"If there is an accident, count me in!" Mercedes-Benz announced responsibility for L3 class automatic assisted driving

Recently, mercedes-benz (hereinafter referred to as "Mercedes-Benz") officials announced that when a vehicle equipped with the L3-level Drive Pilot autonomous driving system opens the driving assistance system, Mercedes-Benz will bear legal responsibility for the operation of the car, which has aroused concern in the industry.

It is foreseeable that who is responsible for accidents caused by the vehicle's automatic driving assistance system has always been the most controversial issue at present, and Mercedes-Benz's move has undoubtedly made a good start.

Mercedes-Benz or promote the rapid development process of automatic assisted driving

Some public opinion believes that Mercedes-Benz can give the promise of "if there is an accident to count me", which is Mercedes-Benz's confidence in its assisted driving technology, in fact, this understanding is also correct, after all, Mercedes-Benz's L3 level automatic driving system is the world's first certified by a government agency.

In December 2021, Mercedes-Benz announced that it had successfully passed the approval of the German Federal Motor Vehicle Administration (KBA), becoming the first car company in the world to obtain the L3 level of autonomous driving certification of the United Nations "Automatic Lane Keeping System (ALKS)", and also obtained the qualification to legally hit the road on German highways. According to the previous mercedes-Benz plan, its DRIVE PILOT system will be launched in Germany in the first half of 2022, followed by legal licenses in California and Nevada in the United States.

But it should also be noted that Mercedes-Benz has supplemented the new rules with restrictive clauses.

Mercedes-Benz said that after opening the Drive Pilot, the driver can not look at the road ahead, and can even be distracted from playing mobile phones and watching movies, but the restrictions stipulate that the driver will prompt the driver to take over when he perceives something unusual, and if the driver does not take over, the driver will be responsible.

In other words, although the driver can relax slightly after turning on the auxiliary driving function, it is still necessary to take over the vehicle at any time, otherwise the responsibility still needs to be borne by the driver. Mercedes-Benz is only liable if an accident occurs when the system does not alert the driver to take over. This also shows that in addition to specific driving scenarios, the driver is still the responsible subject, which is also related to the widely accepted definition of L3 level automatic assisted driving, that is, the system can replace the driver under certain conditions.

Wang Yao, assistant secretary general and director of the technology department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said: "Automotive autonomous driving technology is still in the process of development, and the autonomous driving capability of the current mass-produced intelligent networked vehicles in the automotive market can only achieve the auxiliary driving function based on the premise of driver responsibility. Under the premise that the driver is responsible, the auxiliary driving function can improve the safety of the driver's driving. ”

The automotive industry's awareness of autonomous driving currently mainly comes from the automatic driving classification standards developed by the International Society of Automata Engineers (SAE). According to this standard, except for the L1 level, which is called "assisted driving", the words "automatic" are included in the description of the remaining levels. Therefore, this also leads to the fact that the technology in this field of various car companies at this stage is basically in the "L2" stage, but it is named "automatic assisted driving". Although SAE has long been clear about the responsibility for accidents caused by different levels of automatic driving, as of now, no country has issued very clear laws and regulations in accordance with SAE's standards, and even the relevant regulations of "automatic driving" are basically "vacuum" in some countries. Therefore, the division of liability for accidents caused by automatic driving assistance systems is difficult to determine, which has a considerable relationship with the imperfection of laws and regulations in this regard.

Industry insiders told the "China Times" reporter: "As Mercedes-Benz takes the initiative to take responsibility for assisted driving technology, it is bound that more car companies will join the ranks and begin to declare responsibility for accidents caused by the opening of the automatic driving assistance system, which also means that L3-level automatic driving, which has been limited by the slow development of regulations, has accelerated the pace of development due to the promotion of car companies." ”

The development of core technologies requires the improvement of standards and regulations

In the mainland, intelligent networked vehicle technology has entered a critical period of landing, and the development of autonomous driving assistance system technology has also advanced by leaps and bounds. The data shows that L2-level automatic driving in passenger cars has achieved large-scale commercial applications, and in 2021, 22.2% of full-caliber passenger cars will be equipped with L2-level automatic driving systems, and technologies such as adaptive cruise (ACC), automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping system (LKS), and automatic parking (APA) have been widely used on the vehicle.

However, if you want to fully develop the intelligence of the car and achieve curve overtaking, you also need the highly automated driving technology L3 and above to be applied in specific scenarios and limited areas.

The promotion of L3 and above level of automatic driving assistance system technology is inevitably inseparable from the monitoring of specific and mature regulatory regulations. On August 12, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Access to Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Manufacturers and Products (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Opinions"). The "Management Opinions" pointed out that enterprises producing automotive products with driving assistance and automatic driving functions should clearly inform the vehicle functions and performance limitations, driver responsibilities, human-computer interaction equipment instructions, function activation and exit methods and conditions and other information.

In terms of product access, the "Management Opinions" clearly proposes to strengthen the safety management of automatic driving functional products, and should ensure that automotive products can automatically identify the failure of the automatic driving system and take risk mitigation measures; have human-computer interaction functions to display the operating status of the automatic driving system; have an event data recording system and an automatic driving data recording system; meet the process assurance requirements such as functional safety, expected functional safety, network security, and various test requirements.

Miao Wei, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said frankly: "With the approval of the State Council, we have formed a special committee for the development of the vehicle networking industry of the National Manufacturing Power Construction Leading Group, which will hold a meeting every year to carry out cross-departmental and cross-industry coordination, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security, etc." The policy system was gradually established and the Road Traffic Law was amended to promote L3. The core technology is promoted by collaborative innovation, the standards and regulations are increasingly perfect, and the test application is promoted in an orderly manner. ”

During this year's two sessions, many deputies and members suggested speeding up the revision and implementation of relevant laws and regulations. Chen Hong, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of SAIC Motor, suggested that it is necessary to clarify the legal status of the automatic driving system, formulate standard rules and disposal mechanisms for the division of responsibilities, and establish a grade evaluation and certification system and access mechanism for the automatic driving system. It is believed that with the introduction of more laws and regulations, the field of automatic driving will also be improved accordingly. If more and more car companies can declare active responsibility like Mercedes-Benz, it will also help the entire industry to achieve a qualitative leap.

Responsible Editor: Li Yan'an Editor-in-Chief: Yu Jianping