On the evening of Aug. 16, Xilai issued a statement on the fatal traffic accident of the owner of an ES8 for the first time, and refuted the rumors about the private deletion of data circulated on the Internet and the summons of employees.
Weilai said that its service staff did do a power-off operation in the parking lot of the accident car, which was only to ensure the battery safety of the accident car after a high-speed collision and would not cause data loss in itself. Weilai has been actively cooperating with the accident investigation, and at the request and witness of the relevant parties, the first on-site data extraction was carried out on the afternoon of the 13th. At present, the headquarters technical team has arrived at Putian, and the follow-up data reading operations will be completed with it.
The announcement began with an obituary released by Meiyi Hao on Aug. 14. Lin Wenqin, founder of Meiyi good Brand Management Company, died at the age of 31 after driving an ES8 and enabling autopilot (NOP navigation function) in a traffic accident in the high-speed Hanjiang section of Shenhai, according to the obituary. As a result, Weilai has been pushed to the forefront of the wind and waves.
Although the results of the investigation into the accident have not yet come out, there are more and more rumors about Weilai. The share price of Xilai Motor has also been affected to some extent. Shares of Xilai fell 5.80% to close at $38.650 as of Aug. 16.
In fact, the focus of the controversy over the whole network is mainly focused on the misunderstanding of the two major concepts of "assisted driving" and "autopilot", or the inequality of information. The reason for this deviation may be the "over-publicity" of the product marketing side, or it may be that consumers have "too much trust" in the new technology.
Is auxiliary driving equivalent to autopilot?
Xiao Jianxiong, founder of self-driving company AutoX, said in an interview with relevant media that the safety of auxiliary driving is poor, and some businesses confuse the concept of "auxiliary" driving with "self-driving" for the sake of commercial interests.
To return all the functions of driving assistance to the original expectations and definitions, it is necessary to manage and manage them, enterprises should publicize compliance appropriately, and drivers and drivers should also know the technical boundaries.
On August 16, ideal car founder Li Xiang posted on WeChat moments, calling on the media and industry organizations to unify the standard of Chinese terms for self-driving: L2 = auxiliary driving; L3 = self-driving; L4 = self-driving; L5 = self-driving. There is not a single extra Chinese character to avoid misunderstanding caused by exaggerated publicity. And put forward, "restraint in promotion, investment in technology, users, industries, enterprises are beneficial for a long time."
Zhou Hongyi, who has one foot in the new car industry, agrees, further pointing out that L3 = autopilot is easy to confuse, and L3 = advanced auxiliary driving is better.
Li Xiang gladly accepted the suggestion, re-emphasized the issue of responsibility, and further clarified the criteria for auxiliary driving and self-driving. "maximize the expected value of control, avoid automatic and auxiliary appear in the same state, auxiliary driving is the human responsibility, the emergence of the word automatic is the responsibility of the car."
In addition, Shen Hui, founder of Weima Automobile, also expressed his views on the issue of "how to treat the popularity of auxiliary driving but frequent accidents" on the 16th: 1. L2 level auxiliary driving function, the driver is the main body of functional operation, but also the main body of responsibility; 2. L4 level self-driving function, when the vehicle is unmanned, the main body of operation is the vehicle itself, and the main body of responsibility should belong to the mainframe factory; 3. Our L4 self-driving function, after N rounds of internal decision-making meetings, finally chose the high-frequency parking scene because of the relatively closed environment, relatively low-speed state and higher safety.
As far as the official Weilai is concerned, frankly speaking, there is no spread of exaggeration in publicity, and self-definition is actually relatively clear, as can be seen from the full name of NOP. The full name of NOP function is Navigate On Pilot, in Chinese, which is pilotage shop-assisted autopilot.
According to the official description, this function only allows vehicles to automatically get in and out of ramps, overtaking, merging, cruising and so on according to the planned path of navigation under certain conditions, which can further alleviate the fatigue of long-term apprenticeship driving and create a driving experience that exceeds expectations.
Over-reliance on autopilot leads to long barriers to user education.
In response to the accident in Weilai, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the bus Association, once told the relevant media, "the biggest problem at present is that consumers do not have enough awareness of the risks of self-driving, and when autopilot is not yet fully mature, it is risky to rely too much on autopilot."
Huawei Suqing also mentioned at the 2021 artificial Intelligence Conference that users tend to be completely distrustful in the face of new technology at first, and will trust completely after trial and satisfaction, and accidents often begin at this stage.
As a matter of fact, no matter whether it is Xilai or ideal, or other companies that take "assisted driving" as their selling point, the new forces have always been on the same side on the issue of user education, and have repeatedly stressed in public that auxiliary driving is not autopilot and cannot be separated from driver supervision, but auxiliary driving accidents still occur frequently.
In early August, there was a video on the Internet showing a 2020 ideal ONE lying flat on the highway with both the main driver and the co-driver lying flat, controlled by the auxiliary driver, and even filmed and posted online to show off. In response, the ideal official Weibo spoke out against this kind of behavior overnight.
Zhang Jianyong, head of the engineering department of the self-driving system in Xilai, has also advised against the current NOP driving that NOP is still an auxiliary function to help users drive safely, and drivers are still responsible for the safety of the vehicle, not self-driving, let alone self-driving.
In October last year, Weilai also issued a guide to the use of navigational aids. It is clearly pointed out in this paper that NOP can only be used in navigation mode, and NOP can not be used on non-closed roads (such as urban ground roads, mountain roads, etc.), nor can it respond to people, animals, traffic lights and static obstacles (such as high-speed toll stations, roadblocks, triangle warning signs, etc.). The guide also says that NOP relies heavily on the status of sensors such as cameras and millimeter wave radar.
It is worth mentioning that regulations have also begun to pay attention to the risks that self-driving cars may bring. On August 12, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the opinions on strengthening Intelligent Network Automotive Manufacturing Enterprises and Product access Management.
In terms of user education, the Management opinion clearly points out that if an enterprise produces automobile products with driving assistance and self-driving functions, information such as vehicle function and performance restrictions, driver responsibilities, instructions for human-computer interaction equipment, methods and conditions for function activation and exit should be clearly informed.
In the aspect of product access, it is pointed out that in order to strengthen the product safety management of the self-driving function, we should ensure that the automobile products can automatically identify the failure of the self-driving system and take risk mitigation measures, and have the function of human-computer interaction. display the running status of the autopilot system; have event data recording system and autopilot data recording system; Meet the functional security, expected functional security, network security and other process support requirements, as well as all kinds of testing requirements.
Autopilot is not achieved overnight, the fundamental reason for its emergence is to drive more safely. However, in the stage when the technology is not yet perfect, the existing autopilot assistance function can not achieve the real "autopilot".
"driving assistance can also reduce the burden on drivers and improve driving safety, but only if it is used reasonably." An auto industry employee said. Instead of denying it completely, it is better to work together to promote the healthy development of the industry.
As technology promoters, we need not to abandon, not to give up, to learn from history, to find a balance between technology exploration and safety, and to do a good job in user education; as consumers, we also need to maintain awe and restraint. Don't indulge in driving assistance too much. You know, whether it is the L2 driver or the L2.9, it is still only a L2 assistant driver.
It is emphasized here once again that we should grasp the steering wheel, make good use of it to assist driving, and hold the right to life in our own "hands". Safety first! Safety first! Safety first! Say it three times!
