A comprehensive review of the intelligent control systems of China, the US and Japan: who is the real flag bearer?

Affected by the "black swan" COVID-19, this year's auto market seems to be increasingly sluggish, and a large number of auto companies have been impacted. However, in adversity, there are always some strong companies that can go against the trend, such as Changan Automobile. In May this year, Changan Automobile Group's sales reached 174,012 vehicles, achieving a year-on-year growth of 54.3%.

Among them, the most well-known Changan CS75 sold a total of 20,307 units, achieving a year-on-year growth of 166.4%, leading the sports car market, and Changan CS75 PLUS has made an indelible contribution. This is not only a symbol that Changan CS75 PLUS continues to lead the second place in the same market and surpasses all joint venture models of the same level, but also means that from September 2019 to now, in just 9 months, its cumulative sales have exceeded 140,000 units. Behind the hot sales of Changan CS75 PLUS, in addition to the display of strong product strength, it is actually inseparable from its smart technology that keeps up with the development of the times.

In recent years, riding on the wave of the new four modernizations, a large number of car companies have rapidly developed the application of intelligent driving. The unremitting publicity and various new configurations have brought us closer and closer to the imagined autonomous driving, and a large number of eye-catching models have been born. The American car has the latecomer Tesla Model 3; the Japanese car has the RAV4 Rongfang, which was upgraded with TNGA; and the domestic brand, of course, has a place for the Changan CS75 PLUS.

The three models mentioned above are all representative works in their respective fields. However, we also say that when imagining the future, we cannot be divorced from reality. Therefore, although these three models have excellent performance in intelligent driving control, when it comes to actual use, are their performances as exciting as the rumors? For this reason, we might as well make a detailed comparison and analyze it on paper.

From the configuration, we can see that both Changan CS75 PLUS and Tesla Model 3 are equipped with automatic parking systems, but RAV4 Rongfang lacks in this regard. Therefore, in the comparison of this part, we will mainly compare Changan CS75 PLUS and Tesla Model 3.

Different from what most people imagine, the automatic parking technology is actually more difficult to identify marked parking spaces or empty parking spaces than when there are cars on both sides. In addition, China's road conditions are complex and there are all kinds of parking spaces, so there are very high technical requirements for the automatic parking system.

First, let's look at the Tesla Model 3's automatic parking system. The first prerequisite is that it requires the owner to pay an additional 56,000 yuan to purchase fully autonomous driving capabilities when ordering the car, otherwise - you will not be able to get the automatic parking function.

In actual use, Tesla Model 3 can automatically detect whether the parking space is suitable for parking. If the "P" appears on the screen when the speed is lower than 24km/h, it means that the vehicle can park automatically. In this process, the owner needs to spend a lot of time to detect whether the parking space meets the conditions, and the speed must be lower than 24km/h. At the same time, it has high requirements for the size of the parking space. Therefore, in actual use, the automatic parking system of Tesla Model 3 actually has great inconvenience, which may be the reason why Tesla plans to launch an advanced parking system within this year.

On the other hand, although the automatic parking function of Changan CS75 PLUS is only available in the top-end models, the suggested price is just over 150,000 yuan, which is much more affordable than Tesla Model 3. Moreover, Changan CS75 PLUS is equipped with Changan Automobile's latest APA 5.0 version, with 12 ultrasonic radars and 4 new surround-view cameras, which has very strong recognition capabilities. In terms of functionality, it can also support parking line recognition, automatic parking, and can also realize fully automatic valet parking and remote parking and exiting functions.

There is no doubt that valet parking is definitely a killer feature of Changan CS75 PLUS. This function not only frees the driver's hands and feet, but also allows the driver to leave the vehicle directly and complete the parking action with one click. The driver only needs to press the parking button, put the car in P gear and get out of the car, select valet parking in the in Call APP, and the vehicle will automatically park in place without any human intervention. But even in terms of functionality alone, the excellent performance of Changan CS75 PLUS is obvious, not to mention that Changan CS75 PLUS also has such rich hardware support.

Nowadays, autonomous driving has become a hot word and the development focus of major car companies in recent years. It is also one of the best manifestations of intelligent control of a smart car. However, in addition to driving control, we should not ignore the driving assistance function of the vehicle in terms of active safety. It is better to say that a good autonomous driving assistance system must include a good active safety system.

In this regard, we have to say that all three models have done very well. First of all, the RAV4 Rongfang, which is built based on TNGA, is worthy of recognition for its standard configuration of ten airbags and a complete set of active safety systems. The addition of lane departure warning, lane keeping assist and active brake light functions, plus full-speed adaptive cruise control, are worthy of recognition in terms of convenience and safety.

The second is the Tesla Model 3, which has only one less knee airbag than the RAV4 in terms of safety equipment, and lacks the lane keeping assist system in terms of driving assistance, but has more lane change assistance, and can be equipped with a road traffic sign recognition function, which is included in the optional package "worth" 56,000 yuan mentioned above. In general, the intelligent driving performance of the Tesla Model 3 is roughly the same as that of the RAV4.

Finally, let's look at the Changan CS75 PLUS. On the one hand, it integrates a dashboard similar to Tesla's that can display road recognition functions, and has a good ability to recognize the surrounding environment and vehicles through cameras and three millimeter-wave radars. On the other hand, from a purely functional point of view, the number of airbags in the Changan CS75 PLUS is the same as that of the Tesla Model 3, but in terms of driving assistance functions, it is equipped with lane change assistance, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, road traffic signs and active braking, etc., which is even better than the Tesla Model 3 and RAV4 Rongfang.

In general, the automatic driving assistance system of Changan CS75 PLUS is similar to the AP function of Tesla. After it is turned on, it can effectively identify lane lines and vehicles in front in the speed range of 0km/h~130km/h. However, thanks to the road traffic signs and active braking functions equipped by Changan CS75 PLUS, it is obviously more functional than Tesla Model 3 and RAV4 Rongfang, and is more in line with the current complex road conditions in China. In actual use, it is believed that it can also bring more humane and substantial uses.

From this analysis and comparison, it is not difficult to see that Changan CS75 PLUS has extremely strong product performance from APA to driving assistance functions. Although it has not yet reached the imagined "fully automatic driving", it has made the ideal into reality and made smart driving go from "having" to truly "useful".

It is worth mentioning that if you feel that this pure text comparison is not exciting enough, don’t worry, because in the future, a field comparison of the intelligent control of these three cars will be launched. If you are deeply interested in this, then please be sure to stay tuned!