Autonomous driving has been developed for many years, and major car companies around the world and even many internet companies are developing in this direction. Recently, two major events in China have brought autonomous driving back to the center of people's topic.
China's first L3 autopilot mass production experience.
Changan Automobile has released the UNI-T model equipped with L3 conditional autopilot. On March 10, Zhu Huarong, the head of Changan Automobile, personally acted as the anchor, driving Changan UNI-T to broadcast "China's first L3-class self-driving mass production experience" on the open road.
This L3-level automatic driving technology enables Changan UNI-T to achieve automatic driving below 40km/h ... That is to say, as long as the road meets specific working conditions, the driver can supervise the vehicle all the time after freeing his hands and feet. The car is completely controlled by L3 automatic driving technology, and the driver only needs to keep taking over the driving dynamically.
Finally there is a "national standard version"? Autopilot is graded.
In the automobile industry, we generally classify vehicles into one category, such as mini-cars, small cars, compact cars, medium-sized cars and so on. Of course, according to the level of ability, autonomous driving will also be graded, that is, L2, L3 and so on, which we often hear.
But before that, we used the automatic driving technology classification standards proposed by the International Association of Automata Engineers (SAE) and the American Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), namely L0, L 1, L2, L3, L4, etc. L is the first letter of the level. The bigger the number, the higher the level and the better the technology.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially released the draft of "Recommended National Standard for Automobile Driving Automation Classification" and publicized it. More than ten domestic and foreign enterprises such as BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Changan, Guangzhou Automobile, Geely and Dongfeng assisted in drafting and formulating the standard. This also marks that the classification of autonomous driving in China has officially entered the publicity stage, and autonomous driving will have our own "China standard" in the future.
China's automatic driving classification is basically consistent with the international automatic driving classification (SAE standard), but the main difference with the United States (NHTSA standard) is the classification of L4 and L5.
What is the difference between L2 and L3?
In fact, the L2-level driver assistance function was realized many years ago, and even many self-owned brand models with a price as low as 654.38+10,000 yuan have popularized the L2-level driver assistance function. But why is L3 not really widely used after so many years, and only a few sporadic models claim to be equipped at this stage? Is L2 really so different from L3?
If you are careful, you should find that the L2 level of most car companies is followed by "driving assistance". Vehicles can provide operation and assistance for many operations such as steering wheel, acceleration and deceleration, but human drivers need to be responsible for the rest of the driving actions and monitoring the surrounding environment. Domestic manufacturers often introduce L2.5, L2+, L2? Plus sign and so on, but these are still classified as L2.
So, what is L3? Combined with the above classification table, it can be concluded that L3 is "conditional automatic driving, most driving operations are completed by vehicles, and human drivers need to keep their attention in case of emergency". At the same time, L3 is subdivided into TJP (Congestion Autopilot) and HWP (High Speed Autopilot).
To put it simply, L3 means "conditional automatic driving" that can "get rid of hands", "feet", "eyes" and "liberate" drivers under certain conditions. In particular, the support for "out of sight is clean" is beyond the level of L2.
Between L2 level and L3 level, it can be regarded as the critical point of incomplete autopilot and complete autopilot, and it is a watershed of autopilot. Changan Automobile is the first mass production experience in China to publicly realize L3-class autonomous driving, and it is very close to the real road demonstration, so this time it will be so sensational.
Who is the first L3 model in China?
So, is Changan UNI-T the first L3 model in China? In fact, we should grasp one word: "Experience", which is the experience of the first L3-class self-driving production car in China, or a public test.
Changan UNI-T uses 6 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and is equipped with ADAS maps. Thanks to all the software and hardware, Changan UNI-T can achieve TJP (Congestion Autopilot) below 40km/h, reaching L3 level. In the range of 40- 130km/h (system maximum speed support 130km/h), it is ADAS (advanced driver assistance), but it does not reach HWP (high-speed automatic driving), and still belongs to the category of L2.
Before Changan UNI-T, many manufacturers released L3-class self-driving vehicles, such as Roewe Marvel Comics? x？ Dear, Gao he Hiphi? 1, Tucki P7, etc. However, most of these models have not been officially listed, and they have not done much public testing.
