One moment is assisted driving, the next is the crazy hint of "taking off the hands and feet", and after the "thing", it throws the pot to the owner. The "scumbag" operation of car companies in recent years has made us vividly remember. Unexpectedly, Mercedes-Benz recently played the role of "honest man". Its vehicles equipped with the DRIVE PILOT system (L3 autonomous driving) will be responsible for the operation and results of the vehicle after the driver assistance system is activated, which is indeed in stark contrast to the friends.
"Honest people" are also forced
Mercedes-Benz's DRIVE PILOT system belongs to the category of L3 automatic driving. But this is not the latest technology in the industry... As early as 2017, Audi carried out a "taste", and recently it was hung up by domestic car companies such as Roewe and GAC New Energy. However, due to the lack of relevant laws and regulations, the issue of responsibility is difficult to divide, resulting in the inability of these models under the banner of L3 to be mass-produced.
Note: The picture shows the "UN-R157 Regulation" on the determination of liability
Obviously, Mercedes-Benz is prepared this time, and its DRIVE PILOT system took the lead in passing the "UN-R157 regulation" and became the first car company in the world to truly pass the international automatic driving range. In the UN-R157 Regulation, it is clearly stated that "the overall safety of the vehicle remains the responsibility of the car manufacturer requesting type approval during the lifetime of the ALKS system being enabled." Since it wants to "go on the road legally", Then Mercedes-Benz must act according to the rules, so it will leave the harsh sentence "After opening the driver assistance system, it will be responsible for the operation and results of the vehicle".
Note: The picture shows the "UN-R157 Regulation" regarding the specifications used
On the functional side, the DRIVE PILOT system is also almost copied from the "UN-R157 Regulation". For example: Vehicles can automatically control the lateral and longitudinal movement of vehicles (lane keeping), activated on roads where pedestrians and bicycles are prohibited, and have (isolation piers). At the same time, the operating speed is limited to 60 km / h at this stage, and if the driver does not respond to the takeover request by deactivating the system, the minimum risk control should be started as early as 10 seconds after the takeover request begins. Mercedes-Benz's official statement that "during peak traffic or congestion, keep the lane open at a maximum speed of 60 km / h on the German highway; when the vehicle leaves the eligible scene, the driver needs 10 seconds to take over" coincides with it. In fact, the "limitations" of the DRIVE PILOT system are not only "high-speed and congested road sections" and "up to 60 km / h". Judging from the information given by the official, it is affected by high-precision map coverage and weather.
The former is well understood, after all, in the "UN-R157 Regulation", the requirements for information such as the lateral distance of the vehicle are more stringent, and only high-precision maps can do the job. But the regulations do not require much of the latter, but Mercedes-Benz gives a statement that it cannot drive in rain and snow and bad weather, which does not make this limited automatic driving system worse?
Why only Mercedes-Benz has an "honest person" Through the simple interpretation of the "UN-R157 regulations" in the previous article, it is not difficult to find that its technical requirements and the implementation of functions are not high, and more is a clear responsibility determination. Therefore, in the author's opinion, in addition to Mercedes-Benz, the rest of the car companies are more like making choices in terms of technical functions and responsibilities.
If you want to meet the "UN-R157 regulation" technical standards, a set of camera + radar + lidar combination scheme and a set of high-precision maps are enough, which has become the standard in the current stage of smart cars, and even the hardware strength of individual models is much higher than Mercedes-Benz. Now that it can be achieved, it is necessary to consider whether the consumer will pay for the function extended by the UN-R157 regulation. We take the Mercedes-Benz DRIVE PILOT as an example, which can only cruise in the lane of 0-60 km / h in congested highway sections, and this has not taken into account the weather and other factors, and passed most people's use scenarios.
In addition, at this stage, these auxiliary systems equipped with L2+ level, in addition to not being able to "get rid of" operation, have already realized the city expressway pilot, automatic lane change, full-speed domain adaptive cruise, etc., which sounds no better than L3? More importantly, because it is assisted driving, it can not only help car companies to avoid legal liabilities, but also win the pursuit of fans (PS: just like Tesla), so who wants to be an "honest person" like Mercedes-Benz?
Although L3 is not perfect under the constraints of the "UN-R157 regulations", the introduction of relevant regulations can indeed avoid the phenomenon of "ripping off", and for some car companies, "get rid of hands", "automatic driving" and other promotional words may ignite consumers' enthusiasm for purchase. As of now, the "UN-R157 Regulation" is signed by EU countries, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Australia and so on. In other words, consumers in these countries can buy Mercedes-Benz L3 level autonomous vehicles; of course, other models that comply with the "UN-R157 regulation" can also be sold in these countries. In the mainland, automatic driving is still a gray area, although individual regions have formulated automatic driving programs and related management regulations, for example: Shenzhen in March last year issued the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Intelligent Connected Vehicle Management Regulations (Draft for Comment)" is the country's first intelligent networked vehicle management regulations, the intelligent networked vehicles are divided into 3 technical levels, and the use of different levels of vehicle management has been specifically stipulated. However, these regulations have not yet been implemented, but many car companies have taken the opportunity to play the banner of L2.5 and even L2.9 auxiliary driving to over-market, causing automatic driving hints to consumers. The good news is that during the recent two sessions, many deputies and members suggested speeding up the revision and implementation of relevant laws and regulations.
Finally, we talk about Mercedes-Benz, although the DRIVE PILOT system is slightly chicken, but from the perspective of taking the lead in obtaining international certification and fulfilling relevant legal responsibilities, it does carry far-reaching historical significance, and at the same time establish an image of "honest people" in the minds of consumers, in stark contrast with those "scumbags", at least in marketing, Mercedes-Benz's wave of operations is not a loss at all!