Author | Jia Weizhong
Source | Car selection network
Last week, in Chagan Lake, Jilin Province, I participated in the FAW-Volkswagen Qianli Extreme Cold Test Drive. On the ice track in Chagan Lake, I crashed my car. However, due to the safety of the vehicle, I was not injured. So, I want to talk about the experience and association of this extremely cold test drive.
On January 11 and 12, the two days of Chagan Lake test drive. Different from the traditional ice and snow test drive, the "Thousand Miles Extreme Cold Challenge" test drive activity has set up three highly topical challenges, namely "The Largest Ice and Snow Maze Comprehensive Challenge in History", "Linhai Snowfield Off-road Challenge" and "Running Around the Lake ID. Endurance Challenge".
The comprehensive challenge of the ice and snow maze is that on the ice surface of Chagan Lake, FAW-Volkswagen has cast a super large ice and snow maze of more than 250,000 square meters with ice and snow, and set up 20 extreme challenge subjects such as straight line acceleration, cross shaft, ID. bend, etc. in the maze, comprehensively simulating various extreme road conditions that users may face when using a car in winter, and deeply testing the real control performance of products in the ice and snow environment.
If the ice surface is mainly to test the stability of the vehicle, then "snow off-road" has stimulated the desire of our often motorists in the city to explore. In this challenge, we drove the Lanjing and Tanyue X through 130 kilometers of off-road roads including stone roads, dirt roads, bumpy roads, and jungle snow roads.
My accident happened the next morning, at first I was driving a test drive to warm up on the ice, as I became more and more familiar with the test drive and road conditions, I slowly let go, and found that even if I did the most violent movements, I would not overturn the car, and my confidence gradually increased.
Entering the track test drive link, the first lap is familiar with the venue, I drove more steadily, the second lap let go of myself, straight line acceleration I slammed the throttle to the end, the car rushed up, into the bend to slow down, I slammed on the brakes again, I felt that the car obviously slid outward, I quickly reversed the direction, while cooperating with the brake, the result could not be saved, the vehicle lost control of the right front wheel hit the snow wall, and then rushed forward for a while before the car stopped stuck on the snow wall. The moment the accident happened, my mind went blank. Luckily, I'm fine, and the damage to the vehicle wasn't serious.
After this ice test drive, I have been reflecting: the reason why I had an accident was because of my lack of experience in ice driving, and the instructor was able to drive on the ice with ease... This reminds me of a question: Why do traditional OEMs and "new forces" car manufacturers act inconsistently in the direction of autonomous driving?
In the eyes of the outside world, the traditional OEMs are conservative and slow to act, and many new technologies dare not be applied to the car. Looking at the "new forces" car companies, whether it is Tesla or some domestic companies, they boldly adopt high-end auxiliary driving functions, and the driving experience brought to consumers is different.
Having worked in a traditional OEM, I personally believe that responsible OEMs do not deliver products that are not adequately tested and certified to consumers. For example, in terms of high-end assisted driving, I believe that some large manufacturers must have accumulated technology, but why they have not loaded the car, perhaps they think that some technologies are not mature enough, and this technology is not safe enough for ordinary consumers.
I have no objection to automatic driving, because the development of science and technology is to liberate our physical and mental strength, but I think that the process of realizing automatic driving should be gradual. As I did with professional test driving instructors, the gap was a serious lack of ice and snow driving experience. If I want to reach the level of a professional test driving instructor, I need to accumulate experience and form a huge database.
To use a less appropriate analogy, I lacked experience in ice and snow driving, and after a simple training and warm-up, I was excited to see the ice field, and as a result, there was an accident. This is like some "new forces" car manufacturers, newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, and develop new functions to quickly load cars, on the one hand, they can improve product performance, on the other hand, they can also attract consumers. And traditional car companies are like experienced test driving instructors, they will repeatedly remind us through the walkie-talkie during the test drive: pay attention to the corners, pay attention to the snow, pay attention to the speed control... But there are some test drivers like me who may not have listened.
Through this accident, I understood the profound meaning of "the car is the tool of life and destiny", which I believe most people will agree with, and perhaps a small number of people will feel disgusted because they are tired of listening.
But have you thought about it? When do people have the deepest understanding of the term "the instrument of life and destiny"? I personally think that when the driver or occupant finds that the vehicle is about to lose control, in a moment, we can't save it by any means we can, and we can only resign ourselves to fate. If a vehicle is involved in an accident, the vehicle may be damaged at worst, and the vehicle may be destroyed or killed. Life is precious, everyone only has one. Therefore, we must drive carefully in our daily travel, and the automatic driving that requires the coordination of cars, roads and clouds and the support of a huge database is even more urgent.
Having said that, intelligent electrification is the direction of the development of the automobile industry, and the transformation of traditional car companies like FAW-Volkswagen is also the trend of the times, but I recognize a sentence: "Moving forward in a conservative manner, thick accumulation and thin hair." ”