If you can make your car park across floors within two kilometers, and drive at high speed according to the navigation route intelligent assistance to help you drive, will you be interested? Whether you are interested or not, I believe that you will definitely raise questions such as whether you are safe or unreliable. So this time we went to experience the XPIRAT 3.5 version of the Xiaopeng P5 with lidar.
In fact, in recent years, the major new forces of car companies, are regarding intelligent assisted driving as the main battlefield to win the future, such as Xiaopeng's NGP, Tesla's NOA, Weilai NOP, etc., which represent the understanding and application of different strategic routes such as visual perception + hardware perception and pure visual perception scheme.
The Xiaopeng P5 we experienced this time is the 550P + LiDAR + XPILOT 3.5 software model with the highest software and hardware configuration of intelligent assisted driving. In addition to the two lidars that stand out on the front bumper, there are also 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, and 13 vision cameras for different purposes.
Among them, such as millimeter wave radar, ultrasonic radar, and some visual cameras, with the algorithm, can already achieve a series of L2 level or even higher level of intelligent driving assistance functions, that is, Xiaopeng's NGP intelligent driving assistance function and VPA memory parking, but the emergence of lidar has further enhanced and expanded the more reliability and functionality of Xiaopeng NGP and VPA functions.
The millimeter-wave radar, ultrasonic radar and vision camera on the Xiaopeng P5 have different divisions of labor. Millimeter wave radar has different types of scanning distances, and the Xiaopeng P5 is adapted to a product for short- and medium-range detection purposes, which mainly serves adaptive cruise, parking assistance, active safety detection and so on in the auxiliary functions. Ultrasonic radar is more with automatic parking ranging, active safety ranging and other functions. Multiple visual cameras are used to collect road environment information, traffic signs, vehicle pedestrians, etc. The functions of the above-mentioned various radar cameras are implemented by the XPILOT 3.5 software and high-precision maps.
The dual lidar located at the front of the car is able to cover a field of view of 150° ahead and a maximum detection distance of 150 meters. Compared with millimeter-wave radar and simple visual imaging, lidar can provide more accurate three-dimensional information perception, and has more accurate scene recognition for special road conditions such as environment, static, dynamic, and tunnel construction sites. In simple terms, millimeter-wave radar presents more like a painting on a flat surface, while lidar turns the painting into a three-dimensional physical object, so it is obviously more accurate in identification and judgment. Of course, lidar also has its shortcomings. For example, the weather requirements are high, the amount of environmental scanning information is large, and the scanning imaging speed is not as fast as that of millimeter-wave radar. However, as a vehicle-level lidar, it will be better optimized, and with millimeter-wave radar and visual imaging in a high-speed environment, the real-time road model is more three-dimensional and can correctly judge more environmental variables. When parking at low speeds, the surrounding environment is generated more accurately, and unnecessary scratches can be avoided in tight spaces.
From the perspective of software and hardware, Xiaopeng P5 has deeply integrated various functions, and driver assistance functions are quite conservative in the current variety of technical lines. On paper, it's a trusted solution. As for whether the experience is good or not, how reliable it is, it is also necessary to make a decision from the functional level experience.
Xiaopeng P5 test drive has been carried out many times before, driving experience and comfort level will not be too much to repeat, let's directly talk about how reliable NGP and VPA with lidar version, good or not.
NGP, that is, Xiaopeng's intelligent assisted driving, in fact, can already achieve urban low-speed intelligent assisted driving and high-speed intelligent assisted driving, but due to the different policy environments in various places, at present, in Beijing can only experience high-speed intelligent assisted driving.
We experienced this feature on the 6th Ring Road in Beijing and the Beijing-Taiwan Expressway. The opening method is similar to Tesla's AP, in the case of navigation setting the destination and the opening conditions allow, it is possible to press down the lever twice in a row, and the vehicle will keep the driving line centered and follow the navigation.
High-speed intelligent assisted driving, more like a high-end ACC. In addition to the conventional car increase and deceleration function, the system will be based on the speed limit and road environment of the road section at that time as a reference for speed adjustment, if the line is needed to prompt the driver to pay attention to the surrounding environment, its own hardware will also determine whether it is suitable for switching lanes, if there is a relatively high speed vehicle in the rear, the system will also correct the driver's next line-joining intention to a certain extent to ensure driving safety.
