Our reporter Wu Bofeng / photo

  A few days ago, the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress reviewed and approved the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Intelligent Connected Vehicle Management Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which divides the use and management of autonomous vehicles and the determination of rights and responsibilities in the event of traffic accidents. It will come into effect on August 1 this year.

This is the first time that China has made clear regulations on the market application of intelligent networked vehicles.

  With the rapid development of autonomous driving technology, the market application of high-level autonomous driving is imminent.

The clear division of responsibility for accidents is related to the vital rights and interests of every road participant. Therefore, the implementation details of this management regulation have attracted the attention of the consumer market.

  Advanced autonomous driving is maturing

  As long as the destination is entered in the in-vehicle navigation system, the vehicle can automatically start the journey... After years of continuous market cultivation, autonomous driving is regarded as the landing product of car companies embracing the intelligent networking technology, and it is the initiative of major car companies to meet the consumer market. key to changing needs.

  Once upon a time, the automatic driving function full of "black technology" factors was only an exclusive configuration for mid-to-high-end models.

However, with the mass production of vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology, their production and R&D costs continue to decline.

At present, even new cars with a market price of less than 100,000 yuan are generally equipped with assisted driving systems. For example, Leapmotor T03, New Baojun E300 and other models with a market price of about 70,000 yuan are equipped with assisted driving systems, and autonomous driving has gradually become a "Standard" features of the vehicle.

  In fact, this coincides with the needs of the domestic consumer market.

A survey by market research firm JD Power (Jundi) found that the confidence index of Chinese consumers in autonomous driving technology is 50 points, which is much higher than that of other countries and regions, indicating that Chinese consumers are more accepting of autonomous driving.

  In recent years, young consumers have gradually grown into the main force in the automotive consumer market.

The diverse and open concept of car use by young consumers has prompted auto companies to speed up their transformation to meet the car needs of the consumer market.

  Li Wanli, a member of the China Automotive Industry Advisory Committee, said in an interview with a reporter from China Consumer News that at this stage, the development of the domestic auto market has been closely linked to digitalization. Autonomous driving, which integrates networked technologies, is an important trend in the future development of automobiles.

"After gradually solving the outstanding problems of electrification, intelligent networking technologies such as autonomous driving and smart cockpits will usher in a faster development stage," he said.

  At present, Audi A8, Roewe MARVELR, GAC New Energy Aian LX and other mass-produced models have the capability of L3 assisted driving.

However, due to regulatory factors, auto companies can only open up to the currently permitted L2 level on mass-produced models.

This means that consumers who buy a vehicle equipped with L3-level autonomous driving can only experience the next-level assisted driving function in actual driving.

  Many consumers put forward their own views on this.

Li Ningxi, the owner of Roewe MARVEL R, believes: "The functions widely promoted by car companies in the new car marketing activities, the vehicles actually have the relevant technical capabilities, but they cannot show their full strength due to objective factors, and consumers also have to bear the responsibility for a short time. The cost of configuring features that cannot be experienced in-house is not reasonable for consumers.”

  The "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" issued by the State Council proposes that by 2025, highly autonomous vehicles will achieve commercial application in limited areas and specific scenarios; by 2035, highly autonomous vehicles will achieve large-scale applications.

  It is foreseeable that the autonomous driving technology, which is currently only applied in the initial stage, will soon usher in a bright moment.

  An Qingheng, director of the China Automotive Industry Advisory Committee, told the "China Consumer News" reporter that in recent years, my country's new energy vehicles have made breakthroughs and have begun to enter a critical period of transition from functional vehicles to smart vehicles.

Looking forward to the development of smart cars, although the prospects are bright, there is still a long way to go.

He believes that autonomous driving not only needs to work hard on the technical side of the product, but also needs the market to provide it with a good environment for use.

  Obviously, for autonomous driving technology, a clear determination of accident responsibility is an important guarantee for its large-scale development.

  Filling the gap in the market with missing responsibility

  In the context of the development of autonomous driving technology in full swing, there are increasing calls for the introduction of relevant laws and regulations in the market.

  According to the recommended national standard of "Automotive Driving Automation Classification" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the tasks of monitoring road conditions and responding to L2 level and below vehicles are completed by the driver and the system, and the driver needs to take over the dynamic driving task.

  It is worth noting that starting from the L3 level, the vehicle opens a fully automatic mode on some roads, and the driver can disengage the steering wheel and accelerator pedal.

When car owners start to look forward to the wonderful experience brought by autonomous driving, driving risks also follow.

  Nie Zaiqing, a member of the Management Committee of the Tsinghua University-Baidu Apollo Intelligent Transportation Joint Research Center, told a reporter from China Consumer News: "Autonomous driving faces huge safety challenges. We often see in the news that vehicles are turning on automatic driving. There will be unpredictable situations in the situation, such as the blocking of traffic lights, blind spots, and the sudden change of lanes in front of the car, which may bring some accidents.”

