From railways to cars to smartphones... Made in China is hugely popular in Africa. Today, the intelligent transportation system from China's Hisense will take root in Africa. In mid-March 2022, Hisense formally signed an agreement with the municipal government of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and soon entered the implementation stage. This project is the first intelligent transportation integration project undertaken by Hisense Intelligent Transportation overseas, and will help Addis Ababa to build a new mode of modernized and intelligent public transportation management within two years, effectively improve the public transportation experience of local citizens, and become the Belt and Road Initiative. A new model of intelligent transportation in practice. This means that China's intelligent transportation technology standards have begun to systematically go to overseas markets.

In 1994, Hisense entered the South African market, opening the first international stop and quickly becoming the first local home appliance brand. Coincidentally, 28 years later, Hisense's intelligent transportation project landed overseas for the first time, and the beginning was still the vast land of Africa.

Addis Ababa is one of the largest cities in Africa, with a resident population of about 5 million. Traffic congestion is a major problem. Taking the bus is an important mode of travel for local citizens. However, due to the large passenger flow, low bus coverage, long departure interval, and inaccurate regulation, during peak hours, people and vehicles are mixed and roads are congested, and there are often dozens of queues at the station. The long queue of meters, the waiting time of passengers is about 30 to 50 minutes, and the public transportation is in urgent need of intelligent upgrade.

This has also become a headache for the local government. At the signing ceremony held on March 14, 2022, local time, Addis Ababa Mayor Adanek Abebe said: "Improving transportation services in Addis Ababa is the result of my own election to take office. The public commitment at the time. With the help of the intelligent public transportation system constructed by Hisense, the operation capacity of local buses will be enhanced, and the level of local transportation services will be improved.”

Thanks to the loan support from the World Bank, in March 2021, the Addis Ababa Municipal Transportation Bureau officially issued a tender announcement to carry out intelligent transformation of the local public transportation system. This tender attracted the attention of many Chinese enterprises, and Hisense and Shandong Expressway formed a consortium to participate in it. As a loan project of the World Bank, it sets a high threshold for bidding, and has strict requirements on the past performance and technical strength of the enterprise. For example, the project requires companies to have "at least one project of not less than $20 million and basically complete BRT or bus operations within five years."

smart transportation

The winning bid demonstrates Hisense's more than 20 years of technical expertise in the field of intelligent transportation. Since its entry into the field of intelligent transportation in 1998, Hisense has ranked first in China's intelligent transportation industry for 10 consecutive years. The conventional bus intelligent dispatching system has a 40% domestic market share, and the BRT intelligent system has a 70% share; Hisense's technology And product solutions are applied in 169 cities across the country. According to the 2017-2021 "Traffic Analysis Report of Major Chinese Cities" released by AutoNavi, Hisense's technical solutions not only helped 19 cities to be listed on the list of "relieving congestion", but also occupied half of the TOP10 list of alleviating urban congestion for five consecutive years. . In addition, Hisense has also participated in the transportation guarantee of many important international events such as the Beijing Olympics and Winter Olympics, the Qingdao SCO Summit, and the Wuhan Military Games.

Wang Yonglei, chief designer of Hisense International Business, said: "We provided a total of 7 successful cases of smart public transportation including Nanning BRT, Chengdu BRT, Yichang BRT, etc., to prove our performance level. The scores were ranked first, and the project was successfully won."

Nanning is a provincial capital city in China with a population of more than 8 million. Hisense has participated in the construction and operation of two BRT express bus lines in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The BRT corridor seamlessly connected by the subway, and for the first time in the industry, the joint dispatch of 24 bus lines in the corridor has been realized, providing intelligent services to more than 230 kilometers of main roads in the city. At present, the average daily passengers of Nanning BRT1 line has increased by 40% compared with that before the opening, and the travel time of passengers has been saved by 50%, and the train departs on time and arrives at the station on time, which greatly improves the travel experience of citizens.

"It is not difficult to solve these problems encountered locally, but how to adapt to local conditions." Chen Xiaowen, the project manager of the project, said that due to the strong national and regional characteristics of intelligent transportation, the problems faced by different countries and even different cities are different. There are differences, and in order to solve the problem, it is necessary to go deep into the local area and adapt measures to local conditions. In order to thoroughly understand the local traffic conditions, the project team went to the streets many times to investigate the actual situation of buses, stations, depots, etc., repeatedly browsed the obtained audio and video materials, and constantly communicated and negotiated with the domestic team to improve the project implementation plan.

Now, Chen Xiaowen and the team of engineers have initially made a set of smart bus implementation plans suitable for Ethiopia's national conditions. After the project is completed, citizens of Addis Ababa will be able to know the arrival information of vehicles in a timely manner through mobile phones and electronic stop signs, which will greatly reduce the waiting time and improve the efficiency of social operation. At the same time, the driver's behavior can also be monitored throughout the process, such as fatigue driving, the vehicle will automatically alarm in real time, and the local bus management will also realize the transformation from experience management to information-based scientific management.

"The charm of technology is that it can really bridge the time gap. It is exciting to think of the changes that the application of intelligent transportation technology will bring to local citizens." Chen Xiaowen said.

Guan Jizhen, vice chairman of the China Intelligent Transportation Association, commented that Hisense's bid for the Addis Ababa intelligent transportation system improvement project is of great significance to China's intelligent transportation industry. On the one hand, this project is a World Bank loan project and operates in accordance with international rules. Winning the bid is a reflection of the company's comprehensive strength, indicating that Chinese companies have the ability to compete with international companies in the overseas intelligent transportation market; on the other hand , which means that China's technical standards began to systematically go to overseas markets, which is an important beginning. Keywords: One Belt One Road, One Belt One Road News, One Belt One Road Project

"At present, the countries and regions where Hisense's intelligent transportation technology is deployed mainly include Ethiopia, South Africa, countries in West Africa, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, etc., and in the European market, we will initially choose countries such as Slovenia and Serbia to test the water. At present, there are projects that are being followed up." Mu Sangang, general manager of the international business department of Hisense Network Technology Company, said that in the future, Hisense Intelligent Transportation will accelerate its overseas expansion.Editor/XuNing