Author: Bai Wenling Zhu Fang Qin Bingyang
Unmanned is the necessary stage and ultimate goal of the development of autonomous vehicles. At present, the mainland has entered a new stage of unmanned testing of autonomous vehicles, and the removal of high-cost human drivers has become a prerequisite for large-scale commercial use of autonomous vehicles.
With the joint efforts of the government, industry and all sectors of society, the mainland intelligent networked vehicle industry has gone through three major barriers of closed sites, public roads and demonstration applications, and has achieved phased achievements in research and development testing and demonstration applications, but human drivers have not decreased, and intelligent networked vehicles are still facing high cost pressure and do not have the realistic conditions for large-scale promotion and application. Since 2020, the mainland has entered a new round of competition for unmanned road testing of autonomous vehicles, and the main driver has begun to gradually explore long-distance driving and unmanned driving.
The author's unmanned supervision and practice refers to the road testing, demonstration application and commercial operation exploration of autonomous vehicles carried out by the government and industry since there is no driver or safety officer in the driving seat of the vehicle. Its transition form includes a co-driver person, a rear passenger, remote driving or remote monitoring, and the ultimate form is fully autonomous driving, commonly known as unmanned driving.
Overall progress in unmannedization
The unmanned exploration of autonomous vehicles in the mainland has started in the second half of 2020, lagging behind countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan in terms of opening hours and openness, and the relevant legislative process is relatively slow, and it is still being studied and drafted. Through top-down strategic guidance and bottom-up innovation and exploration, and encouraging localities to try first, the mainland has formed an unmanned development pattern with the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen as the leader and many places competing for layout.
Among them, Guangzhou took the lead in breaking the game and was the forerunner of the mainland's remote test. Shenzhen faced the lack of law based on the advantages of the special zone, taking the lead in legislative exploration from local regulations. Beijing issued the first normative policy document in China for the characteristics of unmanned road testing of intelligent and connected vehicles, clearly divided the test stage, introduced network security regulations for the first time and formulated corresponding technical specifications to fill the industry gap, becoming an exploration model for unmanned management in the mainland. Shanghai focuses on the highest standards of technical level benchmarking, and has opened up applications for fully automated driving tests and demonstrations, which are more applicable.
In the process of unmannedization, the mainland has entered the early stage of exploration, mainly focusing on the stage of road testing that cannot be manned. Unmanned demonstration applications have only been licensed in a few provinces and cities and have not been officially opened.
The current situation of unmanned supervision
The mainland attaches great importance to the development of intelligent and connected vehicles, elevates them to the height of national strategy, and issues a series of important plans, policies and standards to guide and support the development of the industry. However, in terms of unmanned development, driverless vehicles are mainly encouraged to demonstrate the application of specific scenarios such as ferry, distribution, and sanitation. In terms of unmanned public roads, the mainland has not yet made explicit permission in the policies and regulations at the national level, and the current regulatory exploration is mainly based on local first-movers.
Many regions in the mainland have issued policies and regulations on the unmanned supervision of autonomous vehicles, mainly regulating unmanned testing, demonstration applications, operations, and accident handling. Among them, Guangzhou is the highland of innovation and development of the autonomous driving industry, ranking at the forefront of the world in terms of openness and advancement, and creating a high-quality innovation and business environment for industrial development. In December 2018, Guangzhou issued the Guiding Opinions on the Work Related to Road Testing of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles, allowing test subjects to apply for remote testing, which is the second region in the world after the United States and the first in China to allow the cancellation of autonomous vehicle safety officers.
As a capital city and a scientific and technological innovation center, Beijing has always been in a leading position in the management innovation, road opening and industrial ecology of autonomous vehicles, and has built a moderately advanced policy management system and a high-quality industrial development ecology. In terms of unmanned, Beijing issued version 4.0 of the Implementation Rules in November 2020, allowing enterprises to carry out special tests such as "unmanned" and special weather; in October 2021, it issued unmanned road test documents suitable for policy pilot areas to open up unmanned test scenarios.
