Gasgoo Automobile: First of all, can you give a brief introduction to Maxsense Technology?

Qiu Changwu: Maxsense Technology is a technology and operation service provider specializing in autonomous driving application system solutions. It provides L4 level autonomous driving operation system solutions for production logistics scenarios that meet short distance and high-frequency limited operations, such as mines, ports, closed fields, and other scenarios. We have conducted a full stack of software and hardware technology layout, fully considering the feasibility of commercial implementation of unmanned driving technology, and can provide users with a complete set of cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and enabling intelligent unmanned production logistics solutions. In terms of business models, we are also divided into two types: one is to directly provide customers with "solutions+long-term technical services", and the other is to provide on-site operation services to directly complete production tasks for customers. Based on our founding team's 20 years of accumulated experience in robotics research and development and to B business practice, we first established a core team with a master's degree or above, accounting for over 80% of the total. Many of the members also have overseas study experience, and have long-term work and practical experience in well-known domestic and foreign enterprises such as BMW, GE, Volkswagen, Intel, China Electronics, Shenhua, Zhenhua Heavy Industry, etc. Team members have rich experience in product development and production operations in artificial intelligence, unmanned driving, robotics, automotive, engineering equipment, military, and other fields. Taking me as an example, during my PhD study at Jiaotong University, I was engaged in the research and development of mobile robot theory and technology, and had a systematic knowledge of the theoretical system of robotics. As a founder, I actually engaged in the development of unmanned systems in the field of ships ten years ago. My co founder, Dr. Gu Jiajun, also comprehensively mastered the technologies and theories related to the autonomous driving of passenger vehicles L4 during his work in the BMW driverless team.

The overall team of Maxsense Technology has rich experience in theoretical products and engineering applications, profound accumulation in software and hardware technology, and rich application development experience in the field of robotic lean automation production. "We have accumulated considerable technology and business opportunities in terms of vertical and horizontal expansion of our business in the future, and our future development potential is very prominent.".

Gasgoo Automobile: There are many autonomous driving segments on the track, and what is the reason why Maxsense chose the closed scene circuit?

Gu Jiajun: First of all, from the perspective of industry development, autonomous driving is a rigid demand for semi closed scenarios, which has been verified many times in similar manufacturing and energy industries. Automation technology is a necessary step in the transformation and technological development of these industries. With the further development of China, various aspects such as technology management have shifted from extensive to sophisticated, and with the adjustment of the labor population structure, there are very urgent requirements for autonomous driving technology. Based on such application scenarios, most of them are closed scenarios, which is also the main reason why Maxsense has chosen such a business scenario. Secondly, in these scenarios, the issues below are solvable and have boundaries. Compared to application scenarios such as Robotaxi and trunk logistics, due to the large amount of environmental interactions involved, these technologies inevitably face a long tail effect during the development process, which has become a consensus in the industry. Compared to such application scenarios, the development cycle of application scenarios such as mining areas and ports will be much shorter than that of Robotaxi. Thirdly, for these application scenarios, the expected benefits can be significantly and reliably predicted. The industries we target, such as energy, transportation, and manufacturing, often involve the transportation of some livelihood resources. These customers are all considered commercial B-end customers of the terminal, and the sustainability and stability of these application benefits can also be expected. This is the main reason why Maxsense chose such an application scenario.

Gasgoo Automobile: What is the overall development strategy of Maxsens Technology in the field of autonomous driving? What breakthroughs have been made so far?

Chang Wu: From the perspective of the overall development of Maxsense Technology, we have always adhered to a development strategy of scenario orientation, rapid landing, achieving a closed business loop, and building long-term core competitiveness. In the past five years, we have mainly focused on short distance and high-frequency production logistics scenarios that can quickly achieve commercial landing, to build the core software and hardware control system technology and product advantages of autonomous driving, and provide users with complete sets of solutions and operational services. In the long term, we will build a generic product series matrix based on the needs of business operations and market development to provide solutions for different segmented application scenarios. In this process, we have always adhered to the universality and reusability of core technologies to expand product coverage, enhance the overall operating scale of the company, and achieve the goal of overall listing of the company in the future. At present, through the first overall contracted operation project in the transportation sector of open-pit mining areas in China, Maxsense has completed the construction of unmanned driving solution verification and operation service system in open-pit mining areas, and has the ability to replicate and develop businesses on a large-scale basis in open-pit mining areas. In terms of solution output, Maxsense has successfully delivered multiple customers. Recently, during our cooperation with China Building Materials Tianjin Institute, we jointly delivered multiple autonomous vehicles to them in complete sets in Shandong Pengxiang. In terms of bulk cargo ports, we have partnered with Weichai and Shandong ports to create the world's first overall unmanned transportation solution for general dry bulk cargo terminals, and have achieved normalized operations. Based on Party A's good evaluation and confidence, we will further expand the fleet size in the future to create the world's largest unmanned operation system for general dry bulk cargo terminals. The follow-up solution output operation project is being continuously deployed and delivered, and the overall business scale of the company will grow rapidly. The scale of autonomous vehicles will rapidly exceed 100 units within the next six months.

