L3 autonomous driving road test licenses have been issued one after another, and the official landing is just around the corner?

Text/Hughes

In today's highly developed automobile market, intelligent vehicles have become the main trend, and intelligent assisted driving is also the direction of development of various car companies. Now there are also three car companies that have obtained L3 autonomous driving road test licenses, and it is expected that more and more will follow. So does this mean that autonomous driving is getting closer and closer?

L3 autonomous driving road test license issued

On December 14, China's first L3 test license was issued, and the winner was not Huawei, which was quite popular before, nor Tesla and other leading electric car companies, but the relatively low-key German luxury brand BMW. This will mean that BMW will be able to carry out autonomous driving on Level 3 high-speed roads in designated areas until June 8, 2024, which is a breakthrough for BMW.

After BMW obtained China's first L3 autonomous driving road test license, Mercedes-Benz also came with good news and obtained the test qualification, becoming the first batch of approved car companies in Beijing. Subsequently, SAIC's Zhiji also announced that it had obtained the Shanghai L3 autonomous driving test license, becoming the first independent brand to obtain the qualification.

As early as 2021, Huawei announced that it had achieved an enhanced version of Level 3 autonomous driving, which Huawei called "L3.5" at the time. This year, Huawei has demonstrated the function of L4 autonomous driving on the M7, which can make the most reasonable and safe actions on complex and chaotic roads, but no more information has been released so far.

L3 is a qualitative leap over L2

In 2022, the penetration rate of new L2 passenger cars will reach 34.5%, while the proportion of new R&D projects for L3/L4 autonomous driving will increase from 18.2% in 2016 to 55.6% in 2022.

However, there is still a certain distance between today's L2 assisted driving and L3 autonomous driving, and its road safety, traffic openness, and technology application are the key points to overcome, which are all difficulties from L2.9 to L3.

At present, cars are generally equipped with L2 intelligent driving assistance systems, which can control the steering wheel under specific circumstances, such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping and other functions, and achieve acceleration and braking and lane changes, but the driver is still required to maintain attention and keep his hands on the steering wheel. But in general, this is just an aid, and basically it still needs to be operated by humans.

Level 3 has already entered the stage of autonomous driving, compared with Level 2, at this time, the driver can not pay attention to the road conditions, can also take his hands off the steering wheel, and only need to take over when the vehicle cannot handle and emergencies. This greatly improves the convenience and achieves full autonomous driving. This means that the full implementation of L3 autonomous driving is not easy.

Level 3 autonomous driving is about to officially land?

However, obtaining a road test license can only be regarded as a preparation for the official implementation, from getting the test license, to obtaining access through the test, and then to the real road, and then bringing substantial convenience and help to users, there are too many hurdles to be broken. What's more, just getting the test license itself is a qualification for an admission ticket, and it will take more time to precipitate before it can really enter.

At present, many car companies have begun to focus on urban and high-speed NOA and other driving assistance covering the surrounding environment, which is created for the complex urban traffic environment. Xiaopeng, Wenjie, AVATAR, and other car companies are among the leading car companies.

However, in this regard, the progress is not optimistic, as early as 2022, Xiaopeng, which launched the urban NOA, is still a cut away from the target scale, and Wenjie has only landed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Hangzhou, a total of 6 cities.

Even the urban NOA of these leading car companies has not yet been popularized, and it is even more difficult for the more complex L3 autonomous driving to be popularized in a short period of time. At the same time, policies and regulations, safety, infrastructure construction and other aspects should also lay a solid foundation for the wide application of autonomous driving technology.

Write at the end:

In general, more and more car companies have obtained road test licenses for L3 autonomous driving, which is a start for the smooth landing of the future, although it will take more time to really do it, but it can promote the intelligent development of mainland automobiles to a certain extent. Consumers who want to experience autonomous driving will have to wait a few more years.