As a highland for the development of the field of artificial intelligence in the mainland, Shenzhen attaches great importance to the development of autonomous vehicles. In terms of unmanned autonomous vehicles, Shenzhen intends to use the legislative power of the special zone to break down legal obstacles through legislative means, allow L3 and above autonomous vehicles to be sold and put on the road, and allow no drivers under certain conditions, which can realize unmanned road testing and commercial applications. At present, the Regulations on the Administration of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (Draft for Solicitation of Comments) are still in the stage of revision and improvement and legislative review, and the official draft has yet to be introduced.
Shanghai is a pioneer and vane city for the development of intelligent and connected vehicles in the mainland, in terms of unmanned exploration of autonomous vehicles, Shanghai issued the "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Test and Demonstration Implementation Measures" on October 29, 2021, adding a chapter on "fully automated driving testing and demonstration" and adhering to the path of "step-by-step and phased implementation".
Table 1 Announcement of unmanned testing and demonstration policies and regulations for autonomous vehicles in mainland China
Unmanned industrial practice
Geographical distribution
From the perspective of geographical distribution, Guangzhou, Beijing, Changsha and Cangzhou have the most advanced unmanned test progress. Since The issuance of the first batch of remote test notices in China in July 2020, four cities on the mainland have publicly issued unmanned, driverless or remote driving test notices or corresponding license plates, with a total of 64.
Among them, Guangzhou is the earliest city in the mainland to promote unmanned road testing. In July 2020, the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Transportation, the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, and the Public Security Bureau took the lead in issuing the first batch of 10 remote test notices for intelligent and connected vehicles in Guangzhou, allowing Wenyuan Zhixing and Jingqi, two testing enterprises that obtained remote test notices, to carry out remote tests in the first and second level open sections of Guangzhou City. Since then, Guangzhou has driven the national autonomous driving industry into a new milestone of remote driving. At present, the number of vehicles undergoing remote testing in Guangzhou has reached 22.
Beijing is one of the fastest cities in the mainland. In December 2020, the Beijing Municipal Autonomous Driving Test Management Joint Working Group issued the first batch of five unmanned road test (phase I) notices to Baidu Apollo, allowing test subjects to conduct unmanned tests on open roads in Beijing for the first time. After more than half a year, Baidu Apollo completed more than 48,000km of unmanned driverless safety accident-free tests, and was awarded 10 unmanned road test (phase II) notices in June 2021. In October 2021, the Beijing Municipal High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone Work Office issued the first batch of unmanned road test notices and 15 licenses to Baidu and Xiaoma Zhixing, and the two companies will gradually complete L4 and L5 road tests from the "co-driver". According to incomplete statistics of public information, Beijing has issued 30 unmanned test licenses so far.
Changsha is at the forefront of the country in the field of unmanned road testing. In September 2020, Changsha issued the first batch of trial operation demonstration notices and 2 driverless test notices in China. In addition, Changsha issued unmanned driving test procedures and built the country's first driverless automatic driving test site in the National Intelligent Network (Changsha) Test Area to more fully verify the reliability of driverless automatic driving technology.
In terms of openness, Cangzhou has already ranked among the leading camps of autonomous driving in the mainland. In terms of unmanned practice, cangzhou municipal bureau of industry and information technology and other three departments issued the first batch of 10 driverless test notices to Baidu Apollo and its ecological partner Yuntu Technology in March 2021, and since then Cangzhou has officially entered the stage of unmanned driving development.
Table 2 Notice of Unmanned Testing/Licensing of Autonomous Vehicles in Mainland China
Test body
From the perspective of the test subject, according to incomplete statistics of public information, a total of 5 enterprises have obtained unmanned road test licenses, of which Baidu, Wenyuan Zhixing, and Xiaoma Zhixing have the most advanced progress in unmanned road testing.
Among them, Wenyuan Zhixing is the earliest start-up in the field of unmanned driving to lay out 5G remote control, and realized the first 5G-based driverless remote control in China in September 2018; in July 2020, Wenyuan Zhixing obtained the first batch of remote test licenses in Guangzhou; in January 2021, Wenyuan Zhixing driverless cars entered the core urban areas of first-tier cities for testing; in April 2021, it obtained 2 fully unmanned test licenses issued by the California Municipal Motor Vehicle Administration (DMV) (without security officers). As of April 2021, Wenyuan Zhixing's unmanned driving test mileage has exceeded 100,000 km.
