Translator: James Yang Jianwen

Last week, Mercedes-Benz released a press release on its official website. To save your time, here’s a brief summary:

Mercedes-Benz L3 autonomous driving, which has been approved by the German government, will be on the road soon, and users will be able to use it in the first half of next year.

Though few words, it’s still big news.

What level is this L3 system?

To know the level of Mercedes-Benz L3, we first need to understand an international regulation: UN R157.

This is the first binding international regulation for Level 3 autonomous driving function. The regulation was passed in June 2020 and took effect on January 22, 2021.

This regulation provides a direction and ideas for automakers to introduce their own L3 autonomous driving.

Mercedes-Benz has developed the L3 system to meet this regulation and subsequently gained regulatory approval.

1. The regulation is aimed at Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS).

2. Once the system is activated, it can control the speed of the car and the distance from the car in front (the operating speed should not exceed 60 km/h), keeping the car within the lane.

3. The system can respond to sudden traffic situations on its own (but in emergencies, users still need to take over).

You can understand it this way: Currently, Daimler’s L3 is an intelligent driving assistance for single-lane congested traffic (speed limit below 60 km/h), which is a specific scenario for L3.

From a functional perspective, it seems that the implementation is not difficult. After all, many automakers have introduced similar features, such as BMW and General Motors.

But in fact, it’s not easy to achieve this.

You should know that even for this seemingly not so difficult lane-keeping system, the document consists of over 60 pages with very clear regulations on system safety, human-machine interaction, target detection and response, and subsequent upgrades.

In addition, you can see the difference from the existing L2 systems.Here’s an introduction to the traffic assistance driving functions of the BMW new X5, as provided by the official:

Similarly, BMW allows drivers to drive with no hands in traffic assistance mode, but the driver must keep an eye on the road. If the vehicle detects any unreasonable behavior from the driver, the function will immediately fail. The responsibility for driving assistance lies with the driver.

Another design logic is found in the Cadillac SuperCruise.

Contrasting with these, Mercedes-Benz L3 permits drivers to divert their attention from the road and focus on other things after activation of the DRIVE PILOT function, such as surfing the web, watching movies or replying to emails.

These are two types of hands-free driving. One requires the driver to keep a close eye on the road while the other liberates the driver. This is a difference in experience.

Moreover, while the responsibility for L2 lies with the driver, for L3 it is the carmaker, which is a difference in responsibility attribution.

Although seemingly only a difference of a number, “a miss is as good as a mile.”

Behind this switch in responsibility attribution we can see the confidence of Mercedes-Benz technology.

A quirk of traditional automobile manufacturers is that they adhere strictly to “safety first.” Nowadays, Mercedes-Benz, breaking from the conservative mode, has taken the lead and implemented the first landing of new technologies, which is a reflection of technical confidence and reserves.

Furthermore, behind this switch in responsibility is a heavy responsibility. As with the L3 launches, in many scenarios, the responsibility attribution for accidents would be the carmaker itself.

Previously, too many accidents happened in the industry due to autonomous driving. Under these circumstances, announcing the implementation of L3 requires great courage.

As for the L3 experience, that is another story.

Furthermore, Mercedes-Benz’s approach has also provided a development model and strategy for other manufacturers: how to implement L3 automatic driving?

To accomplish this L3 set, in terms of hardware and software, Mercedes-Benz has allotted:

LIDAR: one (the Valeo SCALA® second-generation LIDAR)

Millimeter-wave radar: five

Cameras: one rear + four surround + one DSM (driver monitoring) + one forward (visual)

Ultrasonic sensors: 12

Localization: high-precision localization + high-definition maps.“`

The electrical and electronic architecture has also been innovatively renewed. The central control unit is used for autonomous driving-related processing and provides software support and algorithm redundancy.

In addition, the steering, braking, and vehicle electronic control systems also have corresponding backup redundancy designs.

From today’s perspective, this configuration belongs to the upstream level of the industry.

However, even with such advanced sensors, Mercedes-Benz now only dares to use them to realize autonomous driving in relatively low-speed scenarios.

In contrast to that, in China, all new car makers are targeting high-speed navigation assistance, including NOP (NIO), NGP (XPeng), NOH (Great Wall), NDA (GAC Aion), and ZAD (JiKuai). The English vocabulary has already been claimed all over the place.

This is also a very interesting phenomenon. As for the future direction of the industry, we need to continue to observe.

Pressure on New Forces

At this time, the greatest pressure should be on the new forces.

Why?

Before that, Ji Yu, vice president of XPeng Motors, said: “Adhere to self-developed intelligent technology and create the deepest moat.”

Li Xiang, founder of Li Auto, also said: “If it were not for electrification and intelligence, as a new car maker, there would be no advantages.“

These are actually the reasons why new car makers can rise and vigorously develop intelligent driving and smart cabin technologies.

But now, bluntly speaking, traditional car companies are slapping the faces of new car makers with their own actions, well, the faces of all new car makers.

At the beginning of the year, Honda was the first to achieve L3, and at the end of the year, Mercedes-Benz L3 went online to wrap up.

Ok, so only traditional giants have launched L3.

Although new car makers have launched navigation assistance, one is L2, which requires you to keep watching, and the other is L3, which can liberate you.

The better experience is already obvious.

Unconsciously, in the big item of autonomous driving that all new car makers are frantically investing in, traditional giants are now suppressing the new forces.

They seem to be saying: New forces, your moat is not deep at all:)

In accordance with the usual practices of traditional big factories, new technologies will be first used in the coolest car models, and then gradually rolled out in other car models.
“`Mercedes-Benz stated, “Years ago, Mercedes-Benz had already launched extensive road tests in global markets such as China and the United States.”

“Once other markets have established a legal framework for automated driving under conditional circumstances, especially allowing drivers to use Level 3 autonomous mode, the system will gradually and specifically expand.”

Even under the word “China,” there is a blue underline.

This means, oh no, it has already been implied: Once in compliance, Mercedes-Benz will also launch Level 3 autonomous driving in China.

Don’t forget, Mercedes-Benz is deeply integrated with the industry’s latest darling, NVIDIA, and models equipped with NVIDIA’s autonomous driving solutions will also be introduced in 2024.

By that time, how much advantage will the new forces in smart fortifications still have?

Of course, domestic car manufacturers can also use the excuse of policies not being in place as a pretext, but Japan and Germany have already loosened restrictions on autonomous driving, and it is only a matter of time before our country’s policy framework for automated driving is put in place.

Moreover, in the higher-dimensional L4 Robotaxi field, Beijing has already taken the lead from a policy perspective by being the first to collect fees. This is actually a signal.

So, to the new forces, let’s add oil, oh no, let’s add electricity!

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.