Hundreds of rivals are vying for power! L3 level autonomous driving enters road testing stage

In 2023, new car-making forces will start the pursuit of L2 autonomous driving . Consumers' concept of intelligent driving has changed from "eating melon mentality" to "strong demand", which will undoubtedly boost the enthusiasm of car companies to move forward on the road of intelligent driving. Confidence, and the timetable has come to 2024, L3 intelligent driving will definitely achieve zero breakthrough this year.

New car-making force’s progress in opening L2 smart driving city  

Laying the foundation for the implementation of L3 smart driving

In 2023, the Chinese auto market has entered the era of smart car competition. New power brands such as Wenjie, Ideal, and Xpeng have rewritten history in terms of the update speed of autonomous driving technology, giving consumers a new understanding of smart driving attitudes and concepts. From waiting and watching to accepting.

L2 level intelligent driving capabilities are gradually increasing

The development of anything goes through a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. In the process of upgrading intelligent driving, the improvement of L2 intelligent driving capabilities is the accumulation of "quantity", while the implementation of L3 intelligent driving is the embodiment of "qualitative change". .

L2-level intelligent driving has become an indispensable equipment for new domestic models, and it has now reached the stage of leading cities across the country. On February 2, 2024, Huawei’s Hongmeng Intelligent Travel series models released a major OTA upgrade—high-end intelligent driving nationwide. It can be driven. It can be said that it has directly flipped the table in terms of urban pilot intelligent driving, and has taken the lead in completing the comprehensive breakthrough of national urban pilot from 0 to 1.

The policy aspect is the implementation of L3 autonomous driving

Filled with a handful of combustion accelerant

At the end of 2023, the policy level has filled in a handful of accelerants for the commercialization of L3 autonomous driving. It can be said that it has given an attitude of embracing intelligent driving like "the sky is high and the birds can fly".

On November 17, 2023, the four ministries and commissions issued a notice on the pilot work for the admission and on-road access of intelligent connected vehicles, clarifying that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport will select vehicles with mass production conditions. Intelligent connected car products with autonomous driving functions are subject to access pilots, and the autonomous driving functions include Level 3 driving automation (conditional autonomous driving) and Level 4 driving automation (highly automated driving) functionality.

On December 5, 2023, the General Office of the Ministry of Transport issued a notice on the issuance of the "Autonomous Vehicle Transportation Safety Service Guide (Trial)". The "Guide" covers the scope of application, basic principles, application scenarios, and autonomous driving of autonomous driving. Eight parts including transportation operators, transportation vehicles, staffing, safety guarantees and supervision and management have been clarified. It can be seen that the policy aspect has begun the process of comprehensively promoting the implementation of autonomous driving.

The implementation of L3 autonomous driving can be said to be the right time for policies to take the lead.

L3 level autonomous driving enters road testing stage

At the end of 2023, domestic car companies are accelerating the deployment of autonomous driving. L3 autonomous driving is a must-win area. Some models have obtained autonomous driving test licenses. At this point, substantial road testing of L3 autonomous driving will be carried out on a large scale in 2024. The process determines the progress of commercialization.

It can be seen that the test road section obtained by Wenjie covers all daily driving scenarios. Huawei's L3 level autonomous driving technology is already one step ahead on the test road section, assuming the role of "a big responsibility from heaven", and it can be said that it has been commercialized. 2024 is just around the corner.

China will become the global L3 autonomous driving incubation base

1. Many intelligent driving systems are competing with each other.

At present, there are roughly 16 domestic smart driving systems, and there are 6 that can achieve 100% national high-speed navigation capabilities covering highways, elevated roads and expressways. The car companies involved include Xpeng, Ideal, Wenjie, Weilai, Wuling Baojun and Haopin. "The sea is wide enough for fish to leap, and the sky is high enough for birds to fly" is the most appropriate way to describe the development of China's intelligent driving at this moment.