Baidu is the leader of autonomous driving in mainland China, has accumulated rich R&D experience in unmanned, and is the first Chinese autonomous driving company to obtain unmanned testing licenses from both China and the United States. In September and December 2020, Baidu obtained the unmanned test notices in Changsha and Beijing, and in January and March 2021, it obtained the unmanned driving test licenses in California (3 photos) and Cangzhou in China. In addition, Baidu Shougang Park conducted a trial operation of fully unmanned autonomous driving, and in 2020 released a new generation of mass-produced shared unmanned unmanned vehicle Apollo Moon (cost price of 480,000 yuan) for unmanned large-scale operation, and also cooperated with CCTV to broadcast the unmanned manned test of safety personnel.
In 2021, Xiaoma Zhixing has made a number of progress in the field of unmanned testing, and has successively obtained unmanned test licenses in California (Fremont, Irvine, Milpitas), Guangzhou, China and Beijing, becoming the first autonomous driving company to obtain unmanned testing licenses in California, Guangzhou and Beijing to carry out normalized road testing.
The other two are Jingqi Technology and Yuntu Technology. Among them, Jingqi Technology is Wenyuan Zhixing Group Company, and the major shareholder is Han Xu, CEO of Wenyuan Zhixing. Yuntu Technology provides intelligent driving companies with autonomous driving life cycle operation services, and is the largest urban landing operation partner of Baidu Apollo ecology.
The characteristics of unmanned development are geographically distributed
The provinces and cities that take the lead in carrying out unmanned exploration in the mainland are mainly distributed in the eastern and central automotive industry clusters, and most of them are located in the intelligent networked vehicle test demonstration area or pilot area, with a strong industrial foundation, a superior innovation and development environment, and a large demand for testing.
The above provinces and cities are concentrated in the economically developed areas in the eastern and central parts of the mainland, and are the locations of the six major automobile industry clusters, of which Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the core bearing areas for the development of the three major automobile industry clusters in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. These areas gather the headquarters of the mainstream traditional automobile brands in the mainland, the leading enterprises of the new car manufacturing forces and their production bases, and the automobile industry has a strong foundation and a huge scale of production and sales. Representative companies include SAIC, BAIC, GAC, Geely, BYD, Ideal and Xiaopeng Motors.
According to the production and sales data of the China Automobile Association, in 2020, a total of 8 enterprise groups in the mainland sold more than 1 million vehicles, namely SAIC, FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, Changan, BAIC, Geely and Great Wall, and the market share of these 8 enterprise groups accounted for 83.32% of the country, of which 4 were located in the above regions, and their market share accounted for 42.71% of the country.
In addition, the above areas are also distributed in the first few national intelligent network vehicle test demonstration areas or pilot areas, on the basis of economic and traditional automobile advantages, with open policies, flexible and innovative mechanisms, to create a superior environment for the development of the intelligent networked vehicle industry, cultivate and bring together a group of IT Internet giants and start-ups that rank among the first echelon of automatic driving research and development, and attract a number of cross-border car-making forces. Among them, technology giants include Baidu, Huawei, Ali, Didi, Tencent, JD.com, Meituan, etc., autonomous driving start-ups include Wenyuan Zhixing, Xiaoma Zhixing, AutoX, Tucson Future, Horizon, Shenlan Technology, etc., and cross-border car manufacturers include Xiaomi and Skyworth. It is reported that Xiaomi Automobile has officially settled in Beijing Economic Development Zone, skyworth Group is headquartered in Shenzhen, the future of the two will add vitality to the development of the local automotive field.
Based on many development advantages and industrial needs, the above-mentioned pioneer areas have made obvious achievements in terms of industrial scale, or in the research and development testing or demonstration application of autonomous vehicles, and it is urgent to find new breakthroughs and leaps in the next stage to maintain the competitiveness of the local autonomous driving industry. At present, more than 10 provinces and cities have realized the large-scale deployment of specific roads and areas around different levels of test roads, technical test categories, and the manned and operational demonstration applications of various models, and the trial operation of exploring commercialization in many places is also being carried out in an orderly manner.
