Current status and trends of international autonomous driving regulations

01. Overview of product standards related to intelligent connected and autonomous vehicles

As we all know, the global automotive industry and technology have been showing a trend of accelerating development in recent years. On the basis of the original traditional fuel vehicles, in order to protect the environment and save non-renewable resources, new energy vehicles represented by electric vehicles have emerged. At the same time, with the development of information technology and the Internet, autonomous driving and intelligent connected vehicles are also developing rapidly. Under this development model, the automotive industry is increasingly widely and deeply integrated with other industries and technology fields, and the traditional concept of automobiles is increasingly being subverted.

It is precisely because the automotive industry is constantly integrating with other industries that it has also put forward new requirements and challenges to our "automotive people" in the industry, requiring us not only to be experts in the automotive industry, but also to become experts in other cross-border fields. For example, the development of autonomous driving and intelligent networked vehicles requires us "automotive people" to also be experts in the fields of Internet and electronic communications in order to better adapt to this development. This is especially true for us professionals who work on automotive standards, regulations and certifications. We are required to be familiar not only with the standards, regulations and certifications of automotive products themselves, but also with the standards, regulations and certifications of cross-border fields. For autonomous driving and intelligent networked vehicles, the technical regulations and certifications in the fields of Internet communications and electronic communications that we need to pay close attention to include the following:

Image source: Car Compliance

The electronic and wireless communication equipment related to smart connected and self-driving cars must comply with the ISO 26262 standard. All countries have clearly implemented this simultaneously. There is a distinction here. If it is related to the electric vehicle itself, such as BMS, VCU, OBC, CDC and other devices and systems, because it is related to the vehicle, it only needs to comply with the regulations of the electric vehicle itself.

02. Review of international standards related to connected vehicles

At present, the intelligence and networking of automobiles are inseparable. In order to ensure the realization of automatic driving and intelligence of automobiles, a large number of advanced automotive electronic devices and components are applied to automobiles, including various sensors, radars, receivers, transmitters and other devices, and they are interconnected with other parts of the car to form a complete internal network. At the same time, the car itself is interconnected with all external things, making the car a mobile terminal in the entire Internet.

Figure 1 is a simple schematic diagram of a connected vehicle-related system, device, and internal network and vehicle network composed of internal and external interconnections.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the components of a connected vehicle

As can be seen from Figure 1, a relatively complete connected vehicle includes the following aspects:

* Vehicle Telematics: Remote control of vehicles and remote reading of information. That is, the vehicle computer system that uses wireless communication technology;

* Vehicle to everything (V2X): Vehicle to everything Internet, also known as Internet of Vehicles;

* Infotainment system:

* Internal data interfaces: vehicle internal data interfaces;

* In-vehicle communication:

* Sensors/actuators: various sensors and actuators;

* Environmental Protection System: Environmental protection system (automobile emission control system);

* Electronic Control Unit (ECU):

Since 2017, Huawei has proposed the concept of cloud-pipe-end, which involves the coordination between car and people, car and car, car network and car cloud, and transportation facilities, that is, people, car, cloud and road. After sorting it out, you will find that the car is a mobile terminal. Correspondingly, you can also know from which levels the regulations to be studied should be sorted out. It is not a single one, but a series. Therefore, after sorting out these categories, you can accurately know which aspects I should study. For example, the commonly used in-vehicle network standard is 21806.

03. The first draft of the EU's core technology regulations for autonomous driving is released

The European Union has completed the formulation of the following specific individual technical regulations related to autonomous driving within the system of its automotive safety framework regulation (EU) 2019/2144: Vehicle Intelligent Speed ​​Assistance (ISA) regulations, Emergency Lane Keeping System (ELKS) regulations, Facilitation of Installation of Alcohol Locks (AIF), and Driver Fatigue and Attention Warning (DDAW).

