Who is confusing the concepts of assisted driving and autonomous driving
Autonomous driving promotion must pass the legal barrier
□ Our reporter Zhao Chenxi
Today, autonomous driving is a vocabulary that is both familiar and unfamiliar.
It frequently appears in people's field of vision, and it is also the "core technology" in the mouths of many auto marketers, but for the public, little is known about it.
The salesperson is "assisted driving" for a while, and then the expression of "automatic driving" again, which makes many people feel in the cloud.
In recent years, my country's autonomous vehicle industry has developed rapidly.
The China Intelligent Connected Vehicle Innovation Center predicts that from 2020 to 2025, the sales of intelligent connected vehicles that can be partially automated or conditionally automated will account for more than 50% of the total vehicle sales that year.
But behind the vigorous development, it is not uncommon for car companies and sales links to over-exaggerate the promotion of autonomous driving functions.
In this regard, Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out in an interview with reporters that after the current vehicle accident, the focus is mostly on whether there is a problem with the automatic driving system of the vehicle, whether the driver has operating errors, etc., but for vehicles Little attention has been paid to whether there are problems in corporate advertising and vehicle sales publicity.
In fact, in many cases, it is precisely these false exaggerated publicity and deliberately confused concept sales methods that cause users to misunderstand and then make mistakes in driving.
It is recommended to unify the name of the autonomous driving classification
Not long ago, Lin Wenqin, the founder of Meiyihao, passed away in a traffic accident in a car.
On August 14, the official WeChat account of "Meihao" issued an obituary stating that when Lin Wenqin was driving the car, the autopilot function of the vehicle was enabled (NOP pilot status).
In this regard, the relevant staff of the car responded that the NOP of the car is only a pilot assist function, not an automatic driving function.
The final result of the accident investigation is not yet known, but this incident has once again triggered a discussion about the difference between the vehicle's assisted driving function and the autonomous driving function.
According to Li Weitao, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University Law School, according to internationally accepted standards, autonomous driving can be divided into five levels, L1 to L5.
Among them, L1 is assisted driving, L2-L3 are partial and conditional automatic driving, and L4-L5 are advanced automatic driving that can basically be separated from people.
my country has also issued the basic standards of the intelligent networked vehicle standard system. Starting from January 1, 2021, the "Automotive Driving Automation Classification" announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will be implemented.
The standard divides the automatic driving system into six levels, of which level 0 is emergency assistance, level 1 is partial driving assistance, level 2 is combined driving assistance, level 3 is conditional automatic driving, level 4 is highly automated driving, and level 5 is Fully autonomous driving.
From L0 to L5 also respectively represent that the driver's attention can gradually disappear during driving.
However, in the opinion of some people in the industry, the classification and standards for autonomous driving should be named in a unified way for the public to understand.
On August 16, Li Xiang, the founder of Ideal Motors, issued an appeal, hoping to unify the term "autonomous driving" at this stage.
Li Xiang said that both L2 and L3 are professional speech skills, users cannot understand it. It is recommended to have a unified name. L2 is assisted driving, L3 is automatic assisted driving, L4 is autonomous driving, L5 is unmanned driving, and calls on the media and industry organizations to unify The standard of Chinese nouns for autonomous driving can also avoid exaggerated propaganda causing misunderstandings for users.
Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360, agrees with this, and he believes that industry jargon should be turned into a simple concept that ordinary users can understand.
"Autonomous driving is an emerging technology. It is really difficult to understand the pure grade classification and professional terms. It is necessary to use a unified name and a relatively concise and clear name to represent the various stages of automatic driving." Zhu Wei pointed out, especially in car companies. The publicity and sales links should strictly abide by the norms and not confuse concepts.
Confusing concepts in sales promotion becomes the norm
"Artificial intelligence is not a marketing art. It is not that magical. Autonomous driving still has a lot to go and many pits to be filled." When talking about the development of autonomous driving technology, Zhou Hongyi specially reminded not to mislead users for marketing.
But the reality today is that some car companies and car sellers continue to blur the concepts of assisted driving and autonomous driving in the process of publicity and sales, with the intention of making many consumers "not aware of it."
Recently, Zhang Zheng, who rushed to major 4S stores to buy a car, found that many auto marketers talk about autonomous driving and highly recommend it as a major selling point of the vehicle.
In a test drive, in order to show him the so-called autopilot performance of the vehicle, a salesperson even took the action of leaving the steering wheel with both hands and drinking water in the car "calmly" during the driving process.
On August 25, the reporter visited 3 electric car 4S stores of different brands and asked the sales staff about the auto-driving function of the vehicles. The sales staff of the three stores all introduced the reporters, but the sales staff of only one store reminded the reporter. The vehicle is equipped with an assisted driving function, which is not completely equivalent to an automatic driving function. The vehicle is in an assisted driving state and still requires the driver to lead the control.
