From the scene of a female car owner standing on the roof of a Tesla car at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, to April this year, BYD announced the complete suspension of fuel vehicles, and the time has just passed a year, and new energy vehicles have changed from a hot topic to an industrial trend.
However, regarding the quality and reliability of new energy vehicles, consumers and car companies have been constantly controversial. Especially in many domestic autonomous driving accidents, the final conclusion is almost all attributed to the responsibility of the owner. Is there really no problem with new energy vehicles that have just "debuted" for more than 10 years? Or is it true that new energy vehicle companies are so unasspiring?
Some time ago, the veteran car company Mercedes-Benz broke the rules and made a decision that even the industry leader Tesla did not dare to make: all accidents that occur using the Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot automatic driving system are responsible for all the responsibilities of Mercedes-Benz.
First, is automatic driving really automatic?
In the past period of time, due to the consideration of carbon neutrality and energy security in various countries, as well as the crazy promotion of capital, new energy vehicle companies have sprung up one after another. From a domestic point of view, Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, Ali, Meituan and other technology giants have directly or indirectly participated in the layout of the new energy automobile industry. And all have introduced a new concept - autonomous driving technology.
As an almost sci-fi way of travel, autonomous driving technology has given us a very large imagination space for future travel. At that time, we will release our hands and ride in the car like we would on the subway.
In 2016, then-US President Barack Obama wrote in the Pittsburgh Post that as the highest level of autonomous driving, driverless driving has great development prospects with the advantages of intelligent travel, alleviating traffic congestion, and reducing negligent accidents.
At present, according to the American Association of Engineers on whether manual intervention is required, autonomous driving is divided into 6 levels. In the real sense, the driver can get rid of his hands, at least until the L4 level or above, and only a few companies such as Baidu can do it.
However, due to cross-bank entrepreneurship and quick success, many new energy vehicle companies have more or less deliberately exaggerated the role of automatic driving in the marketing process, which in turn has led to the fact that when an accident occurs due to the wrong use of automatic driving, consumers, insurance companies, and car companies blame each other and cannot achieve satisfactory results.
The Statement of Mercedes-Benz on the "big package" of automatic driving responsibility breaks the current chaos of unclear market responsibilities, and also gives consumers a shot in the arm, which reflects Mercedes-Benz's confidence in its own automatic driving system. Daimler CEO Conlinson said, "This is a step in the history of autonomous driving, and getting cars to really take over cars is like the first step on the moon." ”
Why does Mercedes-Benz have the bottom of responsibility, is it an alternative promotional gimmick for Mercedes-Benz cars?
Second, the level of automatic driving
Drive Pilot, an autonomous driving technology independently developed by Mercedes-Benz Motors, is the first L3 level autonomous driving system that has been internationally recognized.
Unlike Tesla, which relies solely on cameras and boosting algorithms to achieve autonomous driving, the Drive Pilot system is equipped with lidar, ultrasonic radar, front and rear cameras, and GPS positioning maps to obtain road information in real time. The Drive Pilot system is also equipped with microphones to monitor road emergencies, as well as humidity sensors near the wheels to detect the road surface and sense the vehicle's grip.
Today, Mercedes-Benz is the world's first car manufacturer to have an internationally recognized L3 level autonomous driving system. For cars equipped with the Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot system that reaches the L3 level, once the driver opens the system, if there is a car accident or accident, the driver no longer bears any legal responsibility for the operation of the car, and the Mercedes-Benz company bears the relevant legal responsibility.
The second bottom of Mercedes-Benz's courage comes from its strong financial support. According to the data of the financial report, in 2021, the annual turnover of Mercedes-Benz will reach 168 billion euros (about 1.19 trillion yuan). Profit before tax was 29.1 billion euros (about 206.8 billion yuan).
In contrast, the most high-profile new car-making forces in China: Ideal, Weilai and Xiaopeng are still in a state of loss, and the sum of the net profit losses of the three is nearly 10 billion yuan. Tesla, the world's leader in new energy vehicles, has a net profit of only $3.28 billion in 2021, which is far from Mercedes-Benz.
III. Conclusion
The more disorderly the market is, the more it needs someone to stand up.
The commitment of "accidents, full responsibility" initiated by Mercedes-Benz is undoubtedly a reassuring pill for potential consumers of new energy vehicles, and it has also poured cold water on the current "unscrupulous" new energy vehicle companies, and has launched a fatal blow to those car companies that boast of automatic driving technology.
Should not fight, indicating that their technology is not up to standard; should fight, and afraid that the "wallet" on the account will not be able to support for long. In the face of Mercedes-Benz's "Yang Plot", how the car peers will see the tricks and dismantle the tricks, we will wait and see together.