How should the liability for accidents arising from the activation of the autonomous driving assistance system be divided? For this problem, some people think that it belongs to the driver, and some people think that it belongs to the car companies that provide automatic driving assistance, and this debate has not stopped since the emergence of automatic assisted driving systems.
A few days ago, for this question, Mercedes-Benz seems to have given the answer. On March 23, Mercedes-Benz recently announced that when Mercedes-Benz car drivers equipped with Drive Pilot turn on the vehicle's advanced driver assistance system, they will bear legal responsibility for the operation of the car. This means that whenever a car in which Drive Pilot is active is involved in a car accident, Mercedes-Benz will bear the relevant responsibility.
In fact, the reason why Mercedes-Benz is responsible for the accident caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system at this time is mainly related to its becoming the world's first company to apply L3 level automatic assisted driving car.
As early as the end of last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it had successfully passed the approval of the German Federal Motor Vehicle Authority (KBA), becoming the first car company in the world to obtain the L3 level automatic driving certification of the United Nations "Automatic Lane Keeping System (ALKS)", and also obtained the qualification to legally hit the road on German highways. At this point, the century-old automobile brand Mercedes-Benz and Germany, which has a century-old automobile industry foundation, have joined forces to break consumers' inherent impression of traditional car companies and traditional automobile industries.
With Mercedes-Benz officially obtaining the qualification of L3 level automatic driving certification, according to the international Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standards for automatic driving level identification, the control of vehicles in L3 level automatic driving is dominated by the vehicle, rather than the driver driving the vehicle, and the responsibility for the resulting accident is also borne by the car company.
In order to promote its own vehicles with L3 level autonomous driving functions, Mercedes-Benz must be the first to stand up, which is the fundamental reason why Mercedes-Benz announced at this time that it was responsible for the accident caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system. It can be said that with Mercedes-Benz officially announcing that it is responsible for the accident caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system, it is the prelude to a new era of L3 level autonomous vehicles. Why? And listen to me.
The prelude to L3 level autonomous driving is about to begin?
Strictly speaking, L3-level autonomous driving is not too cutting-edge technology in the industry. Whether it is a car company, or Robotaxi company has laid out L3 level, or even higher level of automatic driving technology a few years ago, the reason why there was no way to promote it on a large scale before, the most fundamental reason is mainly in the division of responsibility.
Although the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has long been clear about the responsibility for accidents caused by different levels of autonomous driving, and has become the bible for countries to develop autonomous driving, until now, no country has issued relevant laws and regulations in accordance with SAE standards.
Once the vehicle has an accident due to the opening of the automatic driving auxiliary function, it is not only easy to fall into the division of responsibility, but it is more likely to be determined by the relevant departments as a dangerous driving crime, and over time, no car company dares to take the initiative to stand up and assume the corresponding responsibility. This has also led to a long period of time in the past, the relevant autonomous driving technology has developed rapidly, but it can only be rolled in the circle of L2, and there is no way to break through L3.
However, in the era of smart cars, it is impossible for new car companies like Tesla to stop the research and development of automatic driving technology, which also leads to a strange phenomenon, like Tesla FSD, Xiaopeng XPILOT has already reached the L3 level of automatic driving, but can only stand up to the L2 or L2+ level of automatic driving assistance in the name of how embarrassing.
Not only that, in order to set aside responsibility, many car companies even emphasize that their automatic driving assisted driving system can only be opened under certain circumstances, and the control of the vehicle is still on the driver, not the vehicle. It can be said that in the past few years, it is the determination of responsibility that has hindered the rapid development of automatic driving.
This time Mercedes-Benz walked in front of all car companies, becoming the first car company responsible for the accident responsibility caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system, which not only raised the responsibility of the head car company, but also greatly promoted the promotion of its own L3 automatic driving assistance technology, which can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone.
As the world's first automaker to receive the United Nations Automatic Lane Keeping System (ALKS) L3 level autonomous driving certification, Mercedes-Benz has been fighting for its own L3 autonomous driving technology to land in more markets, after Gregor Kugelmann, senior development manager of Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot, stressed in an interview, "Our goal is to achieve this goal for California and Nevada by the end of this year, and we are also considering many other states."
It is foreseeable that as Mercedes-Benz L3 autonomous driving technology is landed in more countries, mercedes-benz's announced commitment will be rapidly promoted in various countries. In this way, I believe that more car companies will keep up with the pace of Mercedes-Benz and declare responsibility for accidents caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system, which means that L3-level autonomous driving, which has been limited by the slow development of regulations, has gradually entered our lives due to the promotion of car companies.
Mercedes-Benz makes wedding dresses for new forces?
