L3 autonomous driving is really coming. The government may release L3 self-driving cars on the road this year, and Shenzhen will implement pilots first. The China Automobile Center has developed autonomous vehicle evaluation procedures for vehicles of L3 level and above to prepare for the road of L3 level.
Wen 丨 wisdom driving network Huang Huadan
L3 self-driving cars with Chinese standards are expected to officially hit the road by the end of this year.
On April 8, Qin Kongjian, chief expert of China Automobile Center, said in an interview with Zhi NengQiChe that China may be released at the end of this year, at the latest next year for L3, shenzhen will give priority to the opening of pilots.
Based on this, ATC introduced the autonomous driving evaluation procedures it is developing for the actual needs of Chinese users at the "2022 Automotive Evaluation International Summit and C-NCAP Annual Meeting" held on April 9.
The protocol is positioned to evaluate self-driving cars at L3 and above.
This will be the first L3 level autonomous vehicle evaluation regulation launched by a third-party institution in China, and perhaps the first in the world.
This is undoubtedly a big plus for many of today's lidar-powered smart electric vehicles, which will have a car class that matches their positioning.
Due to technical and legal reasons, vehicles equipped with L3 level autonomous driving technology have not really been mass-launched.
In December 2021, Mercedes-Benz was first released by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, allowing its S-class vehicles equipped with the L3 level automatic driving assistance system to start L3 autonomous driving at high speed when conditions permit.
So far, Germany is the only country that has officially certified car companies for L3 levels on the road.
Mercedes-Benz CEO Con linsong said on several occasions this year that it is seeking approval for its S-Class models in China and the United States.
But at the same time, other countries and car companies are also actively following suit.
For example, in 2021, Japan released the "Report and Guidelines on Measures to Achieve and Popularize Autonomous Driving" to promote the implementation of autonomous driving; Honda Legend is equipped with L3-level automatic driving functions and allows drivers to get rid of their hands; and the U.S. Department of Transportation also released the "Comprehensive Plan for Autonomous Vehicles".
In addition, Mercedes-Benz is also actively seeking regulatory certification for L3 level on the road in China and the United States.
China's development in intelligent driving technology is also leading the world. According to the data, of the 711 new cars listed in China in 2021, 328 have intelligent driving functions, accounting for more than 45%.
From a technical point of view, some models have actually reached the L3 level, but for the sake of regulations and responsibility attribution, L2+ level assisted driving is still advertised.
Not long ago, the intelligent driving network learned from industry insiders that the domestic will be released on the road for the L3 level this year (for details, see: "Mainland driverless vehicles will be issued a green card, L3 level will be allowed on the road: China and the United States at the same time for automatic driving loosening"), the voice of the China Automobile Center can be said to reconfirm this news. The early establishment of evaluation procedures is also a preparation for the large-scale launch of L3 levels.
——01——
How to define the boundaries of L2 and L3 level autonomous driving?
According to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) definition of autonomous driving classification, L1 and L2 autonomous driving systems are called "Driver Support Systems", while L3-L5 levels can be called "Automated Driving Systems".
Specifically, L2 is called "semi-automatic driving" and L3 is "conditional automatic driving".
The biggest difference is that when the L2 level assisted driving system is turned on, the driver still needs to maintain concentration, and if an accident occurs, the responsible party is the driver; and when the L3 level automatic driving function is used in line with the L3 opening conditions, if an accident occurs, the car company needs to bear the corresponding responsibility.
Professor Zhu Xichan of the School of Automotive of Tongji University delivered a speech at the 2022 Automotive Evaluation International Summit and C-NCAP Annual Conference to define in detail the difference between L2, L2+ and L3 level autonomous driving levels.
The L2 level automatic driving system does not have high-precision map support, adopts the traditional embedded E/E architecture, and cannot grow into an L3 level product through OTA iteration. It is characterized by low cost and low hash rate. With L2 driver assistance, the driver is not allowed to leave the driving, the product does not need to be certified by the government, and the driver is responsible for the accident.