The sales staff of the other two stores did not explain the difference between assisted driving and automatic driving to reporters, nor did they remind the precautions when the assisted driving function is turned on. Instead, they constantly use the term "automatic driving" when introducing vehicles.
"Most of the functions claimed by vehicles on the market are at or below L2 level, which cannot be called autonomous driving at all." An auto industry practitioner who did not want to be named bluntly stated that the current assisted driving technology for vehicles, The focus of car companies' expressions when propagating functions is completely different from that after an accident.
In order to allow consumers to choose with confidence, some car companies will indicate that assisted driving is turned on in scenes such as highways during publicity. After setting the functions, the driver can even move away from hands and feet.
Previously, a car company published a promotional video that showed the driver with his hands off the steering wheel and driving while drinking coffee. Although the video has now been removed, such a video can easily mislead consumers.
In the event of an accident, the assisted driving technology of car companies will be questioned. Even if the assisted driving system is turned on, the driver must always be prepared to take over the steering wheel in an emergency, otherwise it will be improper operation.
"The propaganda routines of car companies and the sales strategies of 4S stores have caused many consumers to have too high psychological expectations for the auto-driving function of vehicles, which can easily lead to users making mistakes in the process of taking over driving tasks." The practitioner said.
Confused and exchanged the concept suspected of false propaganda
In recent years, there are not a few car companies advertising that their cars have autonomous driving functions, but the number of car companies emphasizing "this automatic driving is not another automatic driving" is relatively limited. After the Lin Wenqin incident, some car companies quietly revised their slogans. All the words previously advertised for "autonomous driving" have been replaced by "assisted driving".
However, in some 4S stores, sales staff will still "upgrade" the vehicle's assisted driving function.
In Zhu Wei's view, the exaggeration and false propaganda of autonomous driving technology should not be ignored.
In addition to further clarifying the concept of autonomous driving levels, the responsibilities of car companies and sales personnel should also be strengthened.
If the car company in publicity, sales or other materials such as contract documents downplays the system assistance, emphasizes the automatic driving of vehicles and other improper expressions or confuses the concepts of assisted driving and automatic driving, it is enough to mislead consumers. Once the vehicle has an accident, The responsibility of the vehicle manufacturer and vehicle seller cannot be excluded.
According to the Advertising Law, advertisements must not contain other circumstances prohibited by laws and administrative regulations.
Zhu Wei said that if a car company expresses in its propaganda that the hands can leave the steering wheel while driving, it is suspected of false propaganda.
If consumers bought a vehicle because of the relevant propaganda of the car company, it was caused by false propaganda; if the consumer has a traffic accident because of some violations in the propaganda, the advertiser bears an inescapable responsibility.
Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Renmin University of China, also reminded that the current publicity for automatic driving of vehicles should be cautious, and all publicity advertisements must be established within the scope permitted by the Road Traffic Safety Law.
At the same time, training and supervision of vehicle sales are also indispensable, and false and exaggerated propaganda behaviors must be resolutely cracked down.
As an emerging technology of autonomous driving, it must also pass the "legal barrier."
Baidu is one of the earliest companies that pay attention to the development of autonomous driving. Baidu CEO Robin Li has repeatedly called for the establishment of laws and regulations in the field of autonomous driving in public.
At the fourth meeting of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held in March this year, Robin Li submitted a proposal titled “Accelerating the Popularization of Autonomous Driving Commercial and Intelligent Transportation, Making People’s Travel Greener and Convenient, and Achieving the Carbon Peak Target”. Further increase the intensity of policy innovation at the level, and open up a legalization path for the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving.
On August 24, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued an official letter in response to Li Yanhong's proposal.
The reply mentioned the need to promote the revision of laws and regulations.
Include the Regulations on the Production and Management of Road Motor Vehicles in the 2021 legislative work plan, and carry out research and demonstration work in conjunction with the development of autonomous driving technology, road testing, industrialization and infrastructure, and provide a legal basis for regulating the production of intelligent networked vehicles; At the same time, it is mentioned that the road traffic law and other laws and regulations must be revised and improved.
In the proposed revision of the Road Traffic Safety Law for public comments in March of this year, for the first time, it clarified the relevant requirements for road testing and passage of vehicles with autonomous driving functions, as well as the provisions on the sharing of liability for illegal activities and accidents of autonomous vehicles.
"The process of research and development, production, road testing of autonomous driving involves many fields, and the revision of the Road Traffic Safety Law is only the first step. In the future, regulations such as the Regulations on Compulsory Motor Vehicle Traffic Accident Liability Insurance will also need to be revised." In Zhu Wei's view, Regarding driverless vehicle legislation, the principles of promotion, linearity and complementarity should be followed. Some linear provisions must be made, such as the determination of liability for damages, without hindering technological innovation, such as map surveying and mapping. It should be appropriately relaxed on the premise of not endangering national security.