How far are we from autonomous driving?

Walking on the streets of Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan and other cities, you can occasionally come across "fully armed" intelligent networked taxis and buses. They are "wearing" various sensor devices, with no one in the driver's seat. The vehicles can autonomously complete driving actions such as changing lanes, speeding up, and turning, and deliver passengers to their destinations safely and quickly... Intelligent networked cars have unknowingly "entered" people's lives and become a new way of travel.

Not long ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and four other departments issued the "Notice on the Pilot Program for Access and Road Use of Intelligent Connected Vehicles" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which determined that a consortium consisting of 9 automobile manufacturers and 9 users would carry out pilot programs for access and road use of intelligent connected vehicles in 7 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, to accelerate the large-scale commercialization of three major categories of intelligent connected vehicles: passenger cars, buses, and trucks.

China's intelligent connected vehicles have entered a critical period of rapid technological evolution and large-scale application development from small-scale testing and verification. In the industry's view, this pilot will promote the function and performance improvement of intelligent connected vehicle products and the iterative optimization of the industrial ecology, and explore and improve the production access management and road traffic safety management system of intelligent connected vehicles. This also means that China has taken a key step in exploring the path of large-scale application of autonomous driving . But the pilot is just the beginning. How far is it from us to truly autonomous driving?

On-road pilot projects are close to real-life scenarios for autonomous driving

SAIC's autonomous driving test vehicle uses the car's assisted driving function in a standardized manner, which is improving people's travel experience: the various sensors carried by the vehicle are equivalent to having many more pairs of eyes to help the driver see the road, and timely warnings can be given when risks occur; when traveling long distances, driving together can greatly relieve the driver's fatigue.

Because of this, the penetration rate of intelligent assisted driving in the automobile market has increased rapidly: according to statistics from the China Passenger Car Market Information Joint Committee, from January to February this year, the installation rate of L2 and above assisted driving functions in new energy passenger cars was 62.5%, and this figure will be 55.3% by the end of 2023. The installation of L3 autonomous driving function is considered to be the watershed between assisted driving and true autonomous driving.

At the currently popular L2 stage, the vehicle driving task is still mainly completed by the driver. After L3, the driving authority is transferred from the driver to the autonomous driving system , allowing the driver to completely let go of his hands and take his eyes off the road. This tests not only the ability of the car company's intelligent driving technology, but also requires a reliable underlying architecture and risk management capabilities.

The reporter noticed that among the nine consortiums listed in the Notice, most of the users are operating vehicle platforms associated with OEMs, such as Shanghai Sai Ke Travel Technology Service Co., Ltd., which is the user of SAIC Group, and FAW Group, which is the user of FAW Travel Technology Co., Ltd. In an interview with China Electronics News, industry experts unanimously agreed that this road trial is closer to the real application scenario of autonomous driving.

On the one hand, the road test uses mass-produced intelligent connected cars equipped with autonomous driving functions, rather than modified vehicles with various equipment installed. On the other hand, the road test adopts the form of a consortium of a car company and a travel company, which is more in line with the actual commercialization of upstream and downstream collaboration and production and research integration.

"The pilot project for the access and road traffic of intelligent connected vehicles is an important milestone in the industrialization of intelligent connected vehicles in China." Li Keqiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Tsinghua University, told reporters that through the pilot demonstration method, the functions of intelligent connected vehicle products will be comprehensively optimized and innovated, which will help accelerate the commercialization process of intelligent connected vehicles. "Overall, intelligent connected vehicles have entered a critical period of rapid technological evolution and large-scale application development from small-scale testing and verification." He emphasized. The premise for the mass production and application of intelligent connected vehicles is safety and controllability. Lu Wenliang, a special researcher at the Industrial Science and Technology Innovation Center of the Institute of Strategic Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the reporter of China Electronics News that at present, the management methods and policies and regulations for the identification of rights and responsibilities of autonomous driving and the resolution of accident problems are waiting for the scene to be reproduced, which is a very important research content in this pilot, and it is necessary to gradually relax the control in stages. Limit the vehicle model, implementation area and user, and evaluate and adjust the pilot requirements according to the vehicle operation, industry and technological development...