As the world's car-making giant, Mercedes-Benz has a significant gap in the research and development of automatic driving compared with the new car-making forces. Whether it is the first to obtain the UnUncom's "Automatic Lane Keeping System (ALKS)" L3 level automatic driving certification or the first action to declare responsibility for accidents arising from the opening of the automatic driving assistance system, Mercedes-Benz has gained enough exposure, which will definitely promote the promotion of Mercedes-Benz's L3 level automatic driving system.
However, as the head bird, Mercedes-Benz is likely to make a wedding dress for other new power car companies. Why? This has to start with Mercedes-Benz's L3 autonomous driving assist technology.
According to the plan, Mercedes-Benz will install the L3 level automatic driving function based on Drive Pilot to the S-class and EQS models in the future, of which the EQS has just been listed in China, and the new car has a total of 4 configuration models, with a price range of 1.0796 million to 1.5186 million yuan.
At present, Mercedes-Benz's Drive Pilot autonomous driving system mainly uses a multi-perception fusion solution, rather than the pure visual solution advocated by Tesla, it provides 4 360-degree surround view cameras, 1 dual current view camera, 12 ultrasonic radar, 1 front-mounted long-range radar, 1 lidar and 4 angle radar (millimeter wave radar), while configuring antenna modules and high-precision positioning systems.
Such a configuration, at present, abounds, and even more than that, take Xiaopeng's latest P5 launched as an example. Like Mercedes-Benz, the XPIRAT 3.5 equipped with the Xiaopeng P5 is also a multi-perception fusion solution, which is equipped with 13 cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars, 5 millimeter wave radars, 2 laser radars, and 1 group of high-precision positioning units. Obviously, in terms of perception devices, the Xiaopeng P5, which is currently in the L2 level automatic auxiliary driving stage, is far superior to the Mercedes-Benz EQS with L3 level automatic driving capabilities.
Not to mention the paranoid Tesla, the Autopilot system equipped with Tesla, which has been adhering to a pure visual solution, has already traveled more than 5 billion kilometers in the open state. It can be said that in terms of automatic driving technology, the L3 automatic driving technology currently promoted by Mercedes-Benz can only be regarded as the average level in the market, far behind the head car companies such as Xiaopeng and Tesla.
It is worth mentioning that if users want to activate the L3 level autonomous driving function of the Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot, they must meet a number of restrictions, two of which are crucial. First, Drive Pilot's L3 level autonomous driving function must be used on 13,000 kilometers of highways in Germany. Second, the L3 level automatic driving function can only be activated at a speed of 0-60 kilometers.
Such a provision obviously cannot be applied on a large scale, and I think it is the reason why Mercedes-Benz announced that it was responsible for the accident caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system.
In contrast, like Tesla's FSD, Xiaopeng X PILOT and other new forces car companies' automatic driving system has long been able to achieve automatic assisted driving in high speed and expressway, some advanced versions can even achieve urban road conditions overtaking, customized car follow-up, speed limit automatic adjustment and roundabout traffic and other functions, it can be said that tesla and other early established automatic driving for the development direction of enterprises The current level of automatic driving has been infinitely close to the L4 level. This is also the reason why Musk has constantly emphasized that Tesla will soon be able to achieve full self-driving.
In this context, Mercedes-Benz, whose automatic driving technology is not very outstanding, has stood up for the responsibility for the accident caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system, although it is based on the choice made for the promotion of its own L3 level automatic driving technology, but in the end, it has a high probability that the new power car companies will achieve L3 level automatic driving large-scale loading and wedding dress.
After all, government agencies will not lose sight of one or the other, and after Germany authorizes Mercedes-Benz, more and more car companies will strive for the same rights to the German government. It is no exaggeration to say that in promoting the large-scale application of L3 level automatic driving technology, Mercedes-Benz has made a great contribution, but how much results can be obtained in the end depends on whether Mercedes-Benz can be ashamed and then have the courage to catch up.
Summary: As a world-renowned automobile giant, Mercedes-Benz's backwardness in automatic driving technology is obvious to all, so it has previously used its influence in Germany to become the first Car Company to become the first United Nations "Automatic Lane Keeping System (ALKS)" L3 level automatic driving certification is to take the opportunity to overtake in the driving field. The first to stand up and continue to cheer for their Own Drive Pilot, and announced that they are responsible for the accident caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system can also see the impatience of Mercedes-Benz, on the road of automatic driving, Mercedes-Benz has been unable to lose, so it is so brave to become the first person to eat crabs.
For Mercedes-Benz to pull away the L3 level of automatic driving operation, in the anecdote, it is very courageous. Although the strength of the current Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot is still not outstanding, it may fall behind as soon as it comes out, but at least it bravely took the first step, and before the L3 level automatic driving related laws were introduced, each family is still on the same running line, and it is too early to say who will die in the end.