author: Muzi, Editor: Qin made the original title “autopilot into a gimmick: the letter does not believe selling cars to buy a car,” and from the first map : Unsplash
With the rapid increase in the number of users and the emergence of related models, the word automatic (assisted) driving began to appear frequently in related news.
On September 22, a car owner drove his ideal ONE on Qingdao G18 highway, when he turned on the assisted driving function. During the driving, the vehicle rear-ended a van that changed lanes illegally. The accident caused the A-pillar of Ideal ONE to break, and none of the seven airbags on the vehicle popped out. The most important thing is that the auxiliary system did not warn or slow down before the accident.
After a lapse of 22 days, Ideal gave a response. First, it announced the decision of the traffic police department. The large trucks were fully responsible for the illegal lane changes. Second, they admitted that the L2 assisted driving system still has limitations. It is recommended that all car owners use assisted driving safely.
For a time, the ideal official statement caused a lot of heated discussions among car owners and netizens. Opinions are basically polarized. There are voices questioning the imperfect software and hardware of many cars’ driving assistance systems. When selling cars, the salespersons trumpeted that the driving assistance system was so dazzling that it was just a “look” when it happened. Netizens said that car owners cannot trust the system too much, otherwise accidents will occur.
Coincidentally, in mid-October, a test vehicle with the body labelled “Unmanned Taxi” on the streets of Dongguan, Guangdong also had a car accident, causing the debate about “unmanned driving” as a gimmick again. Many car owners who care about the autopilot (assistance) system when buying a car are also sweating.
So, in the face of the current stage of autonomous driving (assisted) system, what are the personal feelings of car owners in driving and what Pain points and expectations?
Assisting driving, making the owner more tired?
“Shenzhen’s urban areas are too congested during the rush hour, so I chose a model with automatic (assisted) driving function.”< /p>
In July this year, Mr. Zhang, who lives in Nanshan, bought a top-of-the-line new energy vehicle equipped with an L2 assisted driving system to make it easier to commute to and from get off work in traffic jams. He told me that he knew how to take notes that the Binhai Avenue section of the road he feared the most was often blocked during peak hours. Even if he was driving an automatic car before, the frequent switching of the accelerator and brake with his right foot made him exhausted.
He most hates “smart people” who violate the rules and make traffic jams in traffic jams, and he is even more tired of watching the nervous tension of the car in front. “So when buying a car, the salesman said that the L2 level has (full speed domain) adaptive (cruising), especially suitable for traffic jams and following traffic conditions, I am tempted Up.”
In order to “save worry and effort” with the adaptive cruise function in the full speed range, he bought this top-of-the-line model equipped with L2 assisted driving. But in the next few weeks, after driving the new car on the road, he found that the so-called auxiliary function was a bit tasteless. “You still have to stay up and down in traffic jams, otherwise it will be easy to accident.”
When there is a traffic jam, this model can usually be able to keep up with the car in front and follow the same trend. But the premise is that other vehicles are used according to regulations. Because there are too many “smart people” who forcibly change lanes and suddenly jam, even if they are driving close to the vehicle in front during adaptive cruise, there will be vehicles suddenly jamming in.
“Sometimes the car next to the car is too sudden, and the system will brake suddenly after it is recognized. It feels like hitting a wall.” If it is a slow congestion situation, the driving assistance system will sometimes slow down in time, but sometimes it will block the vehicle. Recognizing it as the vehicle ahead, continue to follow up, even close to the side of the traffic jam, feeling very dangerous, “I must brake urgently, or I will not crash into it.”
Mr. Zhang recalled that the most extreme phenomenon was a sudden traffic jam, and the system automatically cancelled the assisted driving mode. At this time, he had to quickly intervene in the manual driving state. Since he doesn’t know when the system will release the assistance, when it will brake suddenly, and when it will recognize the error, he still feels exhausted even when the assisted driving system is turned on.
Such problems in the assisted driving system also trouble Mr. Wu who lives in Baiyun District, Guangzhou. Mr. Wu told Understanding Notes that what he bought was a new energy vehicle that claimed to be equipped with a L2.5 driver assistance system. The shopping guide indicated that the vehicle was far more than other models of the L2 level. But in actual driving, he often found that the system recognition would be wrong.