  So, when a vehicle in which the driver gives up driving control is involved in an accident, how should liability for the accident be determined?

  The "Regulations" show that intelligent networked vehicles refer to vehicles that can be operated safely on the road by automatic driving systems, including three types of conditional automatic driving, highly automatic driving and fully automatic driving.

Among them, vehicles with conditional autonomous driving (L3 level) and highly autonomous driving (L4 level) should have manual driving modes and corresponding devices, and be equipped with drivers.

  As the highest level of automatic driving, that is, a fully automatic driving (L5 level) vehicle may not have a manual driving mode and corresponding devices, and may not be equipped with a driver.

However, fully self-driving intelligent networked vehicles without a driver can only drive in the areas and road sections demarcated by the traffic management department of the public security organ.

  Compared with the problem of matching drivers with autonomous driving, consumers are most concerned about the ownership of rights and responsibilities in traffic accidents.

  The "Regulations" show that if an intelligent networked vehicle equipped with a driver commits a traffic violation, the traffic management department of the public security organ shall punish the driver according to law; if a traffic accident occurs and one party of the intelligent networked vehicle is responsible, the driver of the vehicle shall Should bear the corresponding liability for damages; if a traffic accident is caused by a quality defect of the ICV, the driver may claim compensation from the manufacturer and seller of the ICV after bearing the liability for damages in accordance with the law.

  That is to say, as long as the L3-level or L4-level automatic driving system is turned on, if the vehicle has a traffic accident, the first responsible person is the driver.

Li Wanli believes that because according to relevant laws and regulations, both L3 and L4 vehicles must be equipped with a driver who will take over the vehicle when necessary, so the driver needs to be responsible for the driving condition of the vehicle.

The actual accident responsibility needs to be determined according to the scene and the root cause of the accident.

  The reporter learned that only intelligent connected vehicles equipped with fully automatic driving (L5 level), if there is a traffic violation or a responsible accident during the absence of a driver, in principle, the vehicle owner and manager shall bear the responsibility for the violation and compensation. Penalties for offenders do not apply to the relevant provisions of driver points.

  The policy stipulates that intelligent networked vehicles need to be equipped with external indicators in automatic driving mode. When driving in automatic driving mode, the external indicators should be turned on to start warning and clarify the driving status.

At present, most models on the market are not equipped with this device, and the implementation of relevant regulations will inevitably lead to the configuration of indicator lights in the production of intelligent networked vehicles in the future.

  An Qingheng said that the implementation of the "Regulations" has largely filled the domestic market gap regarding the responsibility for autonomous driving above the L3 level, providing a reference for consumers to purchase or use autonomous vehicles.

  L3 level that dare not cross

  For a long time, many mainstream car companies in the market have adopted "L2+" terms such as L2.5 and L2.9 when introducing vehicle autonomous driving technology in order to increase the attractiveness of their products.

Dongfeng Citroen's all-new mid-size sedan Versailles C5X, FAW Bestune's new third-generation B70, and Starway's new-generation TXl all claim that the vehicles are autonomous driving at the L2.5 level.

For a time, the L2 level, which was originally a normal statement, became a rarity.

  An industry insider who has been deeply involved in the automobile market for more than 20 years and is currently the head of the technology research and development department of an independent brand revealed to the reporter of "China Consumer News" that such an approach by car companies is not a simple marketing trick, but more of a way to avoid market responsibility. In the "smart" way, no matter what level L2+ is, the underlying logic of the technology is still at the L2 level.

"For car companies, while taking the initiative to show autonomous driving technology to the consumer market, the L2 level is used as a 'protection'. Once a vehicle accident occurs, the driver must first bear the responsibility for the accident, which also helps manufacturers take the initiative to avoid autonomous driving. Risks caused." He believes that whether the models that claim to reach the L2+ level or even the L2.9 level already have the L3 level of autonomous driving capability needs to be paid attention to by the industry.

  Today, auto companies usually classify their products according to industry-related standards for autonomous driving technology.

Because of this, a series of dazzling technical terms appear on the basis of L2 level, which also makes consumers feel confused.

  The industry insider suggested that relevant departments should be involved in the determination of automatic driving levels in the future, so that the classification of automatic driving levels will no longer be confusing.

  The sensitivity of auto companies to the responsibility of autonomous driving accidents may, to a certain extent, lead to the hesitation of autonomous driving at the L2 level.

It is not difficult to speculate that although the implementation of the "Regulations" has made autonomous driving a big step forward, there is still a long way to go for autonomous driving to truly develop on a large scale.