How will major automakers respond to the launch of Audi s L3 level automation?

Audi A8 can be said to be the leader of L3, the model has been released for a while, the model is equipped with high-end driving assistance technology, is the world's first production car equipped with L3 level autonomous driving technology, of which three technologies debuted in the **Audi A8 model: 1Audi's traffic jam pilot; 2.

Audi AI Remote Parking Pilot; 3.Audi AI Remote Garage Pilot.

So in order to achieve these functions, the Audi A8 is equipped with these hardware:

12 ultrasonic sensors are installed at the front, side and rear of the vehicle;

Four 360-degree surround view cameras are installed at the front, rear and exterior mirrors.

There is a front-facing camera on the upper edge of the windshield;

4 medium-range radars are deployed at each corner of the vehicle;

1 long-range radar is deployed in the front of the vehicle;

1 infrared camera is installed at the front of the vehicle;

A laser scanner is installed at the front of the vehicle;

Equipped with a ** Driver Assistance System Control Unit (ZFAS) at the bottom of the driver's seat;

At the perception level, the commonly used camera + radar sensing equipment is used, and there are 22 sensors directly used to detect the external environment, which rely on a large amount of redundant information to drive, with the help of multi-sensor data fusion and redundant design, even if the data of multiple information sources is missing or invalid, the car can drive automatically as usual. If the camera is not clear in rain and fog, and some radars are malfunctioning, the car can still drive. The decision-making level is controlled by the Driver Assistance Systems Control Unit (ZFAS), and Audi is the first company to centralize all functions into a domain architecture (also known as a domain control unit).

**The control unit is used for data fusion, decision-making control, and coordination of various executive agencies, which fully reflects the strong integration capabilities of Audi OEMs, ZFAS is cooperated by Audi and Delphi, NVIDIA, TTTech and Mobileye, and is equipped with NVIDIA's GPU and Mobileye's EYEQ series vision chips. Having enough sensor hardware is only the first step, and the core technology is still the control algorithm, with the help of various control algorithms to achieve intelligent driving.

For the launch of Audi L3 level automation, major car companies may imitate or even surpass these hardware facilities of L3, but whether they can stand out successfully depends on whether the quality launched by these car companies is hard enough and can compete with L3.

You still have to do a good job of your own products and have your own brand characteristics.

Car companies will definitely accelerate the launch of their own high-end brands, and they will promote it more vigorously.

Do a good job of your own brand, don't envy others, and do a good job of word of mouth is the key.

Make a better strategy and speak with a higher product.

Major car companies may imitate or even surpass these L3 automation facilities.

Find a way to collect market data for comprehensive analysis.

I think it's really good to be yourself.

The industry is divided into two factions for the autonomous driving technology route. One faction, represented by Waymo, Google's autonomous driving business unit, believes that the L3 level is completely unnecessary and should directly enter L4 or even L5. Companies such as Volvo Cars and General Motors have announced similar strategies.

On the other hand, automotive companies are the main ones, which plan to achieve autonomous driving step by step, and L3 should be the first to be applied. Audi claims that the all-new Audi A8, which is scheduled to be launched next year, is the first production model to be equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving technology.

The reason why L3 has caused controversy in the industry is that it faces a more complex situation when it faces the handover of driving rights. Level 3 autonomous driving is only used in certain scenarios, where the human driver can take their hands off the wheel and be ready to take over.

Taking the Audi A8 as an example, it can achieve autonomous driving in two main scenarios, one is the congestion automatic driving function, when the traffic is slow and the speed does not exceed 60 kilometers per hour, the automatic driving system can take over the driving operation of the vehicle. Another major scenario is in the parking lot, where the Audi A8 can automatically park and drive out of the garage, either inside the vehicle or outside the vehicle with a mobile app.

Strive to develop their own product technology.

The Audi A8 can be said to be the frontrunner of the L3, and the model has been released for some time.

There is nothing to deal with, and the same is to deal with all kinds of changes.

At the end of 2019, Audi cancelled its R&D plans for Level 3 autonomous driving, and the relevant technicians have moved to Level 2 and Level 4 autonomous driving projects, which means that we will not see models equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving systems.

But Audi has invested more than 1 billion euros for this project, and has spent many years of research and development, and now it is forced to abort, which is really a big loss, and it also gives a great inspiration to other car companies, L3 level autonomous driving is difficult to mass produce in the short term, and will be subject to laws and regulations, it is better to go directly to L4 level in one step, or take a step back to optimize the L2 level experience.

