Exclusive review | How far is the “last mile” of unmanned vehicles?Fly into the homes of ordinary people
Song Ninghua/Text
In the near future, when you call a car on the platform, if the order is an empty self-driving taxi, will your first reaction be surprise or fright?
Suddenly, like a spring breeze overnight, on February 1 this year, the “Regulations on Promoting the Innovative Application of Driverless Intelligent Networked Vehicles in Shanghai Pudong New Area” (hereinafter referred to as “Pudong Regulations”) was officially implemented. Recently, the Pudong New Area held a launch event to promote the innovative application of driverless intelligent connected vehicles, and the relevant implementation rules were also announced. How far is the “last mile” of unmanned vehicles?
As the saying goes, if the name is not right, the words are not right. This is not the first time that policies and regulations for unmanned vehicles have been introduced. However, the Pudong regulation has received special attention this time, because it is the first time in China that the name of “unmanned vehicle” has been corrected, and a major breakthrough has been achieved without the main driver. Autonomous driving is divided into levels L1 to L5. Unmanned vehicle regulations are mainly aimed at levels L4 and L5. Intelligent networked vehicles reaching L4 and above can achieve “unmanned roads”. In the second article of the Pudong Regulations, it is clear that the so-called unmanned intelligent networked vehicles refer to intelligent networked vehicles that are not equipped with drivers and test safety officers in the vehicle.
This marks that the unmanned vehicle has finally got rid of the restriction of the main driver, and the advantages of saving manpower and avoiding long-distance driving fatigue are fully highlighted. For example, for companies that have already tested in commercial scenarios such as the Lingang Donghai Bridge, it can be said that it has opened the “Alibaba door” of the market, and will also attract more innovative companies to invest in this promising new track.
Although the name of unmanned vehicles is “unmanned”, the original intention and ultimate goal of the legislation is still “people first”. While developing a new track for artificial intelligence, the development of the industry and the safety of the passengers are like two-wheel drive, neither can be separated. Once an unmanned vehicle has an accident, the determination of responsibility was once the bottleneck that restricted its entry into the “human land”.
For this reason, Article 29 of the Pudong Regulations clearly states that if an unmanned ICV occurs in a traffic accident and causes damage, and the ICV party shall bear the responsibility according to law, the enterprise to which the unmanned ICV belongs shall make compensation in advance , and can recover from the responsible autonomous driving system developers, car manufacturers, equipment providers, etc. in accordance with the law. According to this “underlying” regulation, unmanned vehicles “go into battle lightly”. After road tests and demonstration operations, they can move from semi-closed and closed scenarios to open roads, and officially embark on the road to commercial operation.
Recently, Neolix Zhongyan (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. received the “Notice of Innovative Application Test of Unmanned Intelligent Connected Vehicles in Pudong New Area”, and plans to expand the application scenarios from the park to a wider block. Huang Hantao, director of the company’s government affairs department, said, “In the future, our unmanned vehicles can be put on the road and managed as non-motorized vehicles. .”
Caption: Driverless cars.Photo provided by the interviewee
For unmanned vehicles, to achieve a breakthrough in the “last mile”, the test is not only the vehicle, but also a large network of vehicle-road coordination. During the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the author once tried to drive an unmanned self-driving car to experience self-driving parking. In the marked standard parking space, the unmanned car is very “silky” when it is poured into it. However, when there are no traffic lights and people are passing through the road at will, it is a bit fierce for the unmanned vehicle to step on the brakes. After all, in the “dictionary” of unmanned vehicles, obeying traffic rules is an innate “gene”. At the same time, all kinds of traffic light data and road construction accident data are instantly interconnected with cars, so that unmanned vehicles can travel more efficiently and safely. In addition, unmanned vehicles are not “flying” on the road. The “smart brain” behind them monitors them in real time to control them to drive safely and orderly within the established route area.
The author noticed that the implementation rules released this time are divided into “Shanghai Pudong New Area’s Implementation Rules for Promoting the Innovative Application of Driverless Intelligent Connected Vehicles” and “Lingang Implementation Rules”, because the characteristics of unmanned vehicle tests in different regions are different. different. At present, the first batch of open test roads in Jinqiao is 29.3 kilometers in total. It is the first open test road for autonomous driving in the central urban area in China, and it is also the open test road with the highest risk level in Shanghai. Once the “Golden Bridge Model” is promoted, various scenes will fly into the homes of ordinary people, and citizens will be able to take unmanned taxis and shuttle buses just around the corner.
The future has come, are you ready?
Editor: Huang Jiaqi
