The L3 autopilot technology, which is the first time to experience mass production, is the core competitiveness in the future.

In the near future, it will become a reality that autonomous driving will be fully integrated into people's car life. So, who pays for the traffic accident? Is autonomous driving safe? Who will really free the driver's hands and feet? Who can defend your life like a caring bodyguard? Stop believing in L2.999! L3, it's really coming!

Recently, at the invitation of Mercedes-Benz, Duo Lijun went to Jinan Shandong Expressway Intelligent Network Testing Base to experience the long-distance road test drive and various scenes of Mercedes-Benz Autopilot Technology Day, and witnessed the luxury essence and higher safety of Mercedes-Benz L2 and L3 autopilot interpretation.

Science and technology is the core competitiveness.

For car companies, technology is more advanced security. Mercedes-Benz has always regarded safety as a prerequisite for technological innovation. In the past 70 years, Mercedes-Benz's research and testing in the field of automobile safety has also laid a solid foundation for the research and development of autonomous driving.

From 195 1, the invention of collision zone with cushioning and rigid passenger compartment, to 197 1, a safety concept car oriented by safety technology, and then to 1986, Mercedes-Benz started the Prometheus project together with many universities and institutions. A large amount of accumulated data and experience have sown a prairie fire for the development of Mercedes-Benz autonomous driving.

In 1990s, Mercedes-Benz divided the overall safety concept into four stages: the first stage of safe driving, the second stage of emergency, the third stage of collision and the fourth stage after collision. In fact, only from this concept, we can feel Mercedes-Benz's persistence and pursuit of safety.

For example, the W223 S-class body-in-white displayed at the event site vividly explained the overall safety concept of Mercedes-Benz. First of all, in the first stage, that is, the DRIVE PILOT driving pilot system, all-round protection of car owners' travel safety.

The second stage is the new collision hearing protection preventive safety system and the side collision protection function of the preventive safety system. For example, when the vehicle is about to collide, the S-class will raise the corresponding side by 80mm through the air suspension, and respond to the external impact through the strongest underbody.

In the third stage, when a collision occurs, Mercedes-Benz has a body frame made of this series of special materials, such as aluminum, high-strength steel and ultra-high-strength steel. , to create an optimal combination of carriage frame, so as to deal with a series of possible accidents.

In the fourth stage, when the accident is inevitable, the SOS emergency call system equipped with Mercedes-Benz vehicles will automatically start, bringing the fastest and most efficient assistance and medical service guarantee to the drivers and passengers in the car.

When Mercedes-Benz's many innovative inventions in the safety field have become its own standard, redefining the high standards of industry safety, there is no doubt that Mercedes-Benz L3 autopilot is getting closer and closer to your car life.

In the past two years, almost all new cars have been equipped with intelligent driving assistance systems without exception. In technical terms, it is L2. But what we need to know is that there is an insurmountable gap between L2 and autopilot L3. Why do you say that?

Then you need to look at the driving level first. In fact, the earliest L0 required the driver to control the vehicle completely independently. By L 1, our vehicles will be equipped with some driving AIDS, such as emergency braking and lane departure correction. In L2, which is the era we are currently experiencing, the vehicle can undertake some driving tasks, but the driver needs to be ready to take over the vehicle at any time. Simply put, L2 is more auxiliary. In L3, the vehicle will realize automatic driving under certain conditions.

In other words, if we use L2 intelligent driving assistance to cause an accident, the driver needs to take full responsibility, while if L3 automatic driving is used, the division of responsibility will be shared by the automobile company and the user.

Therefore, Dorian will tell you that there is an insurmountable gap between L2 and L3. So, who can take the lead in crossing this gap?

As early as 202 1 65438+February, Mercedes-Benz DRIVE PILOT Driving and Piloting System obtained the international certification of the world's first L3 conditional autopilot system. Nowadays, the production car equipped with the DRIVE PILOT driving and navigation system has landed in German and American markets, becoming the only L3-class conditional autopilot system authorized for use in expressway.

The activities that Duo Lijun personally participated in are definitely the embodiment of Mercedes-Benz's control over future autonomous driving. After all, for Mercedes-Benz, autonomous driving not only brings users a convenient travel experience, but also brings more users a safer luxury driving experience.

Does that sound a little awkward? Then we will slowly analyze it with the performance of the actual scene of Mercedes-Benz models.

Scene 1: The vehicle changes lanes

In fact, for this function, Mercedes-Benz's L2 intelligent navigation function has had a good experience. When it reaches L3, it will identify the side and rear vehicles earlier, bringing a more comfortable and smooth experience.

