Chinanews.com, Shanghai, November 11 (Xie Mengyuan, Zhang Hengwei) sat in the back seat of the car, fastened the seat belt, and when there was no one in the main driver's seat, the vehicle automatically ran under the monitoring in the background...
At present, a number of roads in the Jinqiao area of Pudong, Shanghai have been opened for the test of unmanned vehicles, and various supporting guarantees are also in full swing.
"From a corporate perspective, I don't think this point in time is very far away, maybe in the next five years, everyone will be able to make an appointment with a driverless taxi in Pudong through Pony.ai's mobile travel app PonyPilot+." When it comes to future expectations, Huang Hantao, director of government affairs at Pony.ai, appears to be very confident.
A "fully unmanned" vehicle in motion. Photo by Chinanews reporter Zhang Hengwei
It is reported that regarding the operation of intelligent networked vehicles, the legislation of intelligent networked vehicles in Pudong New Area stipulates four stages, namely the road test stage, the demonstration application stage, the demonstration operation stage and the commercial operation stage. "It is still in the first phase, and the government has issued 15 road test licenses to three companies. In the second stage, the driverless car can carry people, but it cannot be charged. Wait until you enter the third stage to be charged. As long as the company meets the relevant standards, it can be qualified to move from the road test stage to the demonstration application stage. Lin Yu, general manager of Shanghai Jinqiao Intelligent Networked Vehicle Development Co., Ltd., told reporters.
Moving from road testing to commercial operation, is autonomous driving ready for technology?
"Now from the technical side, the preparation is still very sufficient." Huang Hantao introduced that the technology of driverless vehicles is constantly updated and iterative, for example, after the application of the latest technology, the dependence of driverless vehicles on high-precision maps is greatly reduced, "In the early days, the sensor equipment on the roof of the car was very large, numerous and dense, and the unmanned taxis equipped with the latest generation of Pony's autonomous driving system can reduce them to very small, and they are very beautiful, and can even be integrated with the car." ”
Beyond the technology, are the actors and ecosystems ready for commercialization?
"In February this year, the release of the "Implementation Rules for the Regulations on Promoting the Innovative Application of Driverless Intelligent Networked Vehicles in Pudong New Area, Shanghai" actually means that the development and application of intelligent networked vehicles in Pudong has reached the second half." In Huang Hantao's view, the so-called "first half" means that government departments formulate more macro plans and top-level designs to promote the development of the industry, and the "second half" is that enterprises and some government executive departments take over the "baton", specific operations, and implement the blueprint, "Now that the link between the policy side and the legal side has been opened, the next step is how to implement, plan and create an ecological environment for intelligent networked vehicles by enterprises and executive departments." ”
As an industry practitioner, Huang Hantao said frankly that there are blockages in the process of large-scale commercialization of "future cars", "There are still some long-tail effects in the field of autonomous driving, which cannot be simulated in the laboratory, such as some unexpected unconventional road conditions during driving, only through continuous testing on real and open roads, accumulating more mileage, to feed back the technical needs to continuously improve, improve and iterate the technology and safety of autonomous driving." This requires the government to make larger plans based on the existing scope in terms of opening test roads and giving more driving areas to intelligent networked vehicles, so as to help us carry out more innovation and exploration in many aspects such as technology improvement and large-scale commercial landing, and will also help introduce more partners who are optimistic about this track. ”
It is reported that at the 3rd Intelligent Transportation Shanghai Forum held during the 6th CIIE, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission revealed that this year Shanghai will further expand the autonomous driving test road scene in Pudong New Area, and provide a larger range and more scenario test environment in Jinqiao, Pudong Airport and other areas.
"Small-scale commercial pilots can be quickly rolled out and implemented, but large-scale commercialization is actually still considering the issue of commercial profits from autonomous driving." Huang Hantao said that at present, the commercial profit of the track mainly comes from two parts, that is, cooperation with OEMs, first-tier suppliers in related industries and the provision of intelligent travel services, "We are actually an integrator of software and hardware, not to produce vehicles, but to empower traditional travel." ”
Technological change has brought about a new way of life and production, and the original ethics and laws should also be adjusted, so is the law ready?
Since July 2021, the Chinese government has issued the "Management Specification for Road Testing and Demonstration Application of Intelligent Connected Vehicles (Trial)" to create a better testing and demonstration environment and promote the healthy development of the intelligent networked vehicle industry. Subsequently, China issued a number of guidelines and notices related to intelligent networked vehicles to guide the development of the industry.
The latest legislation, that is, on November 11 this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Intelligent Networked Vehicle Access and Road Traffic", which is a guiding document issued for the access and road access of L17 and L3 intelligent networked vehicles. It is worth noting that the pilot plan gives a clear definition of legal liability for traffic accidents involving autonomous vehicles, pointing out that when road traffic safety violations or traffic accidents occur, it belongs to the responsibility of the pilot vehicle, and the vehicle is in the state of the automatic driving system is not activated, and the safety officer in the vehicle shall bear it; If the vehicle is in the activated state of the automatic driving system, it shall be borne by the pilot user. If the pilot automobile manufacturer, the autonomous driving system development unit, the equipment provider and other relevant entities are at fault for the occurrence of the traffic accident, the party responsible may recover compensation in accordance with law.
"As the scale of intelligent and connected vehicles continues to expand, it is now time to push the revision of existing road traffic regulations in reverse." In Huang Hantao's view, the revision and update of relevant laws is also a measure of the government to "build a nest and attract phoenixes", and the improvement of supporting guarantees can promote the healthy development of the driverless automobile industry. (ENDS)