"So far, only L3 level highly automated driving test licenses have been issued across the country. Even L5 level test licenses cannot be easily issued!" Veteran officials of the Transportation Management Bureau hold a conservative view.
If their city takes the lead in issuing L5 test licenses to Pengyun cars, it will be tantamount to attracting the focus of the conversation to them. If any safety accidents occur in Pengyun driverless cars, they, the decision-makers, will all bear responsibility.
"I think we can try to open up after passing strict testing." A young cadre said, "We have seen the use of artificial intelligence to assist traffic management in the past few months, and the results are remarkable. The Ministry of Transport has also issued a special document , urging our local traffic management bureaus to use new technologies.”
"This time Pengyun Auto's driverless driving is fully autonomous driving developed using the latest artificial intelligence technology. From an intelligent point of view, it should not be a problem."
He is Luo Zhe, the person in charge of the intelligent traffic management system. After seeing the convenience of artificial intelligence-assisted traffic management, he highly recognized the artificial intelligence technology.
"How do you know there are no problems? Autonomous driving involves not only artificial intelligence, but also positioning systems, sensing systems, etc. Can you guarantee that there are no problems with them?" Someone started to criticize directly.
"I can't guarantee it, but we can detect it!" Luo Zhe insisted on his point of view and said: "The future traffic management and transportation methods must be smart transportation with new technologies as the core. How will you know if you don't try it? better?"
"What Xiao Luo said makes sense, but have you ever thought about how we can detect it? Fully autonomous driving is a technology that has never appeared before. What methods and standards do we use to ensure that there are no problems? So I think it is still After putting it aside, you can first issue L3 or even L4 license plates to Pengyun Automobile to ensure driver assistance. "In the traffic management bureau, most people hold a neutral view, not too radical, not too aggressive. keep.
Everyone debated endlessly, and in the end it was the director and deputy director who had to make the decision.
Director Wu Changfeng frowned deeply, thinking that this was a troublesome matter. Denial is not good, and support is risky.
Now the whole country, including the leaders above, various departments and enterprises in the transportation industry, are waiting for their response, and a decision must be made as soon as possible.
"Report the test results of Pengyun Auto's driverless driving again!" He ordered, and someone immediately found the materials and reported the results.
"In the past two months, their L3 highly autonomous driving road test has not had a single traffic accident or traffic violation. Fully autonomous driving, testing in various extreme and intense driving situations, according to the information they submitted It shows that it has been approved, but our review has not caught up yet.”
Judging from the data reports, they could not find any problems. But the most important thing is that this is a staged step from manual driving to completely driverless driving. The first open city will inevitably face the greatest pressure.
Luo Zhe added: "The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has reviewed their information technology such as intelligent driving, positioning and sensing, and it has been proven that there are no problems."
Wu Changfeng hesitated for a long time and said: "We can try to approve them to conduct road tests on some roads. At the same time, there must be real-time supervision by drivers, and high traffic accident insurance must be provided... Let them test run for a month first."
Pengcheng Transportation Management Bureau promulgated the "Trial Regulations on Fully Autonomous Vehicles", allowing Pengyun driverless vehicles to conduct road tests on designated roads, and awarded them the world's first "L5 level" driverless vehicle test license .
The regulations also specifically stipulate that once any traffic safety problems arise due to immature driverless technology, the test license will be revoked, and Pengyun Automobile will need to bear the corresponding liability for traffic accidents.
As soon as this regulation came out, it was no surprise that it caused a huge social response. The media, experts, and the public have disputed this approach and questioned the safety of autonomous driving.
But in any case, Pengyun’s driverless car has obtained the qualification for temporary road testing and can attempt to conduct fully driverless testing on the road.
According to the provisions of the trial regulations, Pengyun Auto still must send a safety driver to sit in the car and take control of the car in time when an accident occurs with the driverless system.
"The unmanned driving system must be tested regularly to ensure there are absolutely no problems!" Inside Pengyun Automobile, Lu Zixin emphasized at the senior management meeting, "Currently, relevant departments and most citizens are skeptical about fully autonomous driving. Once we have any problems, Any small problem will be magnified infinitely by the media.”
The incident at Uber Technologies Inc. is a lesson from the past. "
Previously, a self-driving car owned by Uber in the United States had a traffic accident in Tempe, Arizona, and collided with a pedestrian who was crossing the road. The pedestrian died after being sent to the hospital. The Uber vehicle was operating autonomously when it hit the pedestrian. This was the first time in history that an autonomous vehicle fatally injured a pedestrian on a public road.
After this incident occurred, it caused a huge social response, and some people openly resisted driverless driving. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles also stopped self-driving testing, forcing Uber to move its self-driving projects to other states.
If a similar development occurs in China, it is estimated that it will not be transferred to other cities for trial treatment, but will be directly banned for a period of time! That will completely disrupt Pengyun Automobile’s industrial layout and have a serious impact.
"We can accept that there are undiscovered problems in the unmanned driving system, but we cannot allow such problems to cause safety accidents!" Lu Zixin's words were recorded as a core requirement.
In order to let the public see Pengyun Automobile's confidence in driverless driving, Jiang Xunmei decided to ride in a driverless car herself on the day of the test to prove the safety of this driving system.
On the first day of the actual road test of Pengyun driverless cars, Pengyun Automobile Co., Ltd., Pengcheng Traffic Management Bureau, and various news media were present to hold a ribbon-cutting event for the world's first L5 driverless test license.
Director of the Traffic Management Bureau, Wu Changfeng, attended the event in person and participated in the ribbon-cutting.
The local TV station sent staff to conduct a live broadcast to record this moment.
A female host from Pengcheng TV station brought a loudspeaker and said to the live camera: "Look, everyone, this is the world's first fully autonomous car manufactured by Pengyun Automobile. It will be able to operate independently without a driver." Driving on the road. A lot of people were skeptical about it, and we connected the camera footage on the car and had a drone filming it in real time.”