L2+ level is developed according to L3 as the goal, using high computing power domain controller E/E architecture, support for high-precision maps, embedded L3 level automatic driving hardware (including lidar, 4D millimeter wave radar and other environmental sensing sensors), through OTA iteration, in some ODD (operational design domain) under the product to grow into L3 level driving automation capabilities.
At present, due to the lack of software algorithms, the lag of the government recognition certification process, and the consideration of the legal and regulatory responsibilities of enterprises for L3 automatic driving, the intelligent driving system (NP) supported by high-precision maps of domestic enterprises is promoted according to L2+.
Although the company emphasizes in the user manual that L2+ is still a driver assistance system, many drivers will leave the driving for a long time and use it as an automatic driving system, there are safety hazards, and the responsibility for accidents is not clear.
The L3 autonomous driving system uses a high-computing domain controller, Ethernet in the car, high-precision map support, and environmental awareness sensors are transferred to high-definition cameras.
ECE R157 provides certification for autonomous vehicles that do not have "unreasonable risk", i.e. as long as the overall risk level of the driver, vehicle occupants and other road users when the vehicle is activated with L3 level of autonomous driving assistance, the risk level is not higher than that of a vehicle driven by a skilled and prudent driver, and there is no "unreasonable risk".
In Mercedes-Benz's certified L3 conditional driving description, its conditions mainly include three aspects, namely speed, scene and behavior restrictions: that is, driving at a maximum speed of 60 km / h on highways or high traffic density congestion sections throughout Germany, during which the driver is not allowed to sleep, is not allowed to continuously look backwards or leave the driver's seat, and is still ready to take over the vehicle.
When the L3 level automatic driving system is opened under the condition of eligibility, if an accident occurs, the enterprise shall bear the corresponding responsibility.
While there are still many limitations, L3 is a big step forward compared to L2. After L2 stagnated for a long time, autonomous driving finally made a breakthrough.
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Test before the policy is released
Autonomous driving products have now become the mainstream configuration of vehicles, and consumers' acceptance of autonomous driving is also increasing day by day. However, there are many products on the market, and the supervision of them at the government level is more of a check on the market access of the corresponding products, focusing on the certification of the "safety bottom line" of autonomous vehicles.
At present, the overall technical solution of automatic driving has not yet reached the ideal level, and the government pays more attention to basic safety. For consumers, the maturity, scope of application and convenience of each autonomous driving technology are all factors that need to be considered in their consumption and purchase processes.
Therefore, third-party assessment for consumer needs is indispensable.
At present, the objective evaluation of professional institutions at home and abroad and the subjective evaluation of the media are mainly based on L2/L2+ assisted driving.
Since L3 has not yet achieved a large-scale listing, there are currently no evaluation projects for self-driving cars at L3 level and above.
Before the country officially released L3 level automatic driving, China Automobile Center took the lead in proposing the development and evaluation procedures for L3 level and above autonomous vehicles. Setting evaluation standards in advance can effectively regulate the market and provide professional reference opinions for consumers to choose new products.
Different from the principle of safe access at the government level, the goal of the autonomous driving evaluation procedures of the China Automobile Center is "preferred" after admission. Three application scenarios of high-speed, parking and urban areas are subdivided to evaluate, and the performance level is evaluated separately.
The evaluation of highway automatic driving mainly includes the performance performance in scenarios such as trunk road congestion, trunk road unimpeded, ramp traffic, tunnel traffic and toll station traffic.
Specifically, it includes the reaction of vehicles in the case of entering congestion and slowing down, decelerating, and congestion in front of the vehicle when driving in a single lane, temporary speed limiting during cruising, lane keeping, lane change, and the performance of various scenes such as merging from the ramp to the main road and entering the toll booth.
The evaluation of automatic parking mainly includes the performance differences of one-click summoning and one-click parking in different types of parking lots (such as open-air parking lots and closed parking lots).
