a vehicle-road collaborative solution for smart high-speed and smart cities through core independent products and platforms such as roadside intelligent perception system, intelligent networked cloud control platform and V2X communication terminal, and continuously strengthened the four core capabilities of space-time integrated digital base, holographic stereo perception, real-time dynamic twinning and vehicle-road collaborative real-time interaction. At present, based on the advantages of solution capability, the company has built a number of commercial landing projects in smart high-speed fields and smart cities, such as Guangzhou Qifu Tunnel, Shaanxi Qinling Tunnel Group, Hubei Ezhou Airport Smart Expressway, Zhengzhou Southwest Toll Station, Yuxiang Smart Expressway, Yunnan Zhaoyang West Ring Smart Expressway Project Digital Tunnel System, Suzhou 5G Vehicle Networking City-level Verification and Application Project, Chongqing Liangjiang New Area Digital Holographic Road Construction Project, etc. Because the projects can effectively meet the needs of customers, the landing projects have been highly recognized by customers. Besides,The company’s standard team has participated in 59 published standards in the field of intelligent networking, including 5 national standards, 4 industry standards, 49 group standards and 1 local standard. There are 176 standards under compilation, including 23 national standards, 26 industry standards, 26 local standards and 101 group standards. Among them, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized a number of industry technical standards, such as the message layer test method of wireless communication technology of vehicle networking based on LTE, the network layer test method of wireless communication technology of vehicle networking based on LTE, the roadside unit technical requirements of direct communication system of wireless communication technology of vehicle networking based on LTE, and the message layer technical requirements of wireless communication technology of vehicle networking based on LTE.
In the field of lidar, the company adheres to the development route of independent research and development, and has many years of technical accumulation and reserve in optical structure, laser emission and receiving circuit design, and at the same time carries out multi-technical route layout of mechanical lidar, MEMS and OPA. The company’s hybrid solid-state 128-wire vehicle-class lidar is in the forefront of the industry in many dimensions such as field of view, detection distance and scanning frequency, which can meet the volume and performance requirements of small passenger cars. In terms of cutting-edge technology OPA, technical research has been continuously carried out to improve the range of ranging, and related projects have been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, key projects of Beijing Science and Technology Commission, subversive technology research and development and achievement transformation projects in Zhongguancun. The company uses lidar technology to provide comprehensive solutions for specific fields or applications, including hardware equipment research and development, software algorithm development, data processing and analysis. According to different application requirements and scenarios, design and develop suitable lidar equipment, including scanning mode, measurement accuracy, data acquisition rate, etc., and provide software algorithm capability empowerment in combination with application scenario requirements. By June 30, 2023, the company had 388 valid patents on lidar products, covering applications in many fields such as autonomous driving, intelligent transportation, robots, etc. The lidar products independently developed have won awards such as "National Torch Plan Industrialization Demonstration Project" and "Beijing New Technology and New Products". The company participates in the development of standards in the field of laser radar.Two corporate standards, Laser Vehicle Detector for Traffic Information Collection (led by the company) and Vehicle Laser Radar Detection Method, have been released, and 16 standards are being compiled, including 2 international standards, 3 national standards, 4 industry standards and 7 corporate standards.
In ETC field, the company has continuously increased its R&D investment in ETC field for many years, and has successively overcome a series of technical problems. The company adopts multi-lane tandem technology based on satellite timing and wireless synchronization technology to completely solve the adjacent channel interference problem that plagues the ETC field. The ETC-RSU products developed by this technology have been successfully applied in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The company’s authorized invention patent "A multi-antenna combined working method and system under multi-lane free flow" won the third prize of Beijing Invention Patent Award. As the leader of domestic ETC multi-lane free flow technology, the company applied advanced technologies such as DBF phased array technology and spatial array positioning technology to ETC free flow system, and made major breakthroughs in key technologies such as RSU dynamic area control, ETC-OBU dynamic tracking and accurate positioning, ETC-RSU/OBU transaction scheduling, and ETC-OBU concurrent processing, which greatly improved the adaptability of multi-lane free flow products to high-speed passing cars and vehicle tracking. In recent years, the company has closely followed the national policy of canceling provincial toll stations on expressways, actively studied key technologies, and successively developed products such as "polysemous path identification system", "5.8GHz polysemous path composite pass card" and "free-flow segmented charging antenna", which have been widely applied in the national project of canceling provincial toll stations and achieved good social and economic benefits. At the same time, the company’s accurate restoration path charging system is highly integrated with laser-triggered camera capture technology, AI enhanced recognition technology, multi-dimensional matching technology and cloud path fitting technology.Effectively restore the real path of the vehicle and guide the toll collection, and further improve the operation level of the expressway toll collection system. According to the accurate judgment of the industry development trend and market demand, the company has increased its R&D investment in the pre-installed ETC-OBU in recent years, and applied the "filtering and shielding fitting technology" and "OBU self-diagnosis technology" to the pre-installed ETC-OBU, laying a product and technical foundation for the pre-installed business development.
