First of all, we must admit that the new forces represented by Tesla are in front of the traditional car companies in the smart driving and driving assistance system of home cars. However, traditional car companies can also use their deep vehicle development experience and supplier resources to effectively catch up or even find new ways to achieve superior competition. We can get a glimpse of this potential in the BMW iX3 in this article. Let's first talk about what the driving assistance system is all about. What kind of evolution does the driving assistance system need to move towards an autonomous driving system?
There is no doubt that the current rule-maker for driver assistance systems is the United States, which is at the forefront, and we generally refer to SAE for its standards. That is the standard of the American Society of Automotive Engineers, which is currently divided into six levels from unassisted to fully autonomous driving.
In short, L0 level relies entirely on human operation to operate the vehicle, while L1 is the cruise control function that has been popularized ten years ago. L3-L4 are highly automated driving assistance systems that can fully realize the need for driver intervention in most cases, while L5 means that the driver profession can be laid off and everything is left to AI.
L2 is the current mainstream driving assistance system level. The core technology is the ACC adaptive cruise function, which is an advanced version of fixed-speed cruise. The system mainly relies on hardware such as millimeter-wave radar, optical cameras and even advanced lidar, and cooperates with software and algorithms to monitor the road conditions ahead, so as to achieve active acceleration, active braking and automatically maintain distance between vehicles and obstacles under certain conditions. Identification and other vertical control functions.
There is actually a conceptual "L2+" between L2 and L3. It is based on the L2 level autonomous driving technology and adds Lateral control functions. The main components include merging assist, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist and other functions. The BMW iX3's autonomous driving assistance system Pro has reached this level and is a cutting-edge mass-produced configuration among traditional car companies.
In actual use, it was found that this system has ideal ease of use, even if it is the first time to try to open it This car's driving assistance system does not require cumbersome settings.
There is a one-button start function on the left side of the steering wheel, and the speed setting and distance maintenance can be done in this small operation area, just use Semi-autonomous driving operations can be quickly realized with one finger.
This automatic driving assistance system Pro includes different assistance functions. In addition to active cruise, it also supports urban congestion, high-speed cruise, lane change assistance, forward collision warning and emergency braking assistance, and lane correction assistance. What’s more interesting here is that BMW has An emergency parking assistance mechanism has been developed on the X3 for the future extension of L3. According to the design of this assistance, L3-based vehicles can use this set of retracement mechanisms to implement emergency assistance parking after a problem is detected in the L3 mode, which is also considered traditional A quite confident attempt by the car company.
During use, it was found that this system is first of all accurate and fast in lane recognition. Even if the road surface is slightly damaged or covered with sand, it still has redundant and fuzzy recognition. , lane loss rarely occurs. Moreover, when I was driving through a special road section, the lanes narrowed and overlapped. After the system recognized it, it immediately provided corrective actions and reminded the driver to actively intervene.
When driving at low speeds, in addition to automatically following the car, it also has active safety functions in narrow spaces and when parking. In particular, it can effectively prevent accidental collisions when reversing and leaving the warehouse. It is important to know that most low-speed accidents occur in this situation.
Another thing worthy of praise is that the resolution of the surround camera is very high and the distortion is well controlled. It can even accurately distinguish the undulations and drops on the ground. This kind of resolution It can even be achieved on many 500,000-class cars.
In addition, it is easy to overlook that the active lighting system is actually a part of the security system. BMW's adaptive LED light source system can effectively provide intelligent lighting. In addition to preventing high beams from affecting the driving of the target vehicle, it will also provide auxiliary lighting when turning. This is also a very important part of driving safety, that is, reducing driver misoperations and blind spots.
To expand, the basic version of this ADAS system is based on the Euro NCAP (European New Car Safety Assessment Association) driving assistance evaluation. Different deployed models are designed according to the scores. That is, a full four-star "VERY GOOD" rating is the benchmark. Since the system itself is modular, it can be installed on more than ten model series in China from a single model, including sedans, coupes and sports utility vehicles. It is not only suitable for electric vehicles, but also for internal combustion engines and hybrid models ( BMW X7, X6, X5, X3, 8 Series, 7 Series, 6 Series, 5 Series, 4 Series, 3 Series, pure electric iX3).
The structure of electrified vehicles allows the potential of this system to be continuously developed, breaking away from the inherent limitations of internal combustion engines. In BMW's future product line layout, the proportion of electric vehicles like iX3 will gradually increase, and the level of driving assistance systems will rapidly evolve with product iterations.
Even in FranceAfter the regulations are gradually opened, there is a possibility that BMW's autonomous driving assistance system Pro system, which has hardware potential, will be directly upgraded to L3 level through simple software and hardware upgrades.
Objectively speaking, the current electric vehicle market structure has gradually transformed from the previous duality, that is, between traditional automobile companies and superior new forces, to one created by the concentrated investment of new forces, traditional automobile companies, and other large capitals. The third echelon has become a diversified market. Traditional car companies such as the BMW brand have almost all the advantages of the second and third tiers to a certain extent, that is, they have unmatched advantages in capital and technology accumulation. What can be expected is that once BMW's iX car series completes its product line layout and completes data collection and testing of new technologies, more new technologies will be implemented. Brand power and credit endorsement alone will pose a huge threat to emerging forces represented by Tesla and NIO.