Now many models can already achieve L2 level of autonomous driving, which is generally not difficult, but only to give the driver some support, such as ACC adaptive endurance and active braking system. However, at Level 3, this definition is a bit vague, and the driver has to provide an appropriate response according to the system request, how to respond, and how long the response time is a problem, which is difficult to define, so the relevant regulations have not been introduced.

As early as the beginning of the release of this generation of A8, Audi announced that it had been equipped with L3 level automatic driving system, but it was not possible to unlock it until the relevant regulations and laws were introduced.

However, although Audi's L3 autonomous driving project has been cancelled, it has also accumulated a lot of technology for itself, which can also be used by other brands of the Volkswagen Group, increasing the competitiveness of the entire group and effectively diluting the cost.

This also reminds us of the fact that many new energy models launched by independent brands claim to be equipped with L3 automatic driving systems, but many can only be called L2+, and cannot reach the L3 level in the real sense, which may make some car owners a little disappointed.

--Organize the --- of netizens' replies

It has been confirmed that Audi has officially canceled the L3 autonomous driving R&D project at the end of 2019 and instead shifted the team's hundreds of employees to the development of L2 and L4 autonomous driving technology. Audi China employees told Che Dongxi that the core reason for the cancellation of the L3 program is that the time for the release of the regulations is far away. However, a number of industry insiders familiar with the project told Che Dongxi that the core reason for the cancellation was that the "takeover" paradox of L3 autonomous driving could not be solved.

The core reason for the cancellation is that the "takeover" paradox of Level 3 autonomous driving cannot be solved. In other words, it is difficult to determine how humans will take over the vehicle when the L3 system does not work, but this is not the case with L2 and L4 autonomous driving technologies.

As early as 2016, Changan Automobile announced the completion of the 2,000-kilometer super unmanned test project, and in August 2018, it further proposed the Beidou Tianshu intelligent strategy. Regarding the "plus" of autonomous driving, Zhu Huarong, president of Changan Automobile, also mentioned that Changan will implement the "Beidou Tianshu Strategy" in the field of autonomous driving and invest 5% of its sales revenue in research and development.

It is understood that the intelligent network center of GAC Research Institute has four departments, namely the conventional electronic and electrical department, the core components hardware and software development department, the intelligent network big data department and the intelligent driving department. GAC R&D Institute has partnered with Visteon to jointly develop autonomous driving solutions.

Regarding the R&D investment of traditional car companies in autonomous driving technology, Cheng Shidong said that autonomous driving is a major change in the automotive industry, and if it can be realized one day, car companies may face obsolescence if they cannot produce related products. "In addition, the core element of autonomous driving is not the vehicle hardware but the intelligent technology, and if the car manufacturer can only provide the vehicle hardware, the production margin is very low, so it is necessary to catch up with the technology development trend as much as possible. Cheng Shidong said.

Cheng Shidong also mentioned that artificial intelligence technology is the advantage of Internet companies, so car companies use their own vehicle manufacturing advantages to combine with Internet companies to carry out strong alliances. Ren Wanfu, an automotive analyst, also believes that autonomous driving technology is a cross-industry and cross-field technology integration, so car companies need to cooperate with the Internet industry and the communication technology industry.

In addition to traditional car companies, the "battlefield" of autonomous driving is indispensable for new car-making forces.

A few days ago, SF Motors announced a partnership with American chipmaker Nvidia to use its computing platform to achieve L3+ autonomous driving technology. Nvidia has also signed a contract with Singularity Auto to jointly develop Level 3 autonomous vehicles. In addition, NVIDIA signed a tripartite strategic cooperation agreement with Xpeng Motors and Desay SV, a total solution provider for automotive electronics, to jointly develop L3 autonomous driving technology suitable for China's traffic environment and driving scenarios.

L3 level mass production such as "mountaineering".

In the SAE (Society of Automaton Engineers) standard, L0 stands for traditional human driving without autonomous driving, and L1-L5 are assisted driving and partial autonomous driving, respectively.

You have to develop new cars, otherwise it will be very bad in terms of sales.

Accelerate the pace of their own development and plan their own development direction.

Learn its advantages. Change your own concept of development.

The rapid development of independent industries has a different space for display.

Change yourself, make yourself good and learn its benefits.

Accelerate the development of its own science and technology and development concepts.

Change the concept of development and give priority to the development of core science and technology.

Better self-improvement, of course, is to develop for the better.

The demonstration is particularly good in autonomous driving technology.