Qiu Changwu: Maxsense has set a profit schedule ­ However, from the perspective of industry development stage and building long-term competitive advantage, the current two years are not yet a strategic window period for pursuing profitability. However, the end of 2023 will serve as a watershed. In the future, it is necessary to form a benign commercial closed-loop to achieve profitability, which is the most basic requirement for a company in our view. The assurance of achieving profitability mainly comes from the fundamental aspects of the business scenario itself, the rapid replication ability of product technology, and the efficient and low-cost operational design of the solution system throughout its lifecycle, all of which are internalized in the design of our products and solution system.

Gasgoo Automobile: What do you think of the phenomenon of automatic driving of commercial vehicles in passenger vehicle enterprises and traditional commercial vehicle main engine factories? Will this cause a dimensionality reduction blow to Maxsense Technologies? 

Qiu Changwu: For passenger car autonomous driving enterprises, this phenomenon is an inevitable and compromise choice, which is very normal. The landing cycle of autonomous passenger vehicles is relatively long, and as a commercial entity, it is necessary to first survive and seek a direction that can achieve rapid commercial landing. Automatic driving in commercial vehicle main engine factories is mainly based on the consideration of intelligent upgrading of technology and products as well as building their own long-term competitiveness. However, traditional mainframe manufacturers are limited by the team's genes, and traditional business entities occupy a large amount of resources and energy. However, the relative investment is still insufficient, and it is impossible for them to devote themselves wholeheartedly and rapidly advance like technology companies. Moreover, the release of current market demand is not attractive enough for host manufacturers, and it is difficult for host manufacturers to devote themselves wholeheartedly. It is expected that integration and integration will be the best way for host manufacturers to build competitiveness in this direction in the future. As for the so-called dimensionality reduction strike, I believe it does not exist. In the field of commercial vehicle autonomous driving applications, we view it more as an automated production and transportation system, with automated production tools as its fundamental attribute. In addition to solving the basic technical issues of the solution, it is also necessary to provide suitable, safe and efficient solutions and operation systems for production site process requirements. All types of knowledge shows in the scenario need to be tackled step by step, and there is no so-called dimensionality reduction logic. 

Gu Jiajun: The participation of many participants in such a segmentation scenario is a boost to the entire industry. Maxsense welcomes more partners to join the industry and jointly promote the maturity and development of this technology application. These OEM partners bring us different thinking about this technology. In general, the technology stack for passenger cars and commercial vehicles is the same, but due to different application scenarios, there may be some fundamental differences in the direction of technological development, especially in product support and corresponding operational logic design. We can see that the main goal of autonomous passenger vehicle driving is to interact with dynamic objects in a structured environment, resulting in a series of problems. While commercial vehicle autonomous driving focuses more on how to solve productive logistics under structured or unstructured scenarios, while reengineering the current logistics system. In response to this, through continuous polishing of products and iteration of solutions over the past few years, Maxsense has accumulated a series of knowledge shows and built certain technical and time barriers.

Gasgoo Automobile: In the face of complex market environment, how does Maxsense Technology create a competitive advantage?

Gasgoo Automobile: The battle for autonomous driving talents is becoming increasingly fierce. What are the advantages of Maxsense Technology in talent recruitment?

Qiu Changwu: The first point is mainly about the company's corporate culture. We always adhere to the simple core values of pragmatism, innovation, responsibility, and progress, and the cooperation philosophy of sharing and win-win results. Internal openness and equality, attention to the growth of employees and the combination of enterprise development, the overall work atmosphere is very positive and harmonious, and everyone can achieve good self growth here. Secondly, within the company, there is a very open mechanism for improving technology sharing capabilities. For employees who actively learn and grow, we create an opportunity for them to participate in core technology discussions openly, and provide a mechanism for job transfer and rotation based on their personal wishes. Thirdly, according to different stages of enterprise development, continuously improve the welfare and benefits of employees and improve the working environment. At the same time, we also support the implementation of a combination of rank system and equity incentives, allowing employees to share the development achievements of the enterprise, and have the opportunity to become the owner of the enterprise, no longer being a migrant worker, but becoming a true fighter and the owner of the enterprise. Fourth, the core gene of the company is still a robotics technology company. We believe that the accumulation of mobile robot technology theory and technology is still very profound. In the future, the ability to expand into different segments is relatively strong, which can provide a broad development platform for various types of talents and achieve self worth.

Gasgoo Automobile: With the further development of core technologies, what are your views and insights on the development of autonomous driving? What is the long-term goal of Maxsense Technology? How will the plan be implemented?

Qiu Changwu: In addition to the long-term impact of underlying product concepts and technological route choices, as well as the ability to expand in future fields, industry participants focus on competition in terms of market competition and providing services to users, focusing on the ability to build technical services, operational services, and supporting output management operating systems, mainly in terms of product reliability, cost control, operational efficiency, output capacity Create their own differentiated competitive advantages in terms of service experience and their scaled comprehensive operational capabilities. In the long run, Maxsense Technology is a robotics technology company, and its development for production logistics is only based on the combination of the needs of vertical segmentation fields and technological trends. We believe that in this segmentation direction, technology and business can form a good combination to achieve a rapid business closed-loop. In the future, the technology and product system constructed based on the general concept will expand laterally to other segmented fields, such as military industry and automatic shipping, on the basis of making the production logistics unmanned transportation operation system bigger and better. We hope to build  Maxsense into a comprehensive application technology group based on the core brain of autonomous mobile robots and different carriers of execution, providing solutions and operational services for various scaled and segmented fields. This is our overall goal of development.