Fully autonomous driving research and development has been sluggish, and car companies have turned to more pragmatic L2+ technology.

Because Ford has been losing money, it has decided not to develop L4 driverless cars. Ford originally planned to test L4 cars on U.S. roads, but now it has given up the application.

Not long ago, Ford sent a letter to NHTSA requesting to withdraw its application. In the application, Ford hopes to test up to 2,500 driverless cars per year. Prior to this, Ford had closed the Argo AI joint venture.

Ford stated in the letter: "Argo AI's ADS partner has closed down. In view of this situation, we believe that large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicles and establishing a profitable business model will be a long-term effort."

In the short term, Ford will invest resources and energy into L2/L3 technology. L2/L3 vehicles do not require approval for testing on U.S. public roads.

Fully driverless cars are difficult to achieve in the short term, and L2 technology is more pragmatic

Horiba Mira executive Declan Allen believes that large-scale projects to develop driverless cars will will be compressed, and companies still invest heavily in driver assistance systems and L2/L3 systems.

L2 is a new concept that automakers have come out to advocate in recent times. They had previously vowed to launch fully driverless cars, but in the face of difficulties, companies have become more pragmatic. They know that completely Self-driving cars are unlikely to be a reality in the short term. Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume also talked about L2 at the financial report meeting not long ago, which shows that this concept is slowly being accepted.

The so-called " " means that the hands can leave the steering wheel when driving, but the brain and eyes are still involved in driving. While driving, route drawing, lane changes, and speed changes are completed by the car, and people are still involved. For example, the car will use eye-tracking technology to determine whether the driver is paying attention.

In many countries and regions, it is illegal to take your hands off the steering wheel, such as Europe, and even Tesla is no exception. Europe is drafting new regulations to consider allowing drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. The new regulations may be implemented in 2024.

L3 technology is more advanced. Both hands can be taken off the steering wheel, and the driver can completely hand over control to the car in certain circumstances. However, there are currently very few cars that can reach the L3 level. L3 technology is super complex, difficult to obtain approval, and costly, which is why companies turn their attention to L2.

The availability of L2 technology does not mean that you can get home in a car and sleep, but it means that the price of L2 is within the affordable range of consumers and the difficulty is much lower.

In the United States, General Motors and SuperCruise have joined forces, and Ford and BlueCruise have joined forces to provide new services to drivers. For a fee, you can take your hands off the steering wheel. Currently, 65,000 U.S. drivers use BlueCruise technology, paying $600 for three years.

Why invest resources in technologies that are far away, instead of focusing on technologies that can help customers and make profits now? It was precisely because of this thinking that Ford gave up Argo AI. Doug Field, chief technology officer of Ford's Model E electric division, said: "If we can guide consumers to switch to L2 and L3 technology, we can influence more people."

If it is developing software, it will be difficult for car companies to defeat Tech giants like Google. Doug Field said: "Anything that can be put into the car screen and operated with a mobile phone is a bargaining chip, but they are only the basis. The interesting thing is autonomous driving."

Like Ford, BMW is also betting on L2. , which developed the Neue Klasse platform, which is expected to arrive in 2025.

The number of L2 cars will reach 11 million in 2025, but L2 also faces obstacles

According to Frost & Sullivan’s forecast, the number of L2 cars on the road before 2025 will It will reach 11 million vehicles, and there will be only 115,000 vehicles in 2020.

Currently L2 systems are still too expensive, such as the Mobileye SuperVision system, which receives information from EyeQ cameras and is supported by 11 additional cameras. Coupled with chips, each system costs about US$1,000-2,000. If it's just a basic ADAS chip, the cost is only $50. Mobileye has a first-mover advantage. It is the dominant player in the ADAS chip market, accounting for 70% of the market.

SuperVision first appeared on Jikrypton 001. In the future, more Geely brands will be introduced, such as Volvo, Polestar, Porsche, Audi, Ford, Toyota, and Volkswagen are also interested.

Why is SuperVision so popular? Because it can be upgraded, you only need to add additional sensors to evolve to L3/L4. The added additional sensors first run independently in the background and can be upgraded after they are perfected. Some industry insiders believe that instead of investing huge sums of money in the development of driverless cars, it is better to invest in ADAS, which may lead to faster realization of driverless cars.

Chris McNally, director of automotive consulting agency Evercore, said: "Essentially, it is to optimize and verify the underlying software for autonomous driving for OEM manufacturers in the next five years."

The development of L2 also Facing obstacles, including regulatory ones, some countries only allow certain roads to be open to L2. For example, in the United States, the use of SuperCruise and SuperCruise is limited to roads with high-definition maps. HD maps are more expensive to draw than standard maps.

Dutch company Here Technologies provides positioning and mapping services. Remco Timmer, an executive of the company, said: "The accuracy of high-definition maps must reach centimeter level, not meter level. There are a lot of 3D in high-definition maps. Content, including various positioning objects, such as signboards and other elements that determine location."

Companies such as Mobileye and Here have installed systems into ordinary cars to allow the cars to collect environmental information. This processing method is more expensive. Low and faster. Mobileye even thinks it will take just 24 hours to draw a map of Israel.

Compared with L2 technology, the security department prefers L2, but whether consumers will accept it is another question. Stellantis Chief Technology Officer Ned Curic said: "Customers will not go to a car 4S store and say they want to buy an L2 car, because customers have no idea what L2 is. To be honest, there is not a high demand for technology that takes hands off the steering wheel. ."

Stellantis is currently developing L3 technology. Some car owners need higher-level autonomous driving technology, and car companies can provide it for a fee. Tesla FSD can also be regarded as L2 technology, charging $199 per month, and other car companies will imitate it in the future.

Of course, car companies will not give up on real driverless technology, but there are still many obstacles to overcome. Now L2 is more realistic. Drivers will play the role of safety drivers when verifying the next stage of technology. Under the supervision of drivers, cars will take over boring tasks from humans, and consumers are willing to pay a certain fee to save trouble.

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