Developing autonomous driving technology is an important content of building a transportation power. In recent years, with the rapid development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G and big data, the application of autonomous driving technology in the field of transportation has been accelerated, and the rapid iteration from closed site testing to road testing and from pilot demonstration to commercial trial operation has been realized.
The Ministry of Transport recently issued the "Guide to Transportation Safety Services for Self-driving Vehicles (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guide"), which made it clear for the first time from the national policy level that intelligent networked vehicles can be used for transportation business activities, and pressed the "acceleration button" for the commercial application of self-driving technology in China.
What is the development of autonomous driving technology at present? How to improve the safety guarantee ability of autonomous driving? The reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Transport and relevant experts.
The market scale is growing rapidly, and it is steadily moving towards commercial application.
"With the joint efforts of all parties, in recent years, China’s autopilot-related industries and market scale have shown a rapid growth trend, and autopilot technology has steadily moved from testing and demonstration to commercial application." Zhang Jinhua, chairman of China Automotive Engineering Society, introduced.
The industrial development environment continues to improve. At present, 17 national-level test demonstration zones, 7 national-level vehicle networking pilot zones and 16 "Shuangzhi" pilot cities have been built nationwide, with a cumulative open test road of over 22,000 kilometers and a cumulative test mileage of over 70 million kilometers. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities have introduced policies to allow self-driving cars to engage in commercial trial operation of urban public buses, taxis, logistics and distribution in specific areas and at specific time periods, and the application scale has been expanding.
In Shunyi District, Beijing, hundreds of bright yellow automatic delivery vehicles appeared in the streets and lanes, waiting for traffic lights side by side with pedestrians, or avoiding other vehicles safely on the road. "After years of iterative upgrading, unmanned delivery vehicles can not only ‘ Get ’ , can provide consumers with ‘ Send it quickly ’ Service experience. " The person in charge of the automatic delivery department of Meituan said that at present, in Shunyi, the daily delivery orders of automatic delivery vehicles of Meituan have reached thousands.
In the Economic Development Zone of Wuhan, Hubei Province, open the "radish run" taxi software, and you can quickly call an unmanned self-driving car by setting the starting point and the ending point. Passengers click "OK" on the back screen, and the vehicle can travel according to the established route. "The fisheye camera and laser sensor on the roof device can help the vehicle avoid obstacles accurately and automatically adjust the speed according to the road conditions." According to the person in charge, 300 driverless cars have been put into operation since the unmanned self-driving travel service was opened in Wuhan in August 2022, covering a population of over 4 million.
The application of industry innovation has accelerated. Scene-level autonomous driving solutions have accelerated to maturity, and some autonomous driving products have reached the conditions of mass production application, and have been applied to transportation service scenes such as urban travel and freight logistics on a certain scale, and new formats such as autonomous parking service and unmanned distribution have emerged continuously. At present, there are more than 200 self-driving city buses, more than 1,500 self-driving taxis and about 1,000 self-driving trucks in China. Baidu Apollo autopilot test has a total mileage of more than 78 million kilometers, and its travel service covers more than 10 cities.
With the continuous expansion of market scale, it is urgent to strengthen industry norms. "At present, the basic requirements for using self-driving cars for transportation operations are still unclear, which is not suitable for the healthy and orderly development of self-driving cars, and the safety pressure is increasing." The relevant person in charge of the Transportation Service Department of the Ministry of Transport said that the Guide clarified the basic requirements for using self-driving cars to engage in transportation business activities under the framework of current laws and regulations, and guided the healthy development and standardized application of self-driving cars in the field of transportation services in an orderly manner while ensuring transportation safety.
Build a security system to provide compliance for business activities.
Transportation services are related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. Continuously improving the safety and security capability is the primary goal of transportation services, and it is also the basic requirement for the promotion and application of self-driving cars in transportation services. Sorting out the measures in the Guide, the word "safety" runs through.