In the field of dynamic weighing, the company has accumulated profound research and development experience in the field of dynamic weighing for many years. Through the analysis and testing of equipment usage data, it is the first to propose a technical solution combining data acquisition with algorithm logic, which makes the company’s dynamic weighing technology at the international leading level. The company innovatively integrates dynamic weighing equipment, sensing equipment, etc. to develop an off-site law enforcement system for over-limit and overload, and realizes sales in many regions. In the field of overload control information networking management platform, the company uses big data technology to develop overload control platform system networking highway overrun detection sites and off-site law enforcement systems, analyze and mine the collected traffic information, and provide valuable in-depth information for traffic decision makers and participants.
(B) the advantages of industrialization capacity
The company has been deeply involved in the intelligent transportation industry for 29 years, and is committed to breaking through the tradition and pursuing innovation in the directions of intelligent transportation, smart cities and smart cars. From equipment manufacturers to solution providers, we have accumulated rich experience in the system integration ability of solutions and in the research, development, design and manufacturing of intelligent transportation equipment. Excellent solutions are inseparable from the empowerment and support provided by excellent products. On the one hand, the company is familiar with the requirements of the transportation industry for product characteristics and has formed a process accumulation. On the other hand, the company has accumulated rich experience in product whole process management and quality control. The company has built a 42,500-square-meter intelligent manufacturing production base in Shunyi, Beijing, and built a 10,000-class/100,000-class dust-free workshop for the production and testing of V2X units, multi-line lidar, ETC products and pre-installed ETC-OBU, and the operation of the data center of the intelligent network. The company’s digital workshop has been recognized by Beijing Economic and Information Bureau in 2022. The company’s intelligent manufacturing production base introduces the world-leading ERP system (SAP), production management system (MES) and warehouse management system (WMS), and is equipped with a number of high-speed SMT patch lines and fully automatic assembly test lines, which can produce PCBA and products of vehicle specifications and meet the business needs of both ends of the vehicle. Through the real-time data collection of factory management system, multi-terminal and multi-role real-time collaboration, big data visualization and deep learning intelligent decision-making, the company’s production quality control ability is further improved.
(C) Advantages of marketing network channels
The company has set up a matrix marketing management mode, a product division, which is responsible for coordinating the marketing work of the product line. At the same time, it has set up sales branches or agencies according to the region, taking the branch as the fulcrum to cover the regional sales work, ensuring the seamless network coverage of the market and continuously infiltrating products and services into the coverage area. The company has marketing agencies in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Nanjing and other regions. At the same time, the company has established an efficient global sales team spanning three continents and six countries, which adopts matrix marketing management mode and consists of product department and sales department. The company has sales representatives all over the world, including Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Mexico and Bangladesh. The company attaches great importance to the construction and training of marketing network echelon, and each marketing organization has sales managers and deputy managers, and strives to cultivate experienced sales business backbones.
(D) Advantages of professional services
Each product line of the company is equipped with professional technicians such as technical service and quality control, who can provide technical support to customers before and after sale, provide customers with professional services such as product introduction, scheme design, product installation and testing, and continuously and timely give feedback to the company according to users’ usage. Through the perfect technical service, the company wins the trust of users and enhances the adhesion with customers.
The company set up a technical service center in the headquarters to coordinate the customer service management in all regions and realize business collaboration with quality management departments and business divisions. The company has established a customer service system covering the whole country and has the service ability to respond to customers quickly.
(5) Qualification advantages
The company has Grade B surveying and mapping qualification, construction enterprise qualification and safety production license. Passed ISO9001 quality management system certification, ISO27001 information security management system certification, ISO/IEC20000-1 service management system certification, IECQQC080000 hazardous substance process management system certification, ISO14001 environmental management system certification, ISO45001 occupational health and safety management system certification, ANSI/ Esds 20.20: 2014 & IEC 61340-5-1: 2016 electrostatic protection management system, GB/T27922 national commodity after-sales service standard certification, ITSS information technology service standard conformity certificate and information security service qualification certification. It has passed the certification of IATF16949 automobile parts quality management system necessary for automobile electronic suppliers, and obtained the five-level certification of CMMI_DEVML5 capability maturity and CNAS laboratory certification. These qualifications of the company have laid a foundation for market development and maintenance. In addition, the ETC product market implements the qualification access system, and the company’s related products have the test report of ETC products issued by Beijing Zhongjiao Guotong Intelligent Transportation System Technology Co., Ltd. The market of dynamic weighing products is subject to legal metrology management, and the related products of the company have obtained the type approval issued by the Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.