Bringing technology closer to reality and expanding safety boundaries are important foundations for the mass production and application of subsequent products.

Various regions have successively issued autonomous driving regulations and technical standards

"The vehicle is starting, please fasten your seat belts." Following the in-car reminder, the "Apollon" self-driving minibus that the reporter was riding in slowly drove out of the station of the Software Park in Jimei District, Xiamen City, and drove towards the open road of Chengyi North Street. During the 15-minute driving experience, this self-driving minibus not only found the right time to turn, but also changed lanes in a straight line without waiting or hesitation.

In addition, the vehicle also completed a difficult U-turn at an intersection, which was smooth and precise. In fact, similar scenes have appeared in many cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Changsha, and Wuxi. These cities have opened up road tests and demonstration applications for autonomous driving in designated areas, allowing intelligent connected vehicles with autonomous driving functions to be put on the road for trial operation in specific areas and at specific times.

"In the future, autonomous driving technology will be deeply integrated and interacted with intelligent transportation systems , smart cities , shared travel and other fields. More and more functional unmanned vehicles such as logistics and public transportation will enter daily life." Xu Meng, director and professor of the Institute of Integrated Transportation Systems Science at Beijing Jiaotong University, said that realizing autonomous driving is an extremely complex system engineering. In addition to technological innovation, policy support, application scenarios and social collaboration have an important impact on its development.

The reporter learned that at present, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other places have carried out local legislation on autonomous driving, which has expanded the space for the market access and commercial operation of autonomous driving vehicles . Among them, Shenzhen has carried out full-chain legislation from road testing, demonstration application to access registration, use management, from traffic violations and accident handling to legal liability, and also provided a legal basis for the first time for the determination of liability for autonomous driving traffic accidents. "In the formulation of relevant laws and regulations and technical standards for intelligent networked vehicles, China has adopted a model of local experimental legislation first and central summary legislation later. On the basis of local institutional innovation and enterprise technological innovation, we will summarize and summarize successful experiences and promote them nationwide, so that more cities at or above the prefecture level (including districts under the jurisdiction of municipalities directly under the central government) that meet the requirements can participate. Autonomous driving road testing will be carried out in a wider range across the country." Lu Wenliang told reporters that as the first truck pilot city in the country, Danzhou City, Hainan Province is making full use of its advantages in logistics, transportation and other fields to promote the application of intelligent networked trucks in relevant scenarios. Relevant person in charge said that in order to promote the testing and commercial application of intelligent connected vehicles and provide policy support and guidance for the market access and road use of intelligent connected vehicles, Danzhou has formulated corresponding implementation plans and action plans, and clarified the goals, key tasks and paths for the promotion and application of intelligent connected vehicles.

The speed and difficulty of the development of intelligent networked vehicle technology on urban roads, highways and rural roads vary due to the complexity of the environment and the technical requirements, and it is necessary for various places to include a larger test area. Recently, many places have successively issued relevant policies to expand the autonomous driving test area: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, opened 3,474 square kilometers in eight urban districts as an intelligent networked vehicle test application area, accounting for more than 20% of the city's area; Shenzhen, Guangdong, announced the addition of 43 new roads, and the city's autonomous driving open road mileage reached 944 kilometers; Beijing opened the first high-speed rail station autonomous driving test, and clarified the scope of autonomous driving test between Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and Beijing South Railway Station. In June this year, Beijing's high-level autonomous driving demonstration area will also be expanded from the current 160 square kilometers to 600 square kilometers. Xu Meng said that the expansion of autonomous driving test areas in many places can provide a wider and more complex actual scenario for autonomous driving technology, help discover and solve more potential problems, and accelerate the optimization and maturity of technology.