The overall number of unmanned test subjects in mainland China is still small, and it is mainly self-driving technology companies. Technology companies continue to lead the development of the mainland autonomous driving industry, leading the main body of the industrial chain such as automobiles.
At present, the 5 unmanned test subjects are all autonomous driving technology companies, which can be further divided into two categories: start-up growth type and traditional mature type according to the stage of enterprise development. Among them, start-ups have more advantages in the number of test subjects, namely Wenyuan Zhixing, Xiaoma Zhixing, Jingqi Technology and Yuntu Technology, while traditional enterprises only have 1 Baidu. However, as an Internet technology giant, Baidu's self-driving technology has accumulated a lot of deeply, and it is far ahead in the number of test licenses. From the perspective of business layout, the four start-ups are all professional companies focusing on the field of autonomous driving, while Baidu is a comprehensive giant enterprise with cross-industry diversification.
Obviously, mainland vehicle companies have not yet carried out unmanned testing, the technology research and development process is relatively lagging behind, and the dominant position of technology companies in the automotive industry chain has been continuously strengthened. The leading edge of technology companies is also reflected in the comprehensive competitiveness of autonomous driving, test mileage and technical patent rankings in various places. In Navigant Research's 2020 self-driving rankings, only Baidu in China ranked among them, and together with Waymo, Cruise, and Ford, it was in the first camp. According to the 2020 autonomous driving road test report released by Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Guangzhou, at least 2 of the top three companies in the test mileage are technology companies, of which Baidu has become the enterprise with the largest number of test vehicles and the longest test mileage in Beijing for three consecutive years, and in 2020, only one of them contributed more than 95% of the driving road test mileage in Beijing, and it is also the company that invested the most in the number of manned test vehicles in Beijing that year, and the only enterprise to carry out unmanned testing.
Regarding the number of patents, according to relevant statistics, as of June 2020, the total number of autonomous driving patents in the mainland was 40,682, and the top three companies in the number of applications were all technology companies - Baidu, Huawei, and DJI, with the number of patents in 2009, 1332 and 705 respectively.
The degree of "lag" shown by vehicle companies on the autonomous driving technology track is related to a number of factors. Vehicle enterprises and technology enterprises based on their own conditions and characteristics, determined the development positioning and strategic decision-making of each focus, so as to show differences and gaps in the development process, mode and other aspects, such as: the historical burden of vehicle enterprises is heavier, more concerned about safety, cost and mass production, keeping in mind the development of safety first, focusing on the practical benefits of mass production, so as to determine the technical path, product planning and design, to research and development, testing and application are to adopt a relatively conservative promotion strategy, while artificial intelligence, the Internet, The accumulation and control of emerging technologies, business models and ecological construction such as information and communications and big data are weak, so they lag behind technology companies in the early stage of road testing and the current unmanned test stage. However, vehicle companies also have many advantages, such as the systematic understanding and deep accumulation of vehicle engineering, as well as the data accumulation brought by procurement, manufacturing, marketing, and huge user scale, so the steady development of vehicle companies and radical and innovative technology enterprise cooperation alliance is an inevitable choice.
In the future, only enterprises that achieve mutual achievements as soon as possible through joint ventures and cooperation will be the winners of the industrialization of autonomous vehicles.
In addition, traditional or start-up companies with leading technology, such as Baidu, Wenyuan Zhixing and Xiaoma Zhixing, have chosen to carry out unmanned exploration in many places in China and the United States to accelerate technology verification and application landing.
Regulatory thinking
In terms of unmanned test demonstration, local governments on the mainland basically adhere to the principle of safe and controllable, gradual and gradual development, implement an advanced development path, and generally have the same framework in terms of specific regulatory requirements, with slight differences in content.
