AEB was extinguished by a heavy rain. The unreliability of intelligent driving systems can be seen from the ideal chain rear-end collision incident

The "elephant walk" of military aircraft appeared on Ideal Auto. On June 15, more than a dozen Ideal Autos were driving in a convoy at a speed of about 60km/h, but the result was: a crash!

The incident happened at an event organized by a local Ideal Auto Club. Of course, everyone was embarrassed when something like this happened.

The car club organized this kind of gathering that seriously tested the granularity of traffic law enforcement, probably to show something. But what was the result? To paraphrase a classic line: I wanted to show my face, but I didn't expect to show my butt instead.

It is reported that it was raining, the road was slippery and visibility was obstructed, so more than a dozen cars had a chain rear-end collision.

Regarding this incident, Han Ling, head of Ideal Auto's intelligent driving products, responded this way: More than a dozen vehicles did not have the assisted driving function enabled. The lead vehicle braked when it encountered a red light, but the vehicles in the fleet behind were too close to the vehicle, and the rear vehicle was traveling at a high speed, causing a collision with the vehicle in front.

A simple translation is: the pig hit the tree, the man hit the pig. The subtext is: ideal intelligent driving is fine, this incident is isolated, sporadic, and has no representative significance.

However, the focus of consumers' attention is: Why doesn't your AEB work?

We can usually drive at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour in the city. If we can't stop even at this speed, what's the use of AEB?

According to Ideal Auto, the AEB was triggered before the collision. However, if it was triggered, why did the collision happen? If it was really triggered, more than a dozen cars should have stopped neatly on the spot.

There are two possibilities for this result. First, the AEB was not triggered by the dozen cars, resulting in a collision; second, the AEB was indeed triggered, but it did not achieve the expected effect. In simple terms, the brakes were applied, but not completely.

Ideal's official response attributed the chain collision to the close distance between vehicles and slippery roads. But the problem is that the close distance between vehicles is too common. On urban roads, when there is a traffic jam, the distance between vehicles may not even be 20 centimeters. Slippery roads are even more common. If my mother wants to do something or it rains, who can stop it?

The situation that Ideal's fleet encountered was definitely not a rare road condition, but a very common daily driving scenario. Consumers buy models with intelligent driving assistance systems precisely to ensure safety in such road conditions.

If such road conditions cannot guarantee safety, why would users still pay for this AEB system? In other words, how can manufacturers have the nerve to promote themselves as being able to achieve "autonomous driving" if they cannot even handle such daily driving scenarios?

However, judging from the current situation, mainstream new energy manufacturers will not stop boasting about intelligent driving. So, as ordinary consumers, how should we view the role of AEB in actual driving?

First of all, we need to pay attention to the fact that the current AEB function is over-exaggerated.

The AEB system, whose full name is automatic emergency braking system, can monitor the distance and relative speed between the vehicle and the obstacles ahead in real time while the vehicle is driving. If the system determines that there is a risk of collision, it will automatically start the braking procedure, commonly known as "active braking."

It is worth mentioning that AEB is not a new thing. It has been used in passenger cars for more than 60 years. It was first developed by Cadillac under General Motors and then developed by manufacturers such as Volvo.

But the question is, what is a "collision risk"? This is a difficult problem for all manufacturers. In the past year or so, Ideal, Xiaopeng, Wenjie, Weilai and other manufacturers have experienced rear-end collisions. When and under what conditions should AEB be triggered, and when should human drivers take over? These have always been controversial.

In other words, AEB is still an immature system after more than 60 years of development, and its reliability is actually not very high.

However, irresponsible publicity by manufacturers has led consumers to have a wrong understanding of the role of AEB. For example, a driver used to drive very carefully, but after watching a manufacturer's publicity, he thought that AEB could avoid various rear-end collisions, and then he would relax his vigilance when driving.

In fact, the data on AEB from most manufacturers and third-party institutions is not very valuable for reference. To give the simplest example, three Huawei models, Avita 12, M9 and S7, were far ahead in the AEB system test of a certain authoritative institution. They could even stop at a speed of 120km/h, but not long after, M7 had a high-speed rear-end collision that caused a death.

So, what is the right attitude?

First of all, it must be acknowledged that the AEB function can indeed play a role in emergency braking and avoiding collisions in certain situations. Bosch has previously conducted a survey and found that if all passenger cars in China are equipped with AEB systems, the probability of rear-end collisions can be reduced by 60%.

Secondly, for the AEB system, we should pretend it does not exist.

AEB is a "patch" function. If you are paying full attention while driving, but an inevitable collision is about to happen for some reason, AEB can greatly reduce the probability of a collision.

But you can't give up "keeping eyes and ears open" just because your car has AEB. In our daily driving, people should still be the priority. No matter how manufacturers boast about the perfection of the intelligent driving system, we must believe that this system is currently just an imitation of the human brain, and at this stage this imitation is still very poor.

In fact, it is not just the AEB system. We also need to be vigilant about the current manufacturers' promotion of intelligent driving systems, especially those that induce you to "take over the whole process without taking over". For these functions, we should adhere to the principle of "don't try unless necessary". If a collision occurs at a speed of more than 100 mph on the highway, whether there will be casualties depends on luck. The best way to deal with it is to believe in yourself and don't pin your hope of life on so-called intelligent driving.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.