The Drive Pilot, a Mercedes-Benz L3 level autonomous driving software system, will open for order in Germany on May 17. The originally charged Xiaopeng intelligent driver assistance software has been changed to free gifts from today. Although domestic car owners cannot buy Mercedes-Benz's Drive Pilot for the time being, this "software charging" model represented by Tesla is worth exploring.
Wen 丨 wisdom driving network Huang Huadan
The Mercedes-Benz L3 level autonomous driving system is about to hit the road.
On May 6, Mercedes-Benz officially announced that its L3-level conditional autonomous driving assistance system Drive Pilot will officially open for order in Germany on May 17.
Priced at 5,000 euros, about 35,180 yuan, it is suitable for Mercedes-Benz S-Class models and EQS. The EQS also needs to configure the Driver Assistance Package Plus, which costs 2430 euros, which is 7430 euros, which is about 52280 yuan.
In December last year, Mercedes-Benz passed the approval of the German Federal Transport Administration, becoming the first manufacturer in the world to legally use the L3 level autonomous driving system in Germany.
By this month, almost half a year later, German Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS owners who bought Drive Pilot will be the first users to use L3 level conditional autonomous driving.
It's cool to think about.
Although Chinese car owners can't buy it for the time being, after all, Mercedes-Benz also said that it will strive to get approval in California and Nevada this year, and will also seek certification in China. Maybe you can buy it next year?
So, it's almost 35,000 yuan, do you buy it?
Of course, various possible reasons are not ruled out, and the price of Drive Pilot has been adjusted after entering the Chinese market.
——01——
Spending more money on self-driving software?
The standard intelligent driving assistance function of buying a car is a relatively common mode at present, which is a chip to attract users. Of course, there are also software that are not worried about selling and charged separately, and it is not cheap.
Take Tesla, for example.
According to Tesla's official website, the enhanced version of the automatic driving assist function is priced at 32,000 yuan, and the FSD fully autonomous driving capability is priced at 64,000 yuan.
Tesla Enhanced Auto Assisted Driving features include Auto Assisted Driving, Auto Assist Lane Change, Auto Parking and Smart Summon.
The official website describes the FSD as follows: "Including the full functions of the basic version of assisted driving and the enhanced version of automatic assisted driving, it will be introduced later to recognize traffic lights and stop signs and react to automatically assist driving in urban streets." ”
The optional package for assisted driving functions on Tesla's official website in the United States is only one FSD, which costs $12,000, which is more expensive than domestic sales. But the function will be more advanced than the domestic.
In addition, WEILAI is also charged for the automatic driving function. The full function of NAD automatic driving adopts the subscription model of "opened monthly and paid monthly", which is priced at 680 yuan / month.
For users who do not usually use this function much, it is indeed a low-cost model to open when it is needed and pay monthly.
The Xiaopeng intelligent driver assistance software, which was also sold for 20,000 yuan, will also be given away for free from today.
This seems to indicate that Chinese consumers may not be very interested in buying self-driving software packages separately.
However, let's first look at the capabilities of Mercedes-Benz's L3 level autonomous driving system.
——02——
What can Drive Pilot do?
Mercedes-Benz officials said that Drive Pilot allows drivers to hand over the steering wheel to the system on eligible highways in Germany, that is, when traffic jams and the speed of the vehicle is below 60km/h.
At this point, the driver can choose to rest or work. In the event of an accident during this period, the responsibility will be borne by Mercedes-Benz. Of course, the premise is that Drive Pilot is launched under the premise of compliance.
This will buy the driver more time.
Although some people have previously thought that under such a harsh premise, Drive Pilot seems to be a bit of a chicken rib.
But for users who conform to the setting of this scene, it is indeed a big boon. For example, drivers who often need to get on the highway and have poor local high-speed traffic conditions.
Taking Beijing as an example, the Jingtong Expressway in the morning and evening rush hour is often in a stop-and-go state, and the maximum speed can rarely exceed 60km/h. In this case, using Drive Pilot becomes very worry-free and frequent.
Drive Pilot's capabilities are built on the Dreaming Assistance Package. Mercedes-Benz said that after activating The Drive Pilot, the system will control the speed and follow the car, guiding the vehicle in the lane. It should be pointed out here that although it is an L3 level autonomous driving function, the Drive Pilot has not yet been able to achieve active lane change.
However, the system will consider and analyze the route overview, events and traffic signs that occur on the route, and can also react to unexpected traffic situations and handle them independently, such as evasive actions or braking in the lane.
——03——
Safe redundancy and precise positioning
While freeing human hands, the primary goal of autonomous driving is safety.
According to the definition of L3 level, a conditional autonomous driving system must be able to safely manage any faults. Drive Pilot is equipped with several safety redundancies, including sensors, braking systems, steering systems and power supplies. Both the configuration of the sensor and the algorithm of each system are designed for safety redundancy.
