The picture shows the first batch of 200 beta test versions of SAIC Zhiji L7 officially delivered offline.
Sensing the environment like a human being and making precise decisions is the definition of "smart car". And to add the additional task of "network connection", it is not just a car thing. This involves road settings, real-time interaction, traffic control and more.
Recently, Shanghai has included the "Shanghai Intelligent Connected Vehicle Testing and Application Management Measures" in the government's "legislative items" in the new year, hoping to take the lead in clarifying the management system of this new technology in the country.
Legislation first or technology first? Like most new technologies, the development of intelligent networked vehicles has always been accompanied by this "soul torture". The Shanghai Municipal People's Congress Deputies Forum, entitled "Intelligent Connected Vehicles and Legislative Considerations", held today, also focused on this topic.
The participants unanimously recognized that Shanghai, as an important city in China's automobile industry, not only has accumulated industrial strength such as integrated circuits and artificial intelligence, but also is one of the most advanced cities in intelligent traffic management, and Shanghai should strive to be the leader of autonomous driving technology in China and even in the world. Forward-looking legislation in this field is conducive to coordinating the forces of the government, enterprises and other parties to jointly develop the "intelligent vehicle-road coordination system" and thus achieve "lane change and overtaking".
The "Red Flag Act" multiple choice question is thrown back, and the dilemma myth is how to break
The ultimate form of intelligent connected cars is autonomous driving. This also means that the relationship between people and cars is completely stripped away. In this way, once a traffic accident occurs, the process of accountability and the object of responsibility also become "confused".
The myth intertwined in the development of new technologies has appeared since the concept of "unmanned driving" appeared on the scene and has continued to this day. In Shanghai, government departments have chosen to break this confusion through the standardized top-level system design, so that more innovative subjects can explore in an orderly manner within the scope of the rules. This is the deep meaning behind the inclusion of intelligent networked vehicles in this year's "legislative items".
During the discussion, Mao Xiangdong, a deputy to the Municipal People's Congress, has always paid attention to how to closely follow the premise of "safety" and better leave sufficient space for industrial development. Some delegates invariably associated with a well-known case, the Red Flag Act.
In the history of the development of the automobile industry, this bill is almost unknown to everyone. At that time, cars were still a new thing that had just been born. I didn't think that after it hit the road, it caused a lot of "negative effects" including noise and disturbing the carriage. In 1865, the British Parliament passed a Motor Vehicle Act, later known as the Red Flag Act. It stipulates that a person must be 50 meters in front of the car with a red flag constantly waving to open the way for motor vehicles, and the speed must not exceed 4 miles per hour (6.4 kilometers per hour). Although the car slowed down, reducing the danger, it also made the British car industry completely passive and lose vitality. Later, it was successively overtaken by many European countries, and gradually lost its "first-mover advantage".
The picture shows the SenseTime AR minibus at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference
The same applies to throwing the dilemma back to today. Any new technology is facing a kind of "game" with the existing industry and the inherent environment of society. However, in the view of the delegates, intelligent networked vehicles are the trend of the times. Since it is unstoppable, it is better to embrace it and use "forward-thinking" thinking to regulate possible disorderly behavior.
In particular, it is necessary to sort out the subjects of legal liability in various complex situations. For example, how to divide the responsibilities between hardware equipment manufacturers and software service providers; such as whether the factory enterprise is responsible for changing the program without authorization.
Cities have become "giant systems", and "governance models" have ushered in the test of upgrading
Looking at the direction of the global autonomous driving industry, the industry can clearly sort out such two major directions - bicycle intelligence and vehicle-road collaboration. The former relies on excellent technical capabilities, a bit like "single combat"; the latter requires the full support of urban systems, including road perception, traffic control, etc.
In the intelligent direction of bicycles, the car returns to the car and the road returns to the road, and there is no direct interaction with each other. However, in the stage of vehicle-road collaboration, the intelligent road surface should be able to "real-time perception" of vehicles passing by. From the color of the vehicle, the speed of travel to the model, it can be "read instantaneously". After the information is collected, the huge and complex data must also be interacted, and finally the "best route" is planned for each vehicle to maximize the efficiency of urban transportation.
In the view of Su Mei, a deputy to the Municipal People's Congress, Shanghai, which has accumulated rich "experience value" in urban governance, is fully capable of exploring the new direction of vehicle-road coordination. But at the same time, she also threw up a lot of new questions. For example, once the vehicle-road coordination system is established, how should its ownership operation be divided and established?
Imagine such a picture, the arrival of unmanned driving, let people completely liberate their hands, feet and eyes in the driving. A more convenient and efficient transportation operation network has made people lose the motivation to buy private cars and boosted the popularity of unmanned shared vehicles. If we continue to follow the expectations of this industry, the future driverless vehicle-road coordination system is more like rapid transportation under "point-to-point" transportation.
The picture shows the autonomous bus in operation around the lake.
In practice, rail transit networks use dedicated channels to ensure traffic safety. In the future, once the vehicle-road coordination system is "online", what kind of operation mode should be adopted? From the perspective of the public nature of the road, it should be operated by the government department; but the sharing of unmanned vehicles is a commercial act, and its competent unit is the industry department. The connection between the road and the car is not only a "link" in the sense of physics, but also a "connection" between systems. Whether it is handed over to a consortium of enterprises, operators or government departments, it requires a higher level of coordination. To this end, she suggested that the top-level design should be considered in the legislation, and a unified coordination department should be established, covering the relevant departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Economic and Information Commission, the Public Security, the Transportation, and other relevant departments, as well as the various market entities involved, so as to better manage this "big system".
The picture shows the intelligent bus around the lake in automatic driving.
Delegates believed that fully autonomous driving would inevitably be achieved in no more than 30 years. In the "transition period" between them, whether it is regulations, concepts, industrial organizations, and urban transportation systems, they will continue to be reconstructed in the collision until a new relative balance emerges.
Author: Wang Jiayi
Edit: Zhou Chen
Editor-in-Charge: Liu Liyuan
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.