“The most annoying thing is that when the assisted driving system is turned on on high speeds, the car will recognize the speed limit signs, but when you scan the 30, 40 km speed limit signs at the gates and toll entrances, you are depressed. “Mr. Wu said that if the vehicle is driving in the rightmost lane of the highway, the system will often misidentify the speed limit road sign at the ramp junction, and then frequently remind the driver to slow down.
Every time you pass through the ramp, the system will recognize the speed limit once, or recognize the number that you don’t know where to scan as the speed limit, and issue an instruction to remind the driver to slow down, “I can only take the leftmost lane, or turn off Auxiliary system, but when I bought a car, I needed to pay for the auxiliary driving system. This can only be turned off, and I always feel at a loss when driving.”
It can be seen that some L2 and even the L2.5 driver assistance systems claimed by car manufacturers cannot effectively reduce driver fatigue in some driving application scenarios. In traffic jams and road conditions, it will even make the driver more troublesome and increase the degree and frequency of the driver’s intervention in the vehicle.
Some analysts believe that for vehicles currently equipped with automatic (assistance) driving, there are still many limitations on the sensor hardware in the vehicle. The road conditions in Shanghai’s domestic cities are complicated, and it makes sense that drivers often get involved in driving. So, those self-driving (or even the self-driving vehicles promoted by enterprises) vehicles equipped with more sensing hardware and more advanced equipment, whether Can it properly handle complex road conditions, reduce the frequent intervention of drivers, and even realize “unmanned driving” in the true sense?
Unmanned driving, it’s still hard to leave “people”
“Unmanned driving is now more of a gimmick for technology companies.”
Speaking of the recent “driverless taxi” accident in Dongguan, Ma Bin, who once worked as a safety officer for autopilot test vehicles in a technology startup(pseudonym) laughed. He told understand that the so-called “driverless taxi” in the news picture of the accident was not equipped with sophisticated sensing equipment.
He said that, from the outside, maybe the vehicle is just an ordinary Tesla “plain car” (no modification), at best A new energy vehicle equipped with a basic driving assistance system, “Look at the driverless (vehicle) that is actually being tested in China. Is one equipped with complex and numerous sensing and imaging equipment?”
But even an unmanned test vehicle equipped with a large number of sensing devices cannot achieve zero safety intervention when driving on the road. The actual situation is that the frequency of safety officers intervening in self-driving test cars is not low. “At the beginning of the company’s training, the company said that the duty of safety officers is to intervene in driving when an emergency occurs in the test car.”< /p>
Most of the job requirements he faces are that the safety officer is only the last guarantee for the safety of the self-driving test vehicle, without excessive intervention in the vehicle on the road. But after getting out of the car, Ma Bin found that even when driving in a restricted safety test area, with low traffic volume and perfect road facilities, he still had to intervene in driving frequently.
“High-level autonomous driving is smarter than L2 assisted driving. There is basically no need to worry about it on spacious roads, but there are still obvious problems in handling complex road conditions.” Ma Bin said that the test vehicle is normal When driving, if ordinary vehicles change lanes or add congestion, they will still encounter problems such as poor recognition, excessive handling, sudden deceleration or braking.
At this time, as a safety officer for the final safety of the test vehicle, he must quickly intervene in the driving of the vehicle and take relevant actions to avoid collisions and scratches in time. “In fact, the vehicle we tested is on the road for 5 hours a day. The safety officer (intervention) driving about a quarter of the time.”
They usually need to intervene in driving when turning at intersections, following cars, changing lanes, and switching between main and auxiliary roads. According to Ma Bin, in theory, autonomous vehicles can achieve autonomously controlled lane change operations, but in actual driving, if the vehicle in front suddenly pulls over and stops, there is a high probability that the test vehicle will not change lanes to avoid.
“There have been many times. The car in front of the car pulled over and the test car stopped directly, and waited for the car in front to go. Then the safety officer must intervene. Who knows how long the car in front will be parked? And changing lanes is a normal driving behavior.”