The first is about the unmanned development path. According to the above-mentioned local exploration, the unmanned supervision of the mainland can be divided into two paths: advanced and leapfrog, and the advanced type is the mainstream promotion mode. Among them, the advanced type refers to the policy exemption granted by the local government under the compliance with the existing traffic regulations, allowing unmanned testing or demonstration to be implemented in stages in steps. According to the driver or safety officer setting, the advanced type can be further divided into two stages: "person in the car" and "no one in the car" (or "remote outside the car"), representing Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and so on. Among them, although Guangzhou and other places do not clearly divide the implementation stage in the management policy, in the actual road test, the test subject also begins to accumulate from the corresponding junior and intermediate test stages such as "co-driver person" or "rear row person", and then applies to enter the "remote outside the car" stage. According to whether it is manned or not, the advanced type can be divided into two stages: non-manned and unmanned, represented by Changsha. Regarding "remote outside the vehicle", Beijing subdivides it into two stages: in the early stage, the ratio of remote safety officers to test vehicles is 1:1; in the later period, the ratio of remote safety personnel is 1:n, that is, one remote safety officer can supervise multiple vehicles at the same time.
Leapfrog refers to the near-one-step regulatory path of local legislation, through the formulation and revision of traffic laws and regulations, breaking through the institutional obstacles of the listing of autonomous vehicles at all levels, and allowing vehicles to obtain the right of way under the acquisition of market access, traffic management registration and transportation permits to achieve legal commercial use. The leapfrog regulatory path, represented by Shenzhen, which enjoys the legislative power of the SAR, is represented by a series of guidance and implementation documents as the regulations focus on the basic framework to maintain the necessary flexibility of legal rules. For example, Shenzhen will promote the introduction of specific supporting measures in accordance with the "1+1+N" model of "1 special zone regulation + 1 government regulation + N normative documents". This kind of management thinking is the first, the highest degree of openness, and has a strong forward-looking and leading nature. Shenzhen, which is at the forefront of reform and opening up, is the city with the most local legislation in the mainland, and will continue to play the role of "test field" in the autonomous driving industry, which is expected to deliver fresh experience to the national automatic driving legislation.
The second is the details of unmanned supervision. In terms of technical conditions for application, many places stipulate that the cumulative test mileage of the test subject or vehicle is not less than 20 000 km, there are no traffic violations, liability traffic accidents and out-of-control conditions during the test, and there are remote control equipment and corresponding capabilities. In terms of the number of first-time applications, there are clear restrictions in 7 places, of which Changsha and Pingtan stipulate that the first application shall not exceed 10 vehicles, and the remaining 5 places shall be limited to 5 vehicles. In terms of the range of road testing, most localities insist on gradually opening up in batches and carrying out at designated road sections and time periods. Among them, Guangzhou city stipulates that remote testing is carried out in the first and second level road sections; Beijing, Changsha, etc. have announced the first batch of test roads; Shanghai stipulates that the regional scope determined by the safety officer test and demonstration application can be applied for unmanned testing and demonstration, adhere to the phased and batch demarcation, and encourage pilot opening in conditional areas. In terms of driver management, the basic requirements of each test vehicle are at least 1 test driver or safety officer, and 1 remote safety officer shall not monitor multiple test vehicles at the same time; among them, Beijing allows 1 remote safety officer to monitor multiple test vehicles after the technology is mature and stable. In terms of guaranteeing vehicles, Guangzhou and Cangzhou clearly require that each vehicle participating in the test be equipped with a trailing companion vehicle and monitor the operation status of the test vehicle on the spot. In terms of driving speed, Guangzhou and Cangzhou stipulate that the speed of remote testing shall not exceed 30 km and 50 km per hour respectively, and most areas do not explicitly limit the speed. In terms of cybersecurity, Beijing and Shanghai have added cybersecurity requirements for the first time. In terms of accident handling, Shenzhen and Beijing have carried out useful explorations for medium and highly automated vehicles, filling the gap in the mainland's identification and handling of autonomous vehicle accident liability.
file type
From the perspective of file type, Shenzhen issued local regulations with higher legal effect, and all issued by other regions are binding normative documents.
