There is only one last mile left! Is high-level autonomous driving really coming?

Recently, there has been a lot of good news in the field of autonomous driving in China. First, Wuhan City, Hubei Province issued the "Wuhan City Intelligent Connected Vehicle Development Promotion Regulations"; then the "Beijing Autonomous Driving Vehicle Regulations" was voted and passed, and will be implemented on April 1, 2025. These policies not only strongly support the application of L3 and above autonomous driving, but also promote it to the field of personal users.

Could it be that high-level autonomous driving is about to be implemented?

Autonomous driving also has different levels

According to the standards of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the level of autonomous driving is usually divided into 6 levels, from L0 to L5. L0 is completely driven by humans; L1 can provide the driver with some assistance in steering, acceleration or deceleration; L2 can control the speed and steering at the same time, but the driver must always pay attention to the road conditions; L3 vehicles can drive automatically under certain conditions, but sometimes people have to take over; L4 vehicles are basically unattended in a limited area; L5 vehicles can drive automatically in any situation, without any human intervention.

The high-level autonomous driving we often hear about usually refers to L3 and above. The higher the level, the "smarter" the car is, and it can handle complex road conditions and environmental changes by itself, making it easier for the driver.

"High-level autonomous driving vehicles use on-board sensors, controllers, actuators and other devices, integrating communications and networking, artificial intelligence and other technologies to achieve real-time interaction between vehicles and people, vehicles, roads, clouds and other information, and have functions such as complex environment perception, intelligent decision-making, and collaborative control." Guo Tao, a senior artificial intelligence expert, said that they are like smart robots that can independently plan routes, avoid obstacles, obey traffic rules, and deliver passengers to their destinations safely and comfortably.

A different driving experience

At present, most of the self-driving cars commonly seen on the market are at the L2 level. However, in recent years, technology companies and car companies have actively tested L3 and L4 self-driving in closed environments, such as unmanned delivery vehicles in logistics parks and unmanned taxis in specific areas.

"After high-level autonomous driving becomes popular, people's travel experience will undergo a qualitative change." Wang Peng, associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and big data business analyst, believes that high-level autonomous driving technology can completely change people's travel methods, provide more convenient and efficient travel services, and will also promote the development and transformation of related industries, such as automobile manufacturing, logistics and transportation, smart cities, etc.

In other words, express delivery and food delivery will use driverless cars in the future, which is convenient and fast; urban traffic congestion will be greatly reduced because of the intelligent coordination between cars; parking lots will also become more intelligent, and vehicles will automatically find empty parking spaces and complete parking...

Imagine that you get into the car in the morning, set your destination, and then you can sit back and relax while doing work, reading the news, or enjoying the scenery. The car will automatically plan the best route, avoid congestion, and finally stop at the destination accurately. "High-level autonomous driving can greatly reduce the fatigue of our daily commuting, and travel efficiency will be greatly improved. Long-distance driving is no longer a burden. The autonomous driving system can run tirelessly, allowing you to easily reach distant places." Wang Peng said.

There is also the "last mile"

Although the prospects are bright, there are still many difficulties before high-level autonomous driving can be truly popularized.

Economist Yu Fenghui pointed out that in addition to technical challenges, the implementation of high-level autonomous driving is still difficult due to regulatory restrictions and safety concerns. "Although autonomous driving technology has made great progress, to achieve a level that does not require human intervention at all, it still needs to overcome a series of difficulties such as complex environment perception, decision algorithm optimization, and system redundancy design. In addition, social acceptance is also a major obstacle to the implementation of high-level autonomous driving technology. Any safety accident will have a blow to public trust, which in turn affects the promotion of autonomous driving technology."

The relevant regulations issued by Beijing and Wuhan not only made specific provisions for the road testing of autonomous driving personal passenger cars above level L3, but also detailed the division of responsibility for autonomous driving vehicle accidents, and made it clear that the relevant responsibilities of software developers and vehicle manufacturers can be pursued.

"The introduction of these local regulations provides a legal framework and support for L3 and above autonomous driving." Wang Peng believes that with the protection of laws and regulations, high-level autonomous driving will have the confidence to cross the "last mile" and achieve commercial application.

(Popular Science Times reporter Chen Jie)