Taking sensors as an example, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class model and EQS equipped with Drive Pilot are equipped with lidar, cameras, ultrasonic radar, millimeter wave radar, microphones and wheel humidity sensors, etc., through different physical concepts, such as optics, ultrasonic, radio waves, etc., to detect all the environment around the vehicle from multiple dimensions and ensure safety.
Due to its redundant design, drive Pilot can return control to the driver when the system fails. If the driver does not comply with the takeover request within 10 seconds, Drive Pilot will immediately take action to stop urgently.
Drive Pilot's mission is to keep the vehicle in the lane and avoid collisions with other road users and objects on the road.
It is worth mentioning that although the driver is allowed to leave the steering wheel with both hands and take appropriate recreational activities when driving Pilot is enabled, according to the regulations, the driver still needs to stay awake, can not continuously look backwards or leave the seat, nor can he sleep in order to take over the vehicle at any time.
In addition, Drive Pilot's positioning system is a high-precision positioning system that uses much more powerful than traditional GPS systems. In addition to anonymous data collected by lidar, cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors, digital hd maps provide 3D images of roads and surroundings, including road geometry, route features, traffic signs, and special traffic events, such as accidents or roadworks.
This high-precision map differs from navigation device maps in centimeters rather than meters, with higher accuracy, and more detailed models of intersections and routes.
Map data is stored in the back-end data center and is constantly updated. At the same time, each vehicle also stores an image of this map information on the car, constantly comparing it with the back-end data, and updating the local dataset as needed.
In addition, Mercedes-Benz has also realized the ALLELLIGENT PARK PILOT, an L4-level fully unmanned parking system, but the vehicle configuration has not yet been completed.
——04——
Software paid model
So, if the regulations pass, Mercedes-Benz's L3-level autonomous driving system Drive Pilot can also be on the road in China, will you buy it?
The unit price is 5,000 euros, and the price of about 35,000 yuan is slightly expensive at first glance, but compared with Tesla FSD horizontally, it seems cheaper. After all, Tesla's FSD is only an L2-level assisted driving function, and Drive Pilot is already an L3-level conditional autopilot system.
Of course, the premise is that you have to pay a million for a Mercedes-Benz S-Class or EQS.
Getting back to the point, although the Chinese market is the market with the highest demand for intelligent driving, from the fact that Tesla FSD has only about 1% of the selection rate in China, and Xiaopeng changed its strategy to send assisted driving software for free, the Chinese people seem to be less enthusiastic about spending money on automatic driving software.
In overseas markets, Tesla, which took the lead in trying "software charging", seems to have a good time.
For the full year of 2021, Tesla's services and other businesses, including autopilot software, achieved revenue of $3.802 billion, an increase of 65%.
On May 7, Tesla announced an increase in the price of FSD in the Canadian market, increasing by $2,200, from $10,600 to $12,800.
Tesla's confidence in its FSD is evident.
The FSD Beta version is equipped with a fully autonomous driving test function on urban roads. According to the regulations, only drivers who have purchased or subscribed to an FSD and received a high score in Tesla's safety tests can qualify for the trial.
Currently, the FSD Beta is only available to the United States and Canada, but user enthusiasm seems to be high. At present, more than 100,000 vehicles have participated in the test.
Musk's expectations for FSD are also very optimistic. Despite repeated ticket jumps, musk still expressed his belief in achieving full autonomous driving capabilities this year on the 2021 earnings call. And, he believes, "over time, FSD will become the most important part of Tesla's revenue stream." ”
After all, software development is almost unlimited replication at a fraction of the cost and staggering profitability at scale.
Under the wave of "software-defined cars", the importance of software is also increasing. Its OTA-upgradable features break the vehicle's attributes as a consumer product, giving it sustainable growth characteristics.
It is no wonder that the new domestic forces represented by Weilai Xiaopeng and others, as well as traditional manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen, have followed up and made efforts in software.
Even if the current domestic selection rate is not high, we still believe that with the maturity of the market, "software payment" will become a future trend.
The recently announced price of the Zhiji L7 will also charge car owners outside the Angel Wheel and A Wheel users for its IM AD Intelligent Driver Assistance System. If A-round users still need to use the system after three years, they can buy out at a price of 8800 yuan or exchange it for digital rights.
It should be said that this is also an attempt by domestic car companies to the "software payment" model.
There is also a problem, in the context of soft and hard decoupling, as far as most models are concerned, when you buy a vehicle, you have actually paid for the hardware part.
For example, Tesla, Bit Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS, such as Nio, the hardware facilities that implement their self-driving assistance functions have been included in the cost of car purchases. So, the software part you buy? Or not to buy?
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