"Adapting to the development trend of autonomous driving, the Guide focuses on ensuring the transportation safety of autonomous vehicles. Under the condition of meeting the requirements of relevant departments for the access and road traffic of autonomous vehicles, it puts forward requirements for the production conditions and qualifications of transportation operations, dynamic supervision and emergency handling of vehicle operation, and operational supervision, and guides the transportation safety services of autonomous vehicles in all directions and in the whole chain." Zhang Jinhua said.
In terms of technical standards, the Guide clarifies the technical requirements for self-driving cars, emphasizing that "self-driving cars engaged in taxi passenger transport, road passenger transport and road cargo transport should also meet the requirements of technical standards for operational motor vehicle safety in the transportation industry". "This move has achieved the connection with the management boundary of self-driving cars in the departments of industry, information and public security." Li Bin, vice president of the Highway Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, said.
In terms of personnel allocation, the Guide specifically puts forward the concept of "safety officer" in view of the safety problems during driving.
"The on-board driver or operation safety guarantee personnel of the self-driving car is ‘ Safety officer ’ 。” Li Bin said that the Guide fully considers the business models of self-driving transportation with different formats, and provides for the allocation, skills and qualification requirements of safety officers engaged in different transportation business activities by classification on the premise of ensuring safety. Among them, in view of the application scenario of fully self-driving cars engaged in taxi passenger transport, the form of personnel support for remote safety officers is put forward in particular, and it is clear that "with the consent of the people’s government of the district and city, remote safety officers can be used when operating in designated areas, and the ratio of people to vehicles of remote safety officers should not be less than 1: 3".
"Overall, the Guide has built a safety guarantee system from six aspects: safety production system, transportation safety guarantee, running state information management, vehicle dynamic monitoring, safety notification and emergency response." Li Bin believes that under the premise of being consistent with the current road transportation management, the Guide fully combines the new characteristics of self-driving car transportation, and provides compliance for self-driving cars to engage in road transportation business activities safely.
Classified scenarios provide normative guidance to accelerate the application of technology.
As a new technology, autonomous driving has been widely used in various transportation service scenarios. Different scenarios have different design and operation conditions, different security risks and different risk level requirements. In order to further ensure safety, "classified policy" has become a highlight of the Guide.
The Guide clarifies the application scenarios of self-driving cars to carry out road transport services. For urban public buses and trams, related passenger transport business activities can be carried out under the scenes of physically closed, relatively closed or simple road conditions with fixed lines and controllable traffic safety; For taxis, passenger transport business activities can be carried out in the scene of good traffic conditions and controllable traffic safety; At the same time, self-driving cars are prohibited from engaging in road dangerous goods transportation business activities. At the same time, the Guide clarifies the requirements for "self-driving transport operators", and taxi passenger transport and road passenger transport should be insured with carrier liability insurance according to law.
"Standardizing the application of self-driving cars in the field of transportation services by classification, scene and level will effectively guide all kinds of transportation service business activities to carry out self-driving applications, effectively ensure the safety of self-driving transportation services, and promote the healthy and orderly development of commercial applications of auto-driving." Wang Advanced, vice president of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, said.
The overall scale of China’s automobile industry remains in the forefront of the world, and the production capacity and application technology level have been greatly improved. As an important breakthrough to improve the level of industrial intelligence, autonomous driving has been valued and supported by relevant departments.
In 2020, the Ministry of Transport issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development and Application of Road Traffic Autopilot Technology; In 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Access Management of Intelligent Networked Automobile Manufacturers and Products; In November 2023, four ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, issued the Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of Intelligent Networked Vehicle Access and Road Access, which covered the key links of vehicle use, such as production access and road management of automobile products, and the management policies for the production and use of self-driving vehicles were gradually established … … In recent years, various ministries and commissions have accelerated the research on policies related to the commercial application of autonomous driving and issued a series of policy documents.
"The increasingly perfect industrial development environment has made it possible for self-driving cars to accelerate their application in transportation services." Wang Advanced said that the release of the Guide has established a safe bottom line for the application of self-driving cars, and also left enough room for the innovative application of autonomous driving, which will further promote the application of autonomous driving technology in the transportation field.
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