New quality productivity brings new lifestyle
2024-08-10
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Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
In Mianyang, Sichuan, citizens experience driverless buses. Photo by Chen Dongdong (People's Photo)
In Shanghai, people are touching and feeling the robot's bionic manipulator. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe
"Riding in a driverless car", "hailing an air taxi", "owning a humanoid robot", "chatting with a digital anchor"... these scenes are gradually becoming part of real life in various parts of China.
In Beijing Yizhuang, people have become accustomed to driverless taxis and delivery vehicles on the streets. Not long ago, in Guangzhou, an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft flew over landmarks such as the Guangdong Provincial Museum and Huacheng Square and successfully completed its test flight. In Hefei, humanoid robots appeared on the automobile production line...
Behind the new lifestyle is the opportunity of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. China's industries such as driverless cars, artificial intelligence, and low-altitude economy are advancing rapidly, and new quality productivity is accelerating development.
New “game modes” continue to emerge
These new applications are truly changing the way people live.
On June 28, an Eastern General Aviation AW139 helicopter carrying 10 passengers took off from the Shenzhen North Station Airport, marking the official launch of China's first "low-altitude + rail" air-rail transport project. Passengers only need to place an order on the WeChat official account to take a helicopter from Shenzhen North Station and fly to major urban areas in Shenzhen, as well as Hong Kong, Macau, Zhongshan, Zhuhai and other cities in the Greater Bay Area.
This is just the latest example of the low-altitude economy. The low-altitude economy is a comprehensive economic form that is driven by the low-altitude flight activities of manned and unmanned aircraft, radiating and driving the integrated development of related fields. Its products mainly include drones, eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft), helicopters, traditional fixed-wing aircraft, etc.
At the same time, driverless cars have appeared on the streets of many cities across the country. In Wuhan, Guangzhou, Beijing and other places, self-driving taxis have become one of the new transportation options for citizens. For example, in Wuhan, since the end of February this year, fully driverless self-driving cars have achieved a demonstration run across the Yangtze River. Baidu's "Carrot Run" self-driving travel service platform alone has more than 300 driverless cars running on the streets of Wuhan.
Just this year, UBTECH's humanoid robots have entered the smart automobile factories of BYD, NIO, and Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor, performing many tasks like a real production line worker, including object handling, quality inspection, SPS sorting, chemical handling, and assembly.
Across the country, generative artificial intelligence (AIGC) products are widely entering people's lives. "Ask AI (artificial intelligence) when you are in doubt" is becoming a habit for more and more people. Generative artificial intelligence products can also automatically generate videos, texts, audio, etc. according to requirements. Take digital human anchors as an example. Nowadays, digital human anchors based on artificial intelligence technology are very common on platforms such as JD.com, Taobao, and Douyin e-commerce. Many businesses rely on digital human anchors to achieve 24-hour live streaming and selling goods.
New industries are moving towards large-scale development
Behind this novel phenomenon is the booming development of related industries.
Take the low-altitude economy as an example. This strategic emerging industry has already taken shape. According to statistics, the scale of my country's low-altitude economy will reach 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, with a growth rate of 33.8%; nearly 608,000 new drones were registered in the first half of this year, and the total number of drone companies holding valid civil unmanned aircraft operating certificates exceeded 14,000. CCID Consulting, a research institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, released a report in April predicting that the scale of my country's low-altitude economy is expected to exceed one trillion yuan in 2026.
In the field of generative AI, data shows that, as of now, my country has completed the filing and launched more than 180 generative AI service models that can provide services to the public, and the number of registered users has exceeded 564 million. On July 3, a report released by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization showed that China is in a leading position in the generative AI patent competition. Between 2014 and 2023, China's generative AI inventions exceeded 38,000, which is 6 times that of the United States, which ranks second.
For the unmanned driving industry, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that my country currently has 17 national-level intelligent connected vehicle testing areas, with more than 32,000 kilometers of test roads open, more than 7,700 test licenses issued, and a test mileage of more than 120 million kilometers. More than 8,700 intelligent roadside units (RSUs) have been deployed in various places, and cloud control basic platform construction has been carried out in many places.
On April 9 this year, a report released at the first China Humanoid Robot Industry Conference and Embodied Intelligence Summit predicted that the Chinese humanoid robot market size will be approximately 2.76 billion yuan in 2024 and will reach 75 billion yuan by 2029.
Accelerate the cultivation of new pillars and new tracks
The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed to "guide the healthy and orderly development of emerging industries."
The distance is not far, the future has come. Under the guidance of policies, all walks of life are accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productivity.
For example, in the field of unmanned driving, in July this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transport and other five departments officially announced that my country will carry out pilot applications of "vehicle-road-cloud integration" for intelligent connected vehicles in 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Shenyang. Subsequently, many cities have announced a series of measures to promote the research and development and application of unmanned driving technology through policy guidance, capital investment, infrastructure construction and other means.
For example, since the beginning of this year, "low-altitude economy" has not only been written into the government work report for the first time, but also new forms of business and new ways of playing have continued to emerge, including the successful maiden flight of the AG60E electric aircraft independently developed by my country, the first flight of the 5-seat eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft Shengshilong from Shenzhen to Zhuhai, and the first transfer flight of the domestically produced civil manned airship "Xiangyun" AS700, etc. In order to promote the healthy development of the low-altitude economy, relevant departments have launched a series of supporting policies and reform and innovation measures in terms of equipment innovation, airport construction, access management, and service guarantee.
Behind the seemingly sci-fi new life scenes is the continuous emergence of new fields and new tracks in the technological revolution and industrial transformation. On July 26, the responsible comrades of the national industrial and information technology departments clearly proposed at a symposium that we must accelerate the cultivation of new pillars and new tracks, seize the opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, focus on intelligent networked vehicles, new materials, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy, humanoid robots, metaverse, brain-computer interfaces, quantum information, low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace and other fields, and accelerate the development of new quality productivity. (Reporter Liu Shaohua)
People's Daily Overseas Edition (Page 01, August 10, 2024)
