Recently, the Ministry of Transport released the Guide to Transport Safety Services for Autonomous Vehicles (Trial) (Draft for Comments), which points out the safety specifications for the commercial landing of autonomous vehicles.
Automatic driving has been commercially launched since last year.
Taking Beijing as an example, in the second half of last year, the Office of Beijing High level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone officially released the Implementation Rules for the Commercialization Pilot Management of Automatic Driving Travel Service in Beijing Intelligent Connected Vehicle Policy Pilot Zone, and issued commercial pilot service licenses to Baidu and other enterprises. Baidu's "Radish Run" was officially launched. Xiaoma Zhixing has also obtained the operation qualification. Later, several other big cities also have a series of actions, which basically revolve around allowing autonomous taxis to drive on urban roads.
On August 1, in Qianhai, Shenzhen, Xiaoma Zhixing drove a self driving car on the road. Picture/Xinhua News Agency
With the gradual liberalization of commercial operation, it is necessary to introduce relevant guiding norms and implementation rules at the national level.
Encourage the development of automatic driving and follow the principle of safety first
The Guide for Transport Safety Service of Autonomous Vehicles (Trial) (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the Guide) puts forward clear provisions on vehicle requirements, operator qualifications, road applicability, personnel requirements, safety assurance, and supervision and management.
The basic principle is that those who use autonomous vehicles to engage in urban bus (electric) passenger transport, taxi passenger transport, road general cargo transport, and road passenger transport operations (as well as transport operations for short) should adhere to the principles of law and regulation, honesty and trustworthiness, safety first, and high-quality services. The management of self driving automobile transportation shall adhere to the principles of safety first, integrity and innovation, inclusiveness and prudence, stability and order.
The development orientation is: on the premise of ensuring transportation safety, encourage the use of autonomous vehicles in urban bus (electric) passenger transport business activities in scenarios such as closed bus rapid transit system, use autonomous vehicles in taxi passenger transport business activities in scenarios with simple traffic conditions and relatively controllable conditions There are relatively closed roads and other scenarios where autonomous vehicles are used to engage in road general cargo transportation business activities. Prudent use of autonomous vehicles in road passenger transport business activities. It is prohibited to use autonomous vehicles to engage in road transport of dangerous goods.
After carefully reading this guide, it is not difficult to interpret the following information: encourage the use of self driving cars in taxi, bus passenger transport business activities and truck transport under relatively controllable conditions; Conditionally self driving and highly self driving vehicles engaged in transportation business shall be equipped with drivers; The driving route of autonomous vehicles is far away from schools, hospitals, large supermarkets and other crowded places; An autonomous vehicle engaged in transportation business shall have the functions of recording, storing and transmitting vehicle operation status.
On the whole, this guide reflects the prudent principle of encouraging the development of automatic driving and following the safety first principle, and generally reflects a positive tone of development.
It covers multiple levels of automatic driving technologies including conditional automatic driving, highly automatic driving and fully automatic driving. In addition, it includes buses, taxis, passenger cars, logistics freight cars and other types. Compared with the Automatic Driving Law (Draft) of Germany last year, it can be said that the Guide is basically "more and more" in terms of applicability.
In terms of applicable roads, urban roads and highways (including expressways) are included this time, rather than closed special roads. In addition to the requirement that the operation line should be far away from schools, hospitals, large supermarkets and other crowded places; In case of rain, snow, freezing and other severe weather, the use of autonomous vehicles to engage in transportation business activities should be stopped according to regulations. There are basically no special restrictions on others.
However, after all, cars involve personal safety and public safety, so safety is the first requirement. The Guide stipulates that operators are required to have relatively complete qualifications, vehicles are required to have adequate insurance, vehicles are required to be monitored and recorded throughout the journey, data is stored and managed, and can be taken over at any time by drivers in the vehicle or remote drivers under automatic driving mode. Drivers must have driving qualifications. Timely handle emergencies or emergencies. The management department will also strictly supervise the operation activities.
Obviously, these provisions are very important.
On July 26, in Guangzhou, Guangdong, self driving buses were put into test operation in the center of Guangzhou, where citizens can book free rides through their mobile phones. Figure/IC photo
At present, the requirements for drivers outweigh the disadvantages
Although the relevant detailed rules have yet to be released, the overall idea of this Guide alone is very groundbreaking and feasible.
The most difficult step of automatic driving is to move from the experimental environment to the real environment. Previously, all kinds of road tests were basically carried out on specific roads. Now, the roads open to non densely populated places have taken a relatively big step, which will promote enterprises related to autonomous driving to take an important step in commercialization.
At the same time, taking into account the willingness of passengers and society to accept automatic driving, the Guide does not take the form of overnight success, but adopts a transitional mode, requiring that vehicles can be taken over by the driver in the vehicle or remote drivers at any time, which helps to ensure the safety of the vehicle itself and the safety of other vehicles and pedestrians on the road, This phased evolution from driver to non driver is also an effective way, which is more easily recognized by society.
Of course, the ultimate form of automatic driving is completely unmanned driving, driven by algorithms, controlled by algorithms, and driven and controlled by non-human beings. The fundamental goal of automatic driving technology is to completely liberate human resources.
In many traffic safety accidents, fatigue driving, drunk driving, carelessness, unskilled technology, and speeding and overloading are all caused by human weaknesses. On the one hand, automatic driving frees people's hands and brains, and on the other hand, it avoids the shortcomings of human driving through machine control.
At present, the Guide requires the presence and intervention of drivers at any time, which is a form of last resort in the current transition period. From the perspective of the operator, every driver is a cost, and the driver does not do anything most of the time in the automatic driving process, but only exists to deal with emergencies, which is not in line with the maximization of the interests of the operator as an enterprise, so it is by no means the most desirable business model of the operator.
However, at the current stage, the presence of drivers is reasonable and necessary. The safety risks of automatic driving are quite complicated due to the maturity of technology, the complexity of road network, external human factors, emergencies, etc. However, the current technology maturity of automatic driving is not enough.
For example, Waymo, the leader of autonomous driving, mentioned in a report released in 2020 that in 21 months, his own autonomous cars were involved in 18 collision accidents, and there were 29 "near accidents".
Before the technical maturity and public acceptance have reached a certain level, drivers are still necessary.
Therefore, on the whole, the requirements for drivers at this stage are more advantages than disadvantages, and it is necessary to emphasize the importance of automatic driving safety.
Recently, Chongqing, Wuhan and other cities have released pilot policies for the commercialization of autonomous driving. Previously, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities have made positive exploration for the landing of autonomous driving. China's autonomous driving development is commendable and does not lose ground in global competition.
At present, from a global perspective, automatic driving has formed a tripartite pattern of China, Germany and the United States. Although China and Germany did not start as early as the United States, they had the potential to catch up with the United States in the future.
This Guide will help China win a more favorable position in the competition in the field of automatic driving. At the same time, it is also critical to issue specific implementation rules as soon as possible. After all, the speed of technological development is beyond imagination. The competition of technology means that time is more precious than gold.
Edited Edit | Li Xiaoxiao
Calibration Yes | Wu Xingfa
Intern | Wu Yefan