After basically completing the formulation of the above-mentioned relevant automobile technical regulations, the European Commission began to formulate another very important technical regulation for autonomous driving vehicles from the beginning of 2021, namely: the type certification regulation for automobile automated driving systems (ADS). The full name of this technical regulation is: European Commission Implementing Regulation on the specific implementation details of Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 on uniform procedures and technical specifications for type approval of vehicles for automated driving (ADS).

04. The US government abandoned DSRC car networking technology and caused a lawsuit

4.1 Background of the US FCC's Relevant Regulatory Amendments

Having said the main technical route and the origin of the current situation of the Internet of Vehicles, let's talk about the regulatory revision work carried out by the FCC, which is in charge of radio communications in the US government. It is the FCC 20-164 document released on November 20, 2020 mentioned above. The US Federal Communications Commission FCC officially decided to abandon the DSRC technology dominated by Europe and the United States, and allocated the 5.850-5.925GHZ frequency band resources originally reserved for DSRC to C-V2X. This news is a heavy blow to American practitioners who have been engaged in DSRC technology and related work for nearly 20 years.

The FCC20-164 document clearly and in detail explains the reasons for the FCC's decision. As shown in Figure 2, the statement of Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), did not hide his disappointment and irony with DSRC. Chairman Ajit Pai clearly pointed out in his statement that the development of DSRC-based services was so slow that it did not effectively improve vehicle safety. For example, there are only 57 DSRC projects in operation in the United States, including 6,182 DSRC roadside units (RSUs) and 15,506 vehicles equipped with DSRC on-board equipment. In contrast, there are 274 million registered vehicles in the United States. Twenty years after the FCC allocated this frequency band to DSRC, 99.9943% of registered vehicles are still not equipped with DSRC.

To put it simply, DSRC technology has been developed for 20 years, but there has been no progress. The proportion of vehicles installed is extremely low, and the US government is very disappointed!

Figure 2 Statement from Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

On November 20, 2020, the US FCC announced its decision to abandon DSRC and allocate the 5.850-5.925 GHz frequency band resources originally reserved for DSRC to C-V2X. The Vehicle Compliance Platform then received a proposed rule (Proposed Rule) from the US federal government in May 2021 to revise the relevant technical regulations on radio communications in the United States, namely, CFR Volume 47, Part 15 (Radio Frequency Devices), Part 90 (Private Terrestrial Radio Services), and Part 95 (Private Radio Services). Figure 3 is the US proposal to revise the technical regulations on radio communications, which clearly stipulates that the frequency band resources in the range of 5.850-5.925 GHz of DSRC (mainly the 5.895-5.925 GHz frequency band) will be allocated to C-V2X and other related content.

Figure 3 Proposal for revising U.S. radio communications technical regulations

Colleagues working on international automotive technical regulations know that the US government has released the draft and final text of the revised regulations. The most authoritative channel is the Federal Register (also translated as Federal Registration in the industry) shown above. It seems that everything is about to be "settled". The reason why the US government gave up DSRC technology is that it is "backward in technology" and has no development prospects. It seems that in the field of Internet of Vehicles, the C-V2X technical standard (route) currently led by my country has a bright future and will become a global Internet of Vehicles standard in the future.

4.2 Revision of relevant regulations of the US FCC leads to legal proceedings

We can imagine what a huge blow it is for the industry and practitioners who have been engaged in research and construction in this field for decades when the U.S. Federal FCC revised the relevant technical regulations and abandoned the existing DSRC technology for the Internet of Vehicles. It is simply like millions of "alpais" galloping in their hearts. This is intolerable. Relevant organizations and institutions representing the DSRC industry have filed another lawsuit against the U.S. Federal FCC.

Figure 4 shows a screenshot of the complaint filed by the Intelligent Transportation Association of America and the Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, representing the DSRC industry, against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The complaint lists all the inaccuracies, irrationalities, and even illegalities in the above-mentioned decision and regulatory amendments made by the Federal Communications Commission of the United States, and requests the court to preside over "fairness" and re-examine the FCC's decision.