When chatting with their engineers privately, I learned that this time could have been much earlier, but for other reasons, it has been delayed until now. The most important thing in this upgrade is to join NOP (Navigation? Open? Pilot) driver assistance function, which also makes Weilai the second car brand in the world to achieve driver-assisted driving.
The content of this paper is divided into two aspects: theory and practice. If you just want to see what it feels like to use it, you can skip to the second half.
What is pilot-assisted driving?
If you know anything about Tesla or the assisted driving function, you should know that Tesla has launched a function called NOA navigation assisted driving before, and Weilai's NOP navigation assistance is actually the same. The reason for changing the name of the navigator is to distinguish it from the former, and the other is that Wei Lai wants to highlight the current driving or people-oriented, and the auxiliary functions are more like navigators and auxiliary players. Drivers still need to keep their hands on the steering wheel and keep their eyes on the road.
So, what is a navigation aid? In technical terms, it is navigation system, high-precision map, NIO? Deep integration of Pilot automatic assisted driving system. On the basis of cruise speed control, distance keeping, steering assistance and lane change control realized by the Pilot function, vehicles are supported to automatically enter and exit ramps and switch main roads in most sections such as expressway and urban viaducts covered by high-precision maps according to navigation path planning. At the same time, it can automatically adjust the speed, intelligently change lanes and overtake the local train according to the information such as road speed limit and environmental perception, so as to realize automatic assisted driving according to the navigation route under the specified path.
Generally speaking, when you navigate with a car map, within the open range of a high-precision map, the vehicle will automatically travel from point A to point B after the navigation aid is turned on. Of course, this whole process needs the supervision of the driver and is ready to take over at any time.
So how is it achieved?
It seems easy to describe in a few words, but to realize the function of navigation assistance, hardware, software and other aspects need to cooperate.
It's easy to understand, first of all, redundancy in hardware. 1 Mobileye？ EyeQ4 processor, 1 forward three? Camera, four panorama camera, five cents? Wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radar, 1 driver monitoring camera. I won't say what they are used for here, but these are the basis for realizing assisted driving. Without them, even if your mind is full, it is meaningless. These hardware should not only meet the needs of current technology, but also be able to support the heights that will be reached in the future. For example, if we play a computer game, no matter how good the game is, no matter how cool the picture is, the computer configuration is not enough.
"Configuration" is enough, and then it's time to install "games" inside. The pilot-assisted driving launched this time is in NIO? Based on the Pilot automatic assisted driving system, in other words, without the iteration of the previous software, there would be no current navigation assistance.
As mentioned at the beginning, the navigation aid is NIO? Pilot, navigation map and high-precision map are deeply integrated. Navigation maps are easy to understand, that is, we usually use Gaode map, Baidu map and so on. What is a high-precision map?
The so-called high-precision map is actually compared with the ordinary navigation map. Simply put, the navigation map is based on GPS satellites for positioning and navigation, and the positioning accuracy is about 10 meter. In other words, when we look at the navigation map, you can see that you are on a certain road or street, but it can't show which lane you are in.
For ordinary navigation, this accuracy is enough, because it only needs to show you the way, not help you see the road. However, when applied to the field of automatic assisted driving, this error will not work. The driving computer needs to know clearly the surrounding situation and which lane it is in in order to independently complete a series of actions such as merging, overtaking, avoiding, entering and leaving the ramp. ?
At this time, it is necessary to require a high-precision map. The absolute coordinate accuracy of a high-precision map (the accuracy between the object A on the map and the object A in the real world) is usually in the sub-meter level, that is, the accuracy is less than 1 m, and the horizontal accuracy is higher, which can be as accurate as10-20cm. So ordinary navigation maps only give us a rough road outline, while high-precision maps can not only describe the outline, but also tell us how many lanes there are on this road, where it widens and where it narrows. Even where there is a barrier, where there are curbs, and whether there are dotted lines, solid lines and double yellow lines between lanes. , you can know.
High absolute accuracy is a major feature of high-precision maps. In addition, it can accurately reflect the road shape, slope, curvature, heading, roll and a series of data of each lane. With these endorsements, vehicles can not only judge the surrounding situation through their own radar and sensors, but also perceive and calculate the further distance in advance through high-precision maps, which is very important for pilot-assisted driving and even future automatic driving.
Having said so much, it's just a scratch. The relative threshold of this technology is very high. There are not many enterprises that make high-precision maps in our country. Talent is on the one hand, and it is conceivable that only companies with relevant qualifications can be allowed to collect maps. As users or experiencers, we probably know what a high-precision map is and how to serve assisted driving. ?
Some students will wonder why high-precision maps are so powerful, but they can't replace navigation maps. There are two reasons. One is that the use of high-precision maps is restricted, and not all places will open their access rights. For example, Beijing is a limited city, which is only open to expressway, urban expressways and some ring roads. Another core is that ordinary navigation maps are people-oriented, that is, we can see them intuitively with our eyes, while high-precision maps are machine-oriented and are map data of cars. ?
What does NOP feel like to use?
Let's start with the conclusion. Compared with Tesla's NOA, Weilai's NOP navigation assistant is too introverted. It is more like an introverted child, who will spend more time thinking and observing before doing anything, and then make a decision. And before making a decision, I will always remind you: "Watch it, watch it."
NOA and NOP, strictly speaking, it's hard for you to say which is good and which is bad. They are more like two people with completely different personalities. It can only be said that Weilai NOP should be more suitable for our driving habits and styles in China, while Tesla's NOA is sometimes a bit "acclimatized". ?