According to the level of effectiveness, the existing regulatory documents related to the unmanned test demonstration in the mainland, except for the Shenzhen municipal documents, are administrative normative documents, and are mostly jointly or separately issued by the local government's industrial and information technology, transportation and public security departments. Among them, the "Regulations on the Administration of Intelligent And Connected Vehicles in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" promulgated by the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress is a local regulation, and its legal status and legal effect are higher than those of local government rules, lower than the Constitution, laws and administrative regulations, and are the first special legislation in the field of intelligent and connected vehicles in the mainland. The Regulation (Draft for Comments) provides innovative, forward-looking and open provisions on road testing and demonstration applications, access and registration, use management, network security and data protection, vehicle-road collaborative infrastructure, road transport, traffic accidents and violation handling, and legal liability for L3-L5 autonomous vehicles, which will play some practical reference value for breaking down legal obstacles at the national level.
Normative documents issued in other regions are binding non-legislative documents, and their names vary, ranging from as long as 5 years to 2 years, and self-invalidation without explicit continuation at the expiration of the validity period. Among them, Shanghai municipality has issued a draft for comments before the official draft is issued, which reflects the importance and caution of this policy revision. Compared with the draft for comments, Shanghai has deleted the implementation steps of "the main driver has someone, only intervenes in the emergency stop", "there is a person in the car, only intervenes in the emergency stop", and "no one in the car" in the official document, giving the industry more practical space, although the policy release time is later than guangzhou, Beijing and other places, but the scope of the normative objects and activities is wider and the applicability is longer.
According to the content of the specification, the "Implementation Rules for the Administration of Unmanned Road Testing in the Pilot Zone of the Beijing Intelligent And Connected Vehicle Policy" issued by Beijing Municipality is the only guidance policy for unmanned people in mainland China. Changsha city also issued no driver test procedures and road selection scheme as supporting documents; Pingtan issued a driverless policy in the country to take the lead in breaking through the definition of vehicles, allowing road testing of motor vehicles without steering wheels, and allowing legal entities in Taiwan to carry out tests. The others are comprehensive management norms, and unmanned account for only a small part of them.
Summary and outlook
Unmanned is the ultimate pursuit of the development of autonomous vehicles and a necessary condition for its universal promotion and application. Driven by the leadership of the above-mentioned regions, the mainland has entered a critical stage of road testing and application of autonomous vehicles - the unmanned exploration stage of removing human drivers. Based on the national conditions and the current situation, from the perspective of horizontal comparison and vertical development, there are several major issues that need to be paid attention to and improved by the mainland in the process of unmanned development.
From a global perspective
After several years of efforts to catch up, the mainland autonomous vehicle industry, whether in terms of institutional innovation, research and development testing, demonstration and application, has basically achieved a shoulder to shoulder with the european, American and Japanese and other powerful countries, and even surpassed some developed countries in infrastructure deployment and technology application, but there is still a gap with foreign countries in the breadth and depth of the unmanned process.
First, the mainland legislation is prudent, and the relevant superior law of unmanned people is absent. So far, the mainland has not yet issued relevant laws and regulations that liberate the hands of drivers to a certain extent under specific conditions, while Countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan have achieved phased and breakthrough legislative results, and have been continuously revised with the development of the industry. Among them, although the United States has not yet finally formed a unified legislation at the alliance level, more than 40 states have passed autonomous driving-related bills or executive orders, of which about 20 states allow self-driving cars without human drivers to be tested and promoted on the road.
At the U.S. national level, industry insiders and lawmakers have also been calling for federal laws and regulations on self-driving cars to enhance certainty about industrial development.
Japan passed the amendments to the Road Vehicle Transport Law and the Road Traffic Law in 2019, becoming the first country in the world to allow L3-level autonomous vehicles to be legally on the road in specific scenarios, allowing drivers to operate mobile phones, watch TV, etc. during the operation of the automatic driving system, but maintain the obligation to take over at any time.
Germany's latest amendment to the autonomous driving bill in 2021 is intended to allow L4 self-driving cars to drive on public roads and designated areas nationwide in 2022 and remain ready to take over remotely, although the bill focuses on fixed-line public travel and freight delivery services, and has not yet involved Robotaxi and personal self-driving cars. At the end of the same year, Germany approved Mercedes-Benz's L3 level autonomous driving system, allowing its vehicles to be used in congested sections of highways, during which drivers can do things that are not related to driving, such as watching videos, light office or online shopping. So far, Mercedes-Benz has become the world's first automotive company to pass the UN-regulation UN-R157 certification.
