China's self-driving car has successfully tested on the highway

On a high-speed car, the “driver” doesn’t steer the steering wheel to chat with other people in the car from time to time, not looking at the road ahead... When such a car passes by you, you are sure to be surprised. Believe in your own eyes. However, this scene has been truly staged on the expressway from Changsha to Wuhan on the 14th of this month.

The National University of Defense Technology revealed that the Hongqi HQ3 unmanned vehicle independently developed by the National University of Defense Technology completed the 286-km high-speed full-range unmanned test from Changsha to Wuhan for the first time on July 14, creating a self-developed unmanned vehicle in China. The new record of autonomous driving under traffic conditions indicates that China’s unmanned vehicles have achieved new technological breakthroughs in complex environment recognition, intelligent behavior decision-making and control, and reached world advanced levels.

What conditions have been encountered by unmanned vehicles all the way through the use of sensors to identify 286 km of road markings? How is it "car mechanic"? The reporter interviewed professors He Hangen and Dai Bin of the Innovation Team of the National University of Science and Technology "Autonomous Driving Technology".

Talking about this "adventure", Dai Bin was excited. "From Changsha driving without driver to Wuhan is the medium-term goal of the National Natural Science Foundation of China's key project contract. We have achieved this goal in advance." He said, no The man driving experiment was completed during the day. At 9:00 on the same day, it took off from the Beijing Yangzhu Expressway toll station on the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway. The 286-kilometer journey took 3 hours and 22 minutes. “Cycling, braking, steering, changing lanes, and overtaking are all controlled by computer systems. We only set a maximum speed of 110 km/h for the system. How to open and how fast to start is controlled by it. All as passengers."

“The weather encountered complicated weather conditions on some days. Some sections of the road were foggy, and there was sudden rainfall in Xianning.” Dai Bin said that the unmanned vehicles did survive the actual test, including some complex traffic conditions and unclear lanes on the road sections. Etc. The car does not have navigation equipment such as GPS. It uses its own environmental sensors to identify the road markings. It then relies on the vehicle's intelligent behavior decision-making and control system to achieve autonomous driving in the intensive traffic flow that normally enters the expressway.

According to their statistics, in this experiment, the autonomous vehicles overwhelmed the vehicles 67 times and successfully surpassed 116 vehicles on other lanes and were overtaken by other vehicles for 148 times. The actual driving speed of the autonomous vehicles was 87 kilometers.

When it is too close to other vehicles, the deceleration of an unmanned vehicle is effective. "In the face of other car violations, how can a car be able to cope with it?" Prof. Dai Bin said that in the face of reporters' questions, this situation did occur in experiments. Several times the vehicles are forced to overtake and the distance is too close. Most of them are successfully handled by the unmanned system.” Unmanned vehicles have the capability of active safety, that is, if they are too close to the vehicle in front, they will command the pine immediately. Throttle, start the brake to achieve effective deceleration. "In general, the response speed of the machine can reach 40 milliseconds, and the fastest humans have 500 milliseconds."

Although the car can drive automatically, in the experiment, in order to ensure safety and not surprising, during the experiment day, the driver’s seat was still served as the supervisor of the task force’s Sun Zhenping.

According to the statistics of the day of the experiment, the entire driving process was manually intervened 10 times due to complicated road conditions and traffic conditions. Among them, the sensor misreported 3 times, and the manual intervention distance was about 180 meters. During the journey, it encountered 4 road constructions, and the manual intervention was about 510 meters. The other vehicle violated the rules and caused a safety hazard 1 time (taken by the supercar at a close distance). Intervention until the danger was lifted by about 150 meters; when entering the Baling rest area and Yanglou charge station, manual intervention was about 1,300 meters. "Overall, manual intervention miles accounted for less than one percent of total mileage for this autonomous driving."

In the world, the number of unmanned vehicles in the area of ​​human intervention generally accounts for less than 3% of the total number of drivers, which means that the National University of Science and Technology of the People's Liberation Army has reached the international advanced level.

Is this unmanned vehicle really developed by China itself?

Prof. He Hangen said that foreign countries have also conducted long-distance unmanned experiments. The first time was Carnegie Mellon University in 1995. That autonomous driving only controlled the direction. The throttle and brakes were controlled by people and there was no overtaking experiment. In contrast, the unmanned vehicle driving experiment is more difficult and technically higher.

He said that the experimental unmanned vehicle is an unmanned system developed specifically for domestic HQ3. It can make reasonable decisions based on complex road conditions and achieve complete autonomous control of direction and speed.

China’s unmanned vehicle started relatively late. In the mid-1990s, He Hangen participated in an international seminar on autonomous driving technology. Experts at the meeting suggested that many countries unite to jointly develop a new type of unmanned vehicle. He realized that this was to promote domestic A good opportunity for the development of autonomous driving technology is to ask if the organizing committee can join China. However, Japanese experts can refuse to participate in China because China does not have a car. After the meeting, he secretly resolved that he must develop a Chinese unmanned vehicle.

Under the leadership of Prof. He Hangen, in 2001, the company successfully developed the unmanned vehicle with a speed of 76 kilometers per hour. In 2003, it successfully developed China’s first high-speed unmanned sedans with a maximum speed of 170 kilometers per hour. In 2006, a new generation of unmanned red flags was developed. HQ3 is a breakthrough in reliability and miniaturization.

In 2007, Hongqi HQ3 participated in the 14th International Intelligent Transportation Conference. A demonstration of the actual car was made at the conference, which caused a sensation at home and abroad. "At that time, several foreign experts asked me directly whether this vehicle was actually developed by China himself. Other experts used western humor to ask if the car's hood had hidden three villains. A pipe throttle, a pipe brake, a pipe direction?” Prof. Dai Bin smiled and recalled. “My answer to them is that the entire unmanned system is completely developed by us. Even if there are really three villains, then It's also three Chinese-made robots!"

Unmanned vehicles can be compared to ordinary cars with unmanned vehicles compared to ordinary cars, in addition to the inner side of the window on both sides of the top of the camera, the other can not see the difference.

“These two cameras are the 'eyes' of the autonomous driving system. Apart from this, the car is exactly the same as the general car's appearance and interior, and it also has all the functions of artificial driving. It can also be used as an ordinary car to ride and drive." Under the guidance of Professor Dai Bin, the reporter found the 'brain' of the unmanned vehicle - a small control box hidden in the trunk. "We are using the computer equipment in this chassis to input instructions and set the maximum Driving parameters such as speed."

The main purpose of the development of driverless technology at this stage is not to create a car to drive on the road, but to help drivers reduce labor intensity and improve the vehicle's self-safety through the development and application of related technologies. Anti-recovery, anti-deviation, and automatic parking of the active safety system all require the support of unmanned technology.

Some high-end cars of internationally renowned brands are gradually equipped with active safety-related systems. At present, the research team of the National Defense University is working with FAW to conduct cooperative research and product development in related fields.