Why does autonomous driving technology choose to develop “leapfrog”?

With the development of autonomous driving technology, policies and technology are no longer the primary factors that determine the implementation of technology. After the gradual popularization of "L2 assisted driving technology", "L4 highly automated driving" may come to us earlier than "L3 conditional automated driving".

At the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Baidu, an important player in the autonomous driving field, said: After L2, L4, not L3, will be the first to be commercialized. Why does autonomous driving technology choose to "leapfrog" development? Gangtie will take you to find out!

Recently, the Shenzhen People's Congress website released the "Regulations on the Management of Intelligent Connected Vehicles in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which is the first domestic regulation on the management of intelligent connected vehicles. The "Regulations" clearly stipulate that intelligent connected vehicles above level L3 listed in the industry catalogue can only be driven on the road after being registered with the relevant departments.

According to the national recommended standard "Automobile Driving Automation Classification" (GB/T40429-2021), driving automation systems can be divided into 6 levels: Level 0 (emergency assistance), Level 1 (partial driving assistance), Level 2 (combined driving assistance), Level 3 (conditional autonomous driving), Level 4 (highly autonomous driving), and Level 5 (fully autonomous driving). The 6 levels also correspond to 6 different standards.

The definition of Level 3 is that the vehicle completes most of the driving operations, and the human driver needs to stay focused in case of emergency. At the Level 3 stage, the vehicle mainly perceives the traffic environment, accurately reads and analyzes information such as pedestrians, other vehicles, and traffic signs, and can flexibly handle possible dangers.

The industry once had high expectations for L3 technology, but as practice progressed, L3 technology became increasingly embarrassing.

For example, L3 autonomous driving cars may still fail to identify some traffic conditions in a timely manner, and human drivers are required to pay attention to the traffic environment around the autonomous driving car at all times and intervene in the autonomous driving car manually at any time.

Intelligent driving technology is constantly upgrading

L3 is being marginalized

Therefore, car companies are generally conservative about L3 autonomous driving. Companies such as NIO, Ford, and Volvo have publicly stated that they will abandon L3 and choose to jump directly from L2 to L4. Some car companies even call their upgraded L2 autonomous driving models "L2+" or "L2X" and are reluctant to position them as L3.

Although L3 technology is still an important part of autonomous driving research and development, it has been marginalized by car companies in terms of commercialization, and it is almost difficult for us to get in touch with real L3 autonomous driving cars. The fact that L3 is not "welcome" by car companies shows the embarrassing status of L3.

In fact, a few years ago, the market was not as "indifferent" to L3 as it is now. There was even a wave of L3 fever, and car companies competed for the title of "the first L3". However, due to the changes and developments in policies and technologies, as well as consumers' actual driving experience, L3's "top experience card" will soon expire.

The key factors affecting the implementation of autonomous driving technology have always been "policy" and "technology". The implementation of L2 assisted driving also started with technical research and development, and then gradually began to be implemented after the relevant policies were clarified. Nowadays, more and more cities have issued regulations related to driverless driving, and car companies have also made breakthroughs in technology. Consumers have become the key to determining the implementation of L3.

However, the driving experience of L3 autonomous driving is not ideal. When driving, the driver is not sure when manual intervention is needed, so he must always stay focused. Most of the time, the driving control is not in his hands, but he still needs to pay attention to the road conditions and the operation of the car at the same time. Driving an L3 autonomous driving car requires even more energy than pure manual driving.

Secondly, in terms of the division of responsibilities, the main responsibility of L2 cars lies with the driver, and the main responsibility of L4 cars lies with the car, which is very clear. Only in the actual operation of L3 cars, it is difficult to define whether the specific dominant power at a certain moment lies with the car or the human, which is one of the important reasons why car companies and consumers are no longer keen on L3.

Consumers are the deciding factor

For a long time, the development path of autonomous driving technology was considered to be linear, and Level 3 could be used as a transition from Level 2 to Level 4. However, the reality is that this is not the case. The development of autonomous driving technology is a nonlinear path.

The essential difference between assisted driving and autonomous driving is how much people are involved in driving. The purpose of assisted driving is to assist drivers in reducing the waste of driving energy, while the future of autonomous driving is to completely liberate people from driving. From assisting humans to full autonomy, autonomous driving cars do not need a simple upgrade, but a profound technological change. This means that from L2 to L4, L3 autonomous driving technology may not even be considered a transitional technology!