Before the launch of Weilai NOP, for a long time, only Tesla provided navigation-assisted driving function. Because of my usual experience, I still know Tesla's style better. It happened that this test drive also provided models? Comparing X with ES6/ES8, let's review Tesla's performance first. (Please forgive me for the limited quality because some pictures can only be taken when the vehicle is running. )
The route of the two test drives is the same, and the single trip is about 60 kilometers. We started from the inner road of the city, passed the Fifth Ring Road, Jingha Expressway, Sixth Ring Road and Jingtai Expressway, and finally returned to the starting point. There is no essential difference between Tesla and Weilai in assisting driving on urban roads at present, and high-precision maps are not open at present, so they can only drive with AP. The difference is that Tesla currently only supports the Sixth Ring Road, urban expressways and expressways, while Weilai has an extra five-ring main road. Therefore, NOA cannot start before going to Beijing and Harbin.
When AP is driving, Tesla's interface will display the current lane with two solid blue lines. At this time, you can manually turn on the turn signal to make the vehicle change lanes, and the vehicle cannot change lanes and overtake independently.
When the turn signal is turned on, the lane change direction will become a red dotted line, and the target lane will also mark the position of the vehicle after merging in advance. ?
When the vehicle recognizes that the target lane does not meet the lane change requirements, it will mark the dangerous vehicle on the interface and suspend lane change.
After driving on the expressway, Tesla NOA will automatically turn on, and the two solid blue lines in the interface will turn into solid blue lines in the middle, and the vehicle will be taken over.
During this period, Tesla's performance is more like a radical and restless old driver. When you meet the slow train ahead, you will usually change lanes decisively and automatically, and then speed up overtaking, and the whole action will be done in one go. The advantage of doing this is that it will give you the feeling of being decisive and not procrastinating, but the disadvantage is that because it is relatively too radical, the parallel distance is very limited in many cases, and the rear car has to slow down, accompanied by the whistle. ...
When leaving expressway or preparing to leave the ramp, the vehicle will start preparing to change lanes to the right about 2km away from the exit. If it goes well, Tesla will soon change to the rightmost lane and wait to leave. At this time, a hint will appear silently next to the map, and the high-speed driver can cancel it manually. If the parallel line is not smooth due to traffic and other reasons, Tesla will start the old driver mode again and continue to try to speed up and change lanes with super power. In short, it is to take you to the exit position. If you don't have excellent psychological quality, it is recommended to take over manually at this time.
Tesla has more automatic assisted driving options than Weilai, Weilai has only one standard mode, and Tesla has a similar radical mode. If it is open, even if it is hundreds of meters away from the ramp, once there is a slow train like the one below, it will choose to merge to the left first, then step on the gas pedal and drive forward. After the experience, you will find that not everyone can stand it. ...
After that, it drove smoothly for a while until a faster car merged into the main road from the ramp. From the screen, Tesla recognized the car and gave a judgment that there was no danger and no need to respond. But this car didn't slow down, but accelerated beyond our Tesla. As a result, everyone in the car was startled by the sudden sharp deceleration.
Switch to Weilai, and after setting the destination on the map, the map will mark the position where the vehicle can start the NOP pilot's assisted driving in advance. When passing through this place, the vehicle will automatically turn on the navigation aid.
Let me add one more sentence here. Whether it is Tesla or Weilai, when the lane is lost on the road, the driver must immediately take over the vehicle to ensure driving safety.
In addition to different driving styles, another difference between Weilai and Tesla is that Weilai reminds vehicles of their intentions very frequently. Therefore, as long as NOP is turned on, NOMI will frequently "whisper" to you, reminding the driver that "I'm going to change lanes, so watch it for me." "I'm going down the ramp. Give me a good look. " "Pilot assistance is about to begin." "This section of the road is a bit difficult. You'd better come. " Wait for these (of course, that's not what the original words say). On the other hand, Tesla tips very little. This also confirms that NOP of Weilai emphasizes the importance of people, that is, drivers.
In the process of NOP driver-assisted driving, the vehicle will also overtake the local train ahead in time and mark it with a red traffic line on the interface, but the whole process will be much more conservative. Vehicles usually choose to change lanes when the distance behind them is far away. Although it looks slow, it has one advantage that it is more stable and will not "sit" behind the car.
Based on the high-precision map, when a vehicle enters a ramp or a road with a large curve, it will calculate the suggested speed limit in advance according to multiple factors such as road curvature, surrounding traffic flow speed and high-precision map speed limit, instead of just following the road sign speed limit sign. This reminds me of NIO more than a year ago? When Pilot was first introduced, vehicles could not even pass through roads with large curvature by themselves, but now this is the basic operation.
If the vehicle feels unable to merge into the main road by itself, a prompt will pop up to let the driver take over the steering wheel, which will not be mandatory or always conservative.
Last test drive, the traffic volume was relatively large. At this time, the vehicle tried to change lanes to the left lane many times, but eventually gave up changing lanes because of more vehicles, which was in sharp contrast with Tesla's style.
Write it at the end
As I said just now, it is difficult for you to clearly distinguish between NOA of Tesla and NOP of Weilai. One of them is more radical and the other is more conservative. However, we have to admit that Weilai, as our China brand, has done a better job in optimizing the road conditions and driving style in China, and Tesla's radical style is largely due to the lack of local optimization for the real road conditions in China.
Finally, I ended up chatting with Weilai's engineers-there is no doubt that Tesla is still the most advanced enterprise in automatic assisted driving technology. And our advantage is that we can learn from their experience, thus improving our own brand.
Now it seems that China's brand is getting better and better and more competitive.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.