Maybe someone thought of it-AION, the world's first mass-produced L3 model of GAC New Energy? LX, using high-precision radar+camera+high-definition map, supporting automatic driving function. There's only one problem. This function can only be achieved through the optional "flagship smart driving suit", and only AION? LX？ 80 models are optional, and specific model tests are rare. Whether it is enough is still unknown.
China brand car companies such as Great Wall, Geely, Dongfeng and Hongqi also plan to realize mass production of their L3 models in 2020. Whose is the first L3 car in China? You can't say for sure, but at least Changan Automobile was the first to dare to show this technology on the road. On the other hand, it also shows that it is very confident in its technical strength. Only when there is competition can progress be made, which can also promote the development of the automobile industry and bring more mature, reliable and advanced technical models to consumers.
The real first L3 model is actually it.
Perhaps in most people's cognition, the concept of "autonomous driving" was first put forward by Tesla, or it was first realized on Tesla production cars. Then, the first model supporting L3 autopilot is naturally Tesla.
Actually, it's not. The autopilot Tesla used before? 2.0 system, only reaching L2 level, until the subsequent launch of AutoPilot? Only 3.0 can support fully automatic driving, but it needs the support of HW3.0 chip (which happened some time ago).
As for the truly world's first L3-class vehicle, many people may be surprised. It is a brand-new Audi A8 launched on 20 17. Audi A8 is arranged at the front, rear and both sides of the vehicle. 12? Ultrasonic sensor, 4? Answer? 360? Panoramic camera, and equipped at the front of the vehicle? 1? A long-range radar, 1? An infrared camera, and? 1? Laser radar.
When the vehicle speed is lower than 60km/h, Audi A8 can completely take over the driving functions, including parking, acceleration, steering, in-lane braking and so on. And realize L3-level conditional automatic driving. But when the speed exceeds 60km/h, Audi A8 will prompt the driver to take over.
Unfortunately, because most countries in the world have not yet introduced clear laws related to autonomous driving, even Audi? A8 is the world's first model with L3-class automatic driving ability, and it can only be driven as L2-class model with too much hardware.
Who was responsible after the accident?
The progress and development of science and technology is naturally a good thing. However, a series of problems often follow. For example, in recent years, the most talked-about question is: When an accident occurs in the process of autonomous driving, is the manufacturer who provides autonomous driving technology responsible or the driver who drives the vehicle responsible?
On the evening of March 18, 2065438, a woman pushing a bicycle across the road in Arizona, USA, was injured by an Uber self-driving test vehicle that was driving on the road at that time, and then died unfortunately. This is the first traffic accident in the world in which a driverless car died. Subsequently, Uber also announced that it would stop the road test of all driverless vehicles. Later, after nearly a year's investigation, the prosecutor of Yawapai County, Arizona revealed through an open letter that the accusation that Uber was criminally responsible for this accident was "unfounded", which meant that Uber had no major responsibility.
20 18 65438+ 10/0, Argo invested by Ford? AI Company had a traffic accident in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The test car was hit by a truck running a red light, which eventually injured two people in the car. The subsequent accident was determined to be caused by human error, but a Ford spokesman refused to disclose whether the test car was in autonomous driving mode at that time.
20 16 May 7th, a Tesla? Models? s？ A collision with a trailer on the Florida highway killed the Tesla driver. Follow-up investigation results show that Tesla vehicles were turned on with driverless function at that time, but under strong sunshine conditions, the driver and vehicle auxiliary system failed to notice the white body of the trailer, resulting in Model? S failed to start the brakes in time, the front windshield collided with the bottom of the trailer and the driver died.
2065438+65438 2006+1On October 20th, a Tesla car directly hit a moving road sweeper on the Handan section of Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway, and the driver died unfortunately. The investigation showed that the vehicle turned on the driverless function at the time of the incident, but Tesla showed no signs of braking and slowing down, and did not take any evasive measures. In the end, the traffic police decided that the driver who drove Tesla in this rear-end collision was mainly responsible.
finally
The successful mass production of L3-class vehicles is indeed a very exciting news. After all, it also marks that the car has officially entered the category of autonomous driving. However, with the progress of science and technology, various problems have followed, such as whether the automatic driving brought by the above cases is reliable and the responsibility for accidents is determined. These still need the support of various laws and regulations and various social infrastructures.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.