Promise to carry automatic driving, and finally a "automatic driving assist", car companies have been "I only rub it in" scum scumbag operation over the years, we have seen no surprise.
Unexpectedly, at this time, there was suddenly an honest person, Mercedes-Benz with its L3 level "Drive Pilot" automatic driving debut, and said that "Mercedes-Benz car drivers equipped with Drive Pilot, after activating Drive Pilot, Mercedes-Benz bears legal responsibility for the operation of the car." ”
"Mercedes-Benz bears legal responsibility for the operation of the car", which undoubtedly gives those L2.5 assisted driving, L2.9 automatic driving assist a loud slap.
The biggest difference between assisted driving and autonomous driving is the division of responsibilities between people and systems in the operation of the system.
When assisted driving is running, people are the main body of responsibility, no matter how good the technology, you must always pay attention to the road ahead, and you are responsible for driving behavior. As long as the car company has told you in advance how to standardize the use, then there is an accident, even if it is killed, it has no half-cent relationship with the car company.
When the automatic driving system is running, the car is the responsible body, and the car company is responsible for the driving behavior. However, L3 level automatic driving requires man-machine co-driving, when the car is uncertain, it will prompt the driver to take over, if the driver does not take over when timed, the system will also pick a pick, but generally speaking, it will choose to change to the rightmost lane and stop, which is relatively safe.
The assisted driving system also has such a similar "redundancy mechanism", such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, and ideal assisted driving, which will also slow down and stop and turn on the double flash when the driver does not take over for a long time.
Therefore, the most essential difference between assisted driving and automatic driving is only whether it can ensure 100% safety during the system activation process. So how does Mercedes-Benz achieve 100% safety? Is L3 autonomous driving necessarily better than L2 assisted driving?
To understand the Mercedes-Benz L3 autonomous driving, first understand the ODD
Mercedes-Benz's L3 autonomous driving system will be the first to be installed on the new S-Class sedan and EQS, and can be activated when the vehicle equipped with the system enters the 13,000-kilometer highway covered by the German high-precision map and the speed is in the range of 0-60 km/h.
The high-precision map mentioned here covers the highway, as well as the speed of 0-60km/h, of course, I guess there is a high probability of "sunny weather, no rain and snow environment" such a setting, which is called ODD in automatic driving, Chinese translated as the design operation area.
What is ODD? For a simple example, I am the most handsome cub under 30 years old in Shanghai Putuo District Tiandi Software Park 10A Block, this "Shanghai Putuo District Tiandi Software Park 10A Block 30 years old" is ODD, as long as the ODD is accurate enough, I am a beautiful boy everywhere I go.
L3 and L4 autonomous driving is called conditional automatic driving, that is to say, automatic driving can only be used in a well-set area, environment, and condition. In other words, as long as the ODD is small enough, most car companies have the ability to achieve L3 in technology.
If you remember, there is also an L3 automatic driving launched by a car company in the parallel universe, ODD is a structured road covered by a high-precision map within 45km/h speed.
In contrast, in 2017, it was revealed that Mercedes-Benz will release a model that supports L3-level automatic driving, and although the environment is sinister now, Mercedes-Benz still does what it says, and the ancestor-level centennial car company still has more idol baggage than the fake centennial car company.
Is it that Mercedes-Benz's L3 self-driving is not at all cattle?
Of course, when it comes to this, everyone may have a misunderstanding, is it not as long as the ODD is small enough, I can also go? Can any car company drive L3 autonomously?
No, there are two main reasons. First of all, we look at the ODD of mercedes-Benz this set of L3, which is basically used when the highway is sunny and congested, this scene we can not encounter several times in a year during our daily driving, and it must be the high-speed of Germany and the United States.
For a small user group, in a scene that can not be encountered several times a year, a set of functions that users may not necessarily use is specially developed, and this function is probably only reviewed by a high-profit luxury car brand like Mercedes-Benz.
In addition, even if the frequency of use is not high, in the process of operation, to ensure 100% reliability is not simple, the need to invest a very high cost.
The cost comes from redundancy. Mercedes-Benz's Drive Pilot system requires the vehicle to have "redundancy" in the steering, braking, and electronic control systems, ensuring that even if the steering column that is driving you is suddenly cracked, this almost impossible thing has happened, and the vehicle must be able to activate the emergency plan to stop the car safely and smoothly.
There is also perceptual redundancy, the Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot is equipped with a SCALA 2 generation micro-rotor semi-solid-state car-grade lidar provided by Valeo, horizontal FOV130°, vertical FOV10°, and a maximum detection distance of 150m at 10% reflectivity.
Compared with sagitar Juchuang M1, Hesai AT128, Innovusion Falcon, Luminar Iris and other cutting-edge semi-solid-state lidar products, this lidar does not have an advantage in performance, and the most brilliant point is that it is backed by Valeo's huge shipments, which is safer and more reliable.
Compared with Huawei, Xiaopeng and other car companies' plans for the use of lidar, I personally believe that the SCALA 2 on the Mercedes-Benz provides more important perceptual safety redundancy, as well as improving the identification of stationary obstacles and close-range Cut in, at least not to hit the side-lying large truck.
It can be seen that even if the ODD is small, but it is very difficult to achieve 100% safety, at least at this stage, the input-output ratio of the cost is not commercially valuable, and only the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which costs more than 1 million, can eat it.
And the world's first L3 automatic driving on the road, such a brand value-added, only Mercedes-Benz can use, change a car company, I must scold: SB.
Is L3 autonomous driving necessarily better than L2?
I think Mercedes-Benz has made a good start, and I also think that the L2.9 technology scheme is very poor, but it does not mean that the L3 is better than the L2.9, which is actually just two routes, there is no advantage or disadvantage.
We compare the perception hardware of Mercedes-Benz's L3, 1 monocular camera, 1 lidar, 1 medium and long-range millimeter wave radar, 4 angle radar, plus high-precision maps provided by map dealers, high-precision inertial guidance, and centimeter-level high-precision positioning services based on RTX signals.
These configurations, Huawei ADS, Xiaopeng X pilot 3.5, Weilai's NT2.0 platform, and the ideal L9 are all available, which is almost the base of the head smart car product in 2022.
However, the domestic head manufacturers did not take such a configuration to do L3 automatic driving, but did the L2 + assisted driving that "rubbed into it". To say that they are better or worse can actually be reduced to a multiple choice question.
A very reliable boyfriend, but can only meet once a year; and a boyfriend who can accompany you every day, slowly mature and reliable, but must not believe it, need to be vigilant at all times, who do you choose? The answer must not be obtuse angles.
Decoupling responsibilities and functions, under the premise of fully informing consumers and actively guiding consumers to use them correctly, it is also a good choice to provide a set of assisted driving systems with richer use scenarios and greater convenience for daily travel.
For example, Jihu, Xiaopeng, Weilai, and ideal products are all cautiously taking navigation assistance functions from simple closed roads to complex urban roads, which is more helpful for the development of technology and our daily car experience.
There is no right or wrong way to pursue a safe and secure pursuit and a quest for technology to reach consumers faster and more widely.
To truly push autonomous driving to consumers and promise corresponding legal responsibilities, Mercedes-Benz has done the responsibility of taking the lead in big brothers, which is bound to promote the development of automatic driving.
But eating chicken is also quite delicious.