The improvement of intelligent driving ability can be predicted by academic performance. For example, if an excellent junior high school student does well in the high school entrance examination, it can be predicted that high school will not be too bad and he can enter a higher institution. HUAWEI  AD S 2.0 The high-end intelligent driving system is that outstanding junior high school student who will graduate early in early February 2024. Next, he will continue to improve his L2 intelligent driving capabilities and achieve L3 breakthroughs. We will wait and see if he can be the first to cross the finish line.

Pictures come from the Internet

2. Intelligent driving has become an important reference factor for consumers to purchase cars.

After the actual performance of L2 level autonomous driving on the road in 2023, consumers’ pursuit of intelligent driving capabilities has become a factor that must be considered when buying a car. For a new car, the intelligent driving capabilities may not be mature for the time being, but the hardware for intelligent driving It must be there. This is the current attitude of consumers when buying cars. Car companies are smart. In response to consumers' demand for smart driving, they have invested heavily in the research and development of smart driving systems. Lidar is now appearing as standard equipment in new car products. .

Judging from the proportion of orders for the new Wenjie M7, which has a leading level of intelligent driving capabilities, Yu Chengdong’s large order of 100,000 new Wenjie M7s announced on Weibo on November 28, 2023, the intelligent driving version accounted for as high as 60%. The NCA selection rate in urban areas is as high as 75%, and smart driving has become the fourth largest car purchase factor after car price, cruising range and brand.

China's unique road types provide good natural conditions for the testing of L3 intelligent driving. Judging from the city scope of road testing, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, they all have their own characteristics, such as many side roads, traffic jams, and complex roads. Viaducts, etc., are extremely unfriendly to ordinary drivers, but this is exactly the testing and training base required by intelligent driving systems. Looking around the world, China has a variety of complex road conditions required by intelligent driving systems. It can be said that the location is advantageous.

Take Chongqing as an example. This city has a huge height difference, so you can always see a variety of elevated overpasses. However, if it is your first time to walk these viaducts, you will find that it is different from what you expected. It is characterized by so many entrances and exits, surrounded by layers, that even locals have to respect them. It is precisely because of such special road conditions that it provides good practical training conditions for intelligent driving.

3. Intelligent driving system training computing power is 100% autonomous, laying the foundation for sustainable progress

The core technology of the smart driving system is the smart driving computing power chip . Fortunately, the chip of the leading HUAWEI ADS 2.0 smart driving system is a purely domestically produced independent chip and will not be stuck. The chip parameters are not the most eye-catching, but But it is the most reassuring. Car companies can develop with confidence, and consumers can be assured of application. Hardware chips with stable sources lay the foundation for continuous intelligent driving system software updates. Smart consumers may have begun to pay attention to "intelligent driving cores". "Yes.

The main components of Huawei's M DC intelligent driving computing platform, MDC 300F/MDC 210/MDC 610/MDC 810, have covered all application scenarios from assisted driving to high-end autonomous driving.

The competition for intelligent driving has entered a race against time. It is no exaggeration to say that people stop and large models do not stop. Large models of intelligent driving are undergoing continuous training and learning. This is intelligence that is improving every day. Take Huawei's large model as an example. The learning and training computing power in November 2023 is 2.8E FLOPS, and 12 million+ kilometers are learned every day. The model update speed is iterated every 5 days. This is Huawei’s speed. Today, this data is still improving.

It is precisely because of such chip capabilities and smart driving systems that we have seen its AEB capabilities continue to improve. In November 2023, its AEB capabilities have achieved peer-leading performance. For stationary vehicles and pedestrians, smart driving-assisted emergency braking The ability can reach 120km/h, which is the speed limit of high-speed, which is a great progress.

In the OTA version promoted on February 2, 2024, the forward and lateral active safety capabilities have been further improved. Taking the row of horses on the side of the road as an example, the AEB speed data in September 2023 is 80km/h. It was 90km/h in November, and on February 2, 2024, the AEB capacity has reached 120km/h. This is an increase speed visible to the naked eye, which undoubtedly gives consumers the greatest safety. Not installing it is the greatest safety, and Continuous progress is a greater cornerstone of safety in consumers' minds.