Scene 2: High-speed stacking bucket

On the expressway, we have more or less encountered the situation that piles and barrels closed one lane. What will Mercedes-Benz L3 driving and navigation system do? After the preceding vehicle changes lanes and leaves, the vehicle will quickly identify the road information ahead and brake automatically. Then a red light will flash on the steering wheel, prompting the driver to take over the vehicle.

Scenario 3: Avoid a faulty vehicle

On the road, if the vehicle breaks down and drives to the emergency lane, it may occupy part of the driving lane. Mercedes-Benz L3 pilot system is more like a real driver controlling the vehicle, braking in advance and turning the steering wheel slightly. Everything is really comfortable under the premise of ensuring safety.

Scene 4: The car in front is slipping.

Of course, in the experience, the most surprising thing is in the test of rolling ahead, because we have seen too many traffic accidents caused by rolling ahead in the video, and what will Mercedes-Benz L3 do if it encounters rolling ahead after we turn on the pilot function? You can guess first, it does this. It will whistle to remind the car ahead. This really surprised us. From this point, we can also feel the power of Mercedes-Benz L3, which can not only bring comfortable luxury experience, but also protect our safety in all directions. And since it comes to safety, we have to mention the next scene.

Scenario 5: The driver can't take over the vehicle.

We can find that if there is an emergency, there will be a red light flashing on the steering wheel to remind the driver to take over the vehicle. And if the driver encounters physical problems and cannot take over the vehicle, how will the vehicle react? Forward navigation prompts the road to be closed, and the red light on the steering wheel prompts the driver to take over the vehicle. After we do nothing, the vehicle will turn on the double flashing to remind the rear vehicle, take emergency braking, tighten the seat belt to ensure the safety of the occupants in the vehicle, and finally contact SOS service directly and contact the background to provide rescue service for the owner.

Of course, strictly speaking, the above five scenes are demonstrations of specific scenes, so how powerful is Mercedes-Benz's DRIVE PILOT now? Let's look at the last scene.

Scenario 6: Real Experience

When we turn on the DRIVE PILOT function, we drive comfortably and comfortably at high speed. Suddenly, there is a very slow car in the fast lane ahead. Maybe the driver has a physical problem, or he missed the fork in the road. When the vehicle we were driving actually felt this situation very early and slowed down, but when we approached, it suddenly merged ... and turned on the S-class of the pilot, just braked suddenly and turned slightly. And if a real person is driving, I believe that few drivers can perform better than it.

Mercedes-Benz officials have four categories of standards for autonomous driving, which are safe, reliable, comfortable and convenient, practical and easy to use, and keep pace with the times. So how is such a powerful automatic driving function realized? Here, we need to go back to the technical level. Mercedes-Benz's DRIVE PILOT system will rely on a variety of technologies, and it must be redundant and highly reliable to ensure the safety of the system after startup.

For example, at the event, Mercedes-Benz showed us an S-class car. She has three sensors on the front grille, namely, the millimeter wave radar above, the panoramic camera on the left below and the laser radar on the right below. There is also a binocular camera at the glass of the front windshield, and there are four millimeter-wave radars at the four corners of the car body. There is a high-precision positioning module integrated with Mercedes-Benz above the rear windshield, and an oblique camera on the left side of Fengtai at the rear of the car is used to sense the traffic conditions at the rear. With the support of powerful hardware, we need to rely on the cooperation of high-precision map information and other systems to better realize the safe and comfortable luxury automatic driving experience.

To sum up, after personal experience, we deeply felt the continuous efforts and technological innovation of Mercedes-Benz in the automatic driving system. In fact, for most users today, they will blindly understand L2 intelligent assisted driving as L3. After all, there are legal restrictions and the name L2.999 Over time, we may have forgotten what L3 autopilot really is.

Of course, in the current auto market, is it difficult for everyone to achieve L3? It's hard to say, but it's not difficult. After all, the materials piled up by a series of high-end new power brands are enough to achieve, so where is the difficulty? I think it may be difficult to override the word quality. Just like the experience brought by Mercedes-Benz this time, we not only feel the technological charm of L3 autopilot, but also feel another brand-new definition of luxury by Mercedes-Benz. Perhaps the luxury in the early years was reflected in the large-displacement engine, luxurious materials and extremely high configuration. Then in the future, in the era of new energy and electric technology, the most direct embodiment of luxury is quality and safety.

And this is what Mercedes-Benz has been pursuing. On the track leading to active and passive safety, Mercedes-Benz will always be a higher-level luxury "definer".

This article comes from Che Yi, the author, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.