Second, the mainland unmanned road test opens late and has a low degree. As early as 2015, the United Kingdom proposed the concept of not having a driver in the driver's seat, allowing remote testing, and the United States, Germany, Japan, France, the Netherlands, Singapore and other developed countries in Europe, America and Asia have also released remote test applications. In terms of the degree and requirements of remote testing supervision, Countries such as Europe and the United States are different. In terms of practice, the United States is the most advanced in the exploration of unmanned self-driving cars.
Taking California as an example, in 2018, California began to issue unmanned test license plates that allow no safety officers in the car, and has accumulated certain experience and advantages so far, compared with China, its unmanned test has a higher technical threshold, no one in the car (one step across to remote monitoring), no requirement to be equipped with trailing vehicles, and 1 person can monitor multiple vehicles, a wider test range, more test vehicles, and a higher driving speed limit. In addition, California has recently issued an unmanned commercial license, from the unmanned test demonstration stage to the commercial operation stage.
In addition, the United States is also carrying out unmanned exploration of commercial vehicles, and the unmanned test licenses currently issued by the mainland are mainly for low-speed unmanned vehicles and autonomous passenger cars.
Sound laws and regulations are the basis for government law enforcement and the guarantee for enterprises to seek development with peace of mind. With the maturity and stability of the automatic driving system, as well as the preemptive legislation of Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries, the mainland should also accelerate the pace of legislation to promote market-oriented applications, especially in the field of L3 level autonomous passenger cars and low-speed unmanned vehicles, highly automated driving and fully driverless cars still need time and technology accumulation, which can be encouraged and supported by Shenzhen and other places to explore and accumulate experience results, and then carry out national-level revision.
From a continental perspective
Although there are still some areas in the above provinces and cities that have not yet publicly issued test licenses to carry out actual testing, under the guidance of its pioneering exploration, there will be more places on the mainland that will open up unmanned testing and demonstration, and more enterprises will pour into this track, the test area and scale will continue to expand, and the test scenario will be more complex.
In addition, in view of the fact that foreign California has issued unmanned commercial licenses to Waymo, domestic Baidu has conducted the second phase of unmanned testing in Beijing, and it is expected that the mainland unmanned manned demonstration will be realized as early as or in the second half of 2022. In this situation, all parts of the mainland should increase risk vigilance and strengthen safety supervision, improve the software and hardware environment for unmanned development, and promote the early realization of large-scale commercial use of autonomous vehicles.
First, strictly abide by the safety bottom line and reserve development space. While relaxing supervision and taking steps in the details of unmanned part of the test, all localities should always put safety in the first place, run through the whole cycle of research and development, testing, demonstration and commercialization of autonomous vehicles, and strengthen safety supervision, inspection and assessment in the operation process. Some of the above-mentioned regions have not clarified the testing stage and driving speed limit in the policy document, although it gives market entities more autonomy and increases the safety risk of non-compliance.
The second is to improve the supporting environment such as standards and norms and infrastructure. All localities need to accelerate the development of standards and specifications related to autonomous vehicles, as a supporting document for laws, regulations and rules, and provide technical specifications for the development and application of unmanned products. All localities should support third-party institutions, industry organizations, etc. to strengthen the capacity building of evaluation, and provide technical and service guidance and support for unmanned testing, demonstration and commercial application of enterprises. At the same time, all localities continue to increase the construction and operation of infrastructure such as 5G network coverage, roadside facilities and smart transportation, provide a test application operating environment for unmanned people, enhance the response ability of long-tail scenarios through vehicle-road coordination, adhere to the dual grasp of vehicles and roads, and improve the traffic safety of autonomous vehicles.
The third is to continue to increase technology research and development and strengthen network security deployment. Unmanned road testing of the reliability requirements of the automatic driving system has been greatly improved, enterprises should continue to increase investment in the research and development of key core technologies to grasp the core competitiveness, in the unmanned test and application must be combined with technical capabilities to carry out in stages and steadily, to avoid aggressive development. At the same time, all localities should strengthen security awareness, increase network and data security protection, and improve risk prevention from the physical environment, software and hardware, network, and human concept decision-making.