Tesla, WM Motor, and Volvo's L4 autonomous driving are coming soon? Qualcomm: We have to wait another 5 years

With the surge of automobile electrification and intelligence, autonomous driving technology has become a key core technology in the competition among automobile companies today.

Recently, at the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services, Qualcomm China Chairman Meng Pu said in an interview with the media that the development of autonomous driving technology will be a process, just like 5G construction, which takes time and cannot be achieved overnight.

Meng Pu said that the industry has defined five levels of autonomous driving, from L1 to L5, and truly independent autonomous driving that does not require human intervention must reach at least L4 or L5. Currently, most of the so-called autonomous driving in the automotive industry is between L2 and L3, with a certain degree of assisted driving under driver supervision, and human intervention is still required to ensure driving safety when necessary.

Meng Pu pointed out that the realization of autonomous driving still requires the development and improvement of hardware, software and other technologies. L4 level fully autonomous driving will not appear until the next five years.

It is reported that Qualcomm's third-generation Snapdragon digital car cockpit platform has been adopted by more than 20 car brands. In addition, Qualcomm has also launched the C-V2X cellular car networking system, where V (Vehicle) refers to the vehicle and X represents everything around the vehicle that may be connected to the vehicle. The car networking system is expected to greatly improve safe driving and the convenience of urban transportation in the future.

It is worth mentioning that compared with Qualcomm, which provides chips and autonomous driving system ecosystem, car brands are obviously more optimistic about the speed of the arrival of fully autonomous driving.

For example, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated at last year's artificial intelligence conference that he would complete the basic functions of L5 autonomous driving that year; WM Motor promoted its W6 model as being equipped with L4 unmanned driving, and Volvo also announced that by 2022, its new cars equipped with lidar will achieve L4 autonomous driving.

Unfortunately, however, Tesla's L4 level of autonomous driving is still nowhere to be seen, and the L4 level of driverless driving of WM Motor W6 is limited to parking scenarios in parking lots. Volvo's L4 level autonomous driving can only "free your hands" on highways.

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.