Ma Bin emphasized that unless all drivers on the road drive vehicles in compliance with traffic regulations, even high-level automatic driving systems above L3 will not be able to leave the intervention of “people”.
Relevant data show that more than half of the causes of autopilot traffic accidents at home and abroad are the fault of the driving system. Even Waymo, the most well-known in the field of autonomous driving, requires manual intervention every 8.95 thousand kilometers.(If you do not intervene, an accident will occur) . This also shows that the recognition mechanism and decision-making mechanism of autonomous driving are still imperfect, and it is difficult to cope with more complicated road conditions. The “unmanned dream” of the L4 level can only be realized under ideal and perfect environment and road conditions.
There are many concepts, and the gimmick is too heavy
“To put it bluntly, many automatic (assisted) driving is just a gimmick when selling cars.”
Hu Yong, who used to work in sales at a 4S store for new energy vehicles in Guangzhou, told me understand notes that in order to show customers the assisted driving functions of selling cars, 4S stores often require sales and test drivers to accompany customers when they test cars. Show customers assisted driving or autonomous driving related functions.
But since sales staff accompanied customers to experience the autopilot function, news of test drives and car accidents has frequently appeared on the Internet. Hu Yong and other sales and test drivers in the store are now afraid to let go of the demonstration of the vehicle’s automatic and assisted driving functions. “I have tried privately. Under the current domestic road conditions, these automatic driving and assisted driving functions are really tasteless. “
Unless customers explicitly request them, they will basically not display “dangerous” functions such as automatic braking and lane keeping. They will only display automatic parking with a lower risk factor in the venue designed by the 4S shop. Features. But as the selling point of new models, many 4S stores and salespersons still want users to advertise that vehicles have the “ability” of autonomous driving and even “unmanned driving”.
“The most commonly used phrase is to inform customers that these cars with automatic driving systems can reduce fatigue when driving cars, and can take corresponding measures in emergency situations to avoid accidents.” Hu Yong believes that it is because of some sales To exaggerate Haikou, manufacturers also obviously exaggerate, which will lead consumers to blindly trust the functions of assisted driving and autonomous driving.
He found that some Internet celebrities who have cooperation with manufacturers have posted some short-sighted “hands off the steering wheel while driving and chatting around” on the Internet, which basically mislead the audience, confuse the concepts of assisted driving, autonomous driving and unmanned driving. , “As soon as there is an automatic (assisted) driving accident, a large number of negative opinions will emerge on the Internet, which is also the result of the industry’s excessively exaggerated publicity. “
Peng Yu, an auto media person, told me to understand the notes, which is currently on the marketThe autopilot function that some models claim to be equipped with is actually just the L2 level assisted driving system. This level can only provide vehicle owners with road condition prediction and driving advice information. Even the emergency braking function among them may have timeliness issues under certain circumstances.
“But in order to gain attention, new car manufacturers and traditional car companies tend to exaggerate the role of the L2 auxiliary system, and even fabricate a lot of confusing concepts, such as the saying that L2.5 and quasi-L3 are also driverless. As for The current achievable degree of assisted driving technology should be well known to car dealers.”
Peng Yu analyzed that in order to avoid the adverse effects caused by exaggerated publicity, including avoiding serious responsibilities and consequences, car dealers usually use small paragraphs in the manuals of selling cars to explain the high-level features of the previous sales. , It’s just a “limited driving assistance system”, and the owner’s hands cannot be freed. They still have to pay attention to road conditions and “participate in driving”.
Conclusion
Indeed, when a vehicle equipped with an assisted driving system is involved in a car accident, public opinion and manufacturers generally attribute the blame to the car owner, claiming that the owner trusts the assisted driving system too much. But just imagine, how many of the reasons why car owners trust the driver assistance systems developed by manufacturers are not due to sales gimmicks and the company’s exaggerated publicity?
Fortunately, with the development of autonomous driving, the public’s attitude towards autonomous driving technology has also changed from blind pursuit and return to rationality. Facing the sales gimmicks of car dealers, looking at the L2.5, quasi-L3, and even “quasi-autonomous driving” packages packaged for Boss Eyeball, the concept of rational consumption is taking shape.