The evaluation of urban autonomous driving includes the performance differences of vehicles in different scenarios of urban roads, including main road driving, intersection traffic, main and auxiliary road convergence and exit, and roundabout traffic.
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Establish to meet the actual needs of Chinese users
L3 level evaluation standard
As the world's first evaluation procedure for L3 and above autonomous vehicles, a very important point proposed by the China Automobile Center is "the actual needs of Chinese users".
First of all, in the selection of indicators of the test and evaluation procedures, unlike the government's emphasis on the certification access of the "safety bottom line", the evaluation procedures of the China Automobile Center pay more attention to the performance evaluation of the "multiple needs of consumers". Where is it included? Does it work? And how to use it? The focus is more on the integrity of typical functions, safety and comfort, and efficiency, as well as the convenience and redundancy of the takeover.
Second, in the choice of scenes, traffic elements and traffic flow styles, the Chinese user car scenes are fully considered.
On the one hand, because autonomous driving cannot be put in place at this stage, for a long time, real traffic participants will include assisted driving, advanced assisted driving, autonomous driving and traditional cars, which are relatively mixed.
The evaluation procedures of China Automobile Center will classify the composition of traffic scenes and analyze the key issues of models based on streamlined scene evaluation. For example, the basic capability is measured by the typical scenario (coverage model), the advanced ability is evaluated by the complex scenario (complexity model), and the advanced capability is examined by the dangerous scenario (the hazard model).
In terms of driving habits, the style of Chinese drivers will be defined. Through the collection and investigation of massive data, and the data modeling of Chinese drivers' driving styles, the typical working conditions reflecting the two typical driving habits of conventional driving and aggressive driving were determined. Basic abilities are evaluated in regular driving styles and advanced abilities in aggressive driving styles.
Third, in terms of test methods, as a professional third-party organization, China Automobile Center not only adopts high-precision test equipment and instruments, but also adopts a variety of different testing methods, in addition to the actual road evaluation, there are also professional closed site evaluation and semi-physical simulation tests supported by professional equipment.
Fourth, in the setting of limit values, it is necessary to have a certain degree of leadership and not to exceed the current technical status. To this end, the China Automobile Center has also made a general survey of the engineering prototype vehicles currently under research and vehicles close to the performance of the three-level automatic driving, made statistics on the current technical level of some key indicators, and made full communication and exchanges on the company's product development plans for the next three to five years or five to ten years, and made predictions on future technology trends.
According to Qin Kongjian, the next step of the China Automobile Center is to work with industry enterprises, technology companies, testing institutions and universities to jointly promote the verification and implementation of automatic driving evaluation procedures.
At present, more than 20 mainstream car companies have joined the regulations.
Qin said that the current evaluation procedure is that the China Automobile Center takes the lead in organizing the industry enterprises to form an industry working group, and has set up a special technical expert committee.
This technical expert committee also includes experts from foreign brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, who will also participate in the research and development process of this evaluation procedure.
The current core question is how to confirm whether a car is L3 level conditional automatic driving or L2 level automatic driving assistance?
Because for a car, even if it reaches the ability of L3 level, it claims that the level of L2 level can avoid responsibility.
Qin explained that the manual used by the vehicle is an effective legal responsibility statement, we will compare the statement of vehicle laws and regulations with the functional design of the vehicle itself, and whether the actual performance of the vehicle itself is consistent with its legal and regulatory statement, and from this aspect, we will also give evaluation and evaluation indicators.
Although the laws and regulations have not yet clearly liberalized the L3 level or above of autonomous vehicles, but the government regulatory authorities have begun to do pilot access programs, according to Qin Kongjian, Shenzhen may become the first pilot city.
As a professional third-party evaluation agency, THECC Center is also ready to test the level of autonomous driving after the vehicle passes the admission.
It can be said that at present, for the L3 level automatic driving officially on the road, everything is ready, only owes Dongfeng.
So in this context, buying a car equipped with lidar will no longer be useless.
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