When the route is close to a forked road or a bridge route, the system will light up and change the speed in advance according to the road conditions, and if the traffic environment is complex, the driver will be informed to intervene. Entering the shunt and panqiao sections, high-speed intelligent assisted driving will strictly follow the speed limit, actively maintain the center when passing through the curve, and there is no discomfort in the traditional collision lane.
After leaving the ramp and merging into the new route, the system will also increase or decrease the speed according to the actual situation, the process is not abrupt, and the sense of security is still relatively sufficient. In addition, before approaching the toll station, the system will also inform the driver in advance that the control is about to be introduced, and the driving right will be completed in advance to ensure driving safety.
On the whole, the logic of this set of high-speed intelligent assisted driving is still based on safety, other traffic participants can be prioritized to avoid, the assisted driving process is smooth, there is no tense situation, long-distance application can alleviate driving fatigue, and the overall experience is satisfactory.
Compared with the NGP that tests high-speed performance, the VPA is an advanced test for low-speed parking performance in ground parking lots. At present, many models can support multi-faceted auxiliary parking in and out, the function is not surprising, we have also experienced the VPA intelligent parking function of the Xiaopeng P5 before, and this time the Xiaopeng P5 with lidar has launched the VPA-L on the basis of the VPA, breaking through the complexity of long-distance (within 2km) and multi-floor parking.
This high-end VPA-L on the Xiaopeng P5 includes intelligent parking and cross-floor memory parking. Simply put, it is the auxiliary parking function that we commonly use, and when you find a parking space, you can help you park well. Parking memory parking, in the underground parking lot or parking building scene, you do not have to drive to the parking space, let it help you park.
Before using the cross-floor assisted intelligent parking function, it is necessary to remember the parking route of the existing parking space. That is to say, it is necessary to learn the complete process of entering the parking building or basement once and the verification of the route once. Taking the basement as an example, we set the starting point at the side of the toll booth in the parking lot, and after opening the function, it drives normally at a speed of no more than 20 km / h, and the vehicle will automatically remember when passing the speed bump. The animated display inside the car when entering the next floor also synchronizes the vehicle's floor changes and driving route.
Arriving near the destination parking space, the vehicle will automatically recognize the parking space, only need to stop at the corresponding location, and then open the automatic parking through the option, when the vehicle completes parking, the auxiliary intelligent parking across the floor is completed.
After that, you only need to drive the vehicle to the starting point a little farther away, you can start to achieve a full set of automatic parking process, and the automatic cross-floor parking process, the vehicle will not exceed 14 km / h, encounter other vehicles and pedestrians will also actively reduce the speed and avoid. At such a speed, it is possible to maintain absolute safety and braking distance in unexpected situations.
In general, the reliability of this system is quite high, and the experience is relatively good. No hard wounds were found during study and use, and the same applies in narrow parking lots. The speed of the parking process is average, which will make many old drivers anxious, but it is also a kind of gospel for parking hard hands. In addition, the current applicable population is slightly limited, requiring users to have fixed parking spaces in underground parking lots or parking buildings. At the same time, for safety reasons, the vehicle summoning function is not supported at the moment, which means that if your parking space is farther away, you still need to pick up the car yourself.
In fact, many brands are doing parking now, but they can be called excellent at present. For example, Tesla's vehicle summoning function, but to be honest, it is not very easy to use, visual recognition will always occur to scratch, and the requirements for parking space size are too high. The autonomous parking and summoning functions of the W6 are also good, but the problem is that the speed is too slow, and it may even be stopped halfway due to environmental factors, and the practicality is not high, and even some embarrassment. Of course, the same problem may also be encountered in xiaopeng P5, and there is still a long way to go that needs to be slowly improved.
In fact, the technology of driver assistance and automatic parking has been improving, and various brands have invested a lot of manpower and material resources. However, there are still many constraints at this stage, and consumer awareness and trust in these functions are not high. So it will take a lot of time for the entire industry to progress together. It is believed that when assisted driving functions begin to become reliable and efficient, usage and popularity will naturally no longer be a problem.