Written by | Little devil
In the past two years, there have been more and more cars on the market with autonomous driving as the selling point. Some careful friends may find that when reading the instructions or promotional materials of these vehicles, no matter how cool the manufacturers give their driver assistance systems, there is a very obvious restriction word "assist" in front of this name.
Because according to the recognized SAE classification method, the functions provided by these systems can only reach L2 level at present, because the monitoring and even participation of human drivers is still required when the system works, and the driving at this time is still dominated by human drivers, so it cannot be called automatic driving.
What level of functionality can be called a true "autonomous driving" system? According to the SAE division, this level is at least L3 level.
Because from the L3 level, the system will be fully autonomous when taking over the vehicle for driving, no longer need the monitoring and intervention of the human driver, and truly liberate the driver's hands and feet. This degree of intelligence also means that when the system is turned on, the driver and occupants are completely entrusted with the life of the automatic driving system itself.
So how far are we from experiencing L3 level autonomous driving technology?
It can be said that it is close at hand. Just last December, Mercedes-Benz's DRIVE PILOT Advanced Driver Assistance System was approved by the technical regulations of the German Federal Motor Vehicle Administration (KBA) and is capable of "conditional autonomous" driving on German highways.
As the world's first certified L3 level automatic driving system, Mercedes-Benz also gave a package ticket to its future users, saying that when Mercedes-Benz equipped with the Drive Pilot system is in the case of automatic driving, Mercedes-Benz will bear legal responsibility for the operation of the vehicle.
So whether it is those who want to eat L3 level autonomous driving crabs, or those who are conquered by Mercedes-Benz's bold "bold words", they are full of expectations for the actual experience of this automatic driving system.
Recently, Mercedes-Benz invited some media overseas for a test ride experience. The experience car equipped with this system is the latest Mercedes-Benz S580 4Matic, which is routed to the Santa Monica Highway (Interstate 10) during peak traffic jams.
Do not sell lawsuits, first put the foreign media experience conclusion to everyone: the overall performance of this L3 level automatic driving system is very good, although it has certain limitations in the conditions of use.
First of all, drive pilot is very simple to use, the left side of the steering wheel is equipped with its start button, after pressing the button, if the green indicator light above is lit, the vehicle will enter the automatic driving state, without the driver's other operation.
The system currently has the following restrictions, including: road signs must be clear, multi-lane, divided into different lanes, and the speed of the highway is under 64km/h; it can only be used during the day when the weather is not too bad (it can rain, it cannot snow); there can be no road construction, tunnels or toll booths; and when the system is turned on, the driver must sit in the driver's seat.
In essence, the autonomous driving system is more like the adaptive cruise with the highest level of intelligence, because when driving PILOT is working, the vehicle will only travel in its existing lane.
However, if the driver wants to write an email or watch a video, the system can support it. Because you no longer have to put your finger symbolically on the steering wheel to avoid warnings every 15 seconds.
At least during this 65-minute experience, the "driver" in the driver's seat, Lucas Bolster, chief engineer of autonomous driving in Mercedes-Benz's R&D department, did not pay attention to the road conditions or put his hand on the steering wheel.
When the system takes over the driving of the vehicle, its acceleration and braking are very smooth, there is no emergency stop, and the vehicle does not draw a dragon in the lane, which can be called a good "driver".
When a vehicle wants to merge to the front of the experience car, the system will politely give way and will not honk the horn, but if the car in front of it has slipping behavior (when traffic jams), it will honk the horn to remind.
When an oncoming vehicle on the right rear is approaching the S580 4Matic's driving lane, the driver assistance system will skillfully dodge to the left side of the lane and drive the car to the position near the left lane line, but if the vehicle behind insists on invading, it will not change its lane and run to another lane.
Compared to Mercedes-Benz's existing L2 level system, the L3 level system is a big step forward in terms of autonomous driving. The L2 system, while with active steering, braking and distance control, requires the driver to keep his attention at all times.
In contrast, the L3 system does not require the driver to pay attention to the system in real time, the only thing it needs is for the driver to be able to take over control after the system issues a 10-second warning - if it does not take over, the car will slow down and stop and turn on the double flash. Therefore, if you really accidentally fall asleep, the danger is not so great.
In Germany, drive Pilot will be an option for S-Class and EQS, but it has not yet received regulatory approval from other countries. The European pricing of the system, which will be announced in April, is expected to be below $12,000, which is also the price of the FSD (Fully Autonomous Driving System) that Tesla has not yet delivered.
Specifically, how does the Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot system work? In terms of hardware, it uses long-range radar, long-range lidar and stereo multi-function cameras. Playing a key role in this are lidar sensors and their artificial intelligence signal processing, which were developed by Valeo.
The system generates 25 images per second, can see objects within a range of 200 meters, and classifies and tracks each object. It even comes with a microphone that can listen to the siren. In order to become a true L3 level autonomous driving system, it is also equipped with redundant steering, braking and power supply. The self-driving system will also learn some uncommon road environments for OTA updates.
After experiencing the L3 level autonomous driving function, Mercedes-Benz also demonstrated its intelligent parking system, that is, the AVP (valet parking) system that we have seen in many autonomous electric vehicles, and this system of Mercedes-Benz is provided by Bosch.
In fact, AVP's technology is much more complex than equipping a vehicle with an L3 level autonomous driving system.
Because in addition to the hardware configuration of the vehicle itself, the parking lot also needs to set up matching ground sensors to communicate routes with the car, and for cloud connectivity in places below the ground where there may be no Wi-Fi or cellular network, it also needs a mobile phone application that allows the owner to reserve a parking space, release control and summon the car. Of course, all cars that use the system also use the same communication protocol.
Mercedes demonstrated its AVP features at an EQS hotel in Los Angeles. When the driver gets out of the car, EQS communicates with Bosch's intelligent infrastructure, automatically bypasses a sharp bend (at very low speeds) and reverses into an empty parking space.
In Mercedes-Benz's view, equipping its vehicles with expensive AVP functions has many potential benefits, for car owners, it can help owners avoid the cost of manual valet parking, of course, the premium compensation will also be drastically reduced by the reduction of manual errors; for parking lots, because parking no longer requires human drivers to sit on the car, then parking lot vehicles can be crowded together like sardines, park more cars, and increase revenue for parking lots.
In fact, from the perspective of technology alone, many car companies have made reserves for L3 level automatic driving technology in the past two years. Judging from the actual experience of foreign media, the performance of Mercedes-Benz's L3-level automatic driving system is not perfect, after all, its use limitations are indeed there.
But in our view, Mercedes-Benz's most courageous action is not only to make its Drive Pilot the world's first certified L3 level autonomous driving system, but also to be the first car company to stand up and bear legal responsibility for automatic driving functions.
Mercedes-Benz's move to improve the acceptance and trust of autonomous driving technology in the market has a very positive significance, especially in the past two years, because of the frequent accidents in cars equipped with driving assistance systems, many people have questioned their safety performance.
With the beginning of Mercedes-Benz, it is believed that there will be more vehicles equipped with L3 automatic driving systems, just like the rapid popularization of L2 level automatic driving assistance in the market. At present, it is not known whether Mercedes-Benz will introduce the system to the country, and if so, will you be willing to pay for it? 【iDailycar】