Traditional automobile nop

"Pilot assistance", on the way from automatic driving assistance to automatic driving, seems to be the most leap forward. Although it is also called assistance, since we set "autonomous driving" as the goal, the appearance of this thing allows us to see the prototype of achieving our goal.

The so-called navigation assistance, that is, on the basis of navigation function, supports vehicles to automatically enter and exit ramps and switch main roads on most expressways 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.

Note that the realization of this function has a very important premise: within the coverage of high-precision maps. So what does this range include? Including most highways, urban expressways, elevated roads and so on. Our test drive in Beijing is limited to the ring roads and expressways outside the Fifth Ring Road, because the high-precision map data inside the Fifth Ring Road is not open.

Of course, Weilai is not the only automobile manufacturer to realize this function. Actually, it's not the first one. The first is of course the evil Tesla. At present, three companies around the world have launched this function, namely Tesla, Weilai and Tucki. Remember their respective names: Tesla NOA (navigation? Open? Autopilot), Weilai NOP (navigation? Open? Pilot), Tucki ·NGP (navigation? Guided? Pilot).

When we drove out of the Fifth Ring Road in EC6, I couldn't wait to open NOP and try to talk to the future. Of course, I know in my heart that I am only talking to Wei Lai at most. Haha, but also curious. I don't even know what criteria to judge. I don't even know whether my conclusion is lenient or harsh. This is so interesting.

First of all, I have to admit that the experience of Weilai NOP is based on its advantages, because it is extremely simple to get started, which makes me extremely surprised. After the route in car navigation is set, press the NOP function key on the left side of the steering wheel, and then it's over, yes, it's over! Although I always agree that convenience is the most important plus item in a product experience, it is too simple.

If you press the function key on the road without high-precision map coverage, the vehicle will enter the conventional L2 autopilot, that is, a series of familiar functions such as adaptive cruise and lane keeping. When the vehicle enters the coverage of high-precision map, the vehicle will automatically turn on the navigation aid.

At this time, you can see a blue road icon in front of the virtual vehicle icon on the instrument, which means that you have entered the pilot mode and can relax. Of course, the second half of the sentence is the future scene.

In addition to convenient operation, another advantage of Weilai NOP is lane-changing operation. Vehicles will choose the appropriate lane according to the surrounding roads and traffic flow. For example, if there is a local train ahead, the vehicle will check whether the lanes on both sides meet the lane change conditions, including whether there is an express train coming behind, whether there is a vehicle blocking in front, and whether it is a dotted line. When the lane change conditions are met, the system will automatically plan the lane change route, turn on the turn signal and change lanes on its own.

The logic of the whole judgment and execution is conservative. For example, after it judges that it can change lanes, it will automatically turn on the turn signal, but it will wait two or three seconds before it starts to change lanes. If the dashed line is suddenly realized or a fast approaching car suddenly appears in the rear, Weilai vehicle will immediately stop changing lanes, return to its original position and continue to follow the car until it meets the lane change conditions and try again next time.

However, I also found something. For example, after the vehicle automatically changed lanes, the direction began to return to the correct point a little later than my own driving habits, so I was a little scared at the beginning of the experience, and I adapted to this rhythm after many successes, but the whole lane change process was very smooth and smooth, without sudden braking or acceleration.

When the advantages are finished, it's time to talk about the disadvantages. Weilai NOP system is very disciplined in normal cruising and lane-changing overtaking, but the access of ramp needs to be improved. First, the control of the direction in the process of merging into the ramp is obviously not as smooth as that in the ordinary lane change, and there will be piecemeal and unsmooth adjustments; Secondly, when merging into the new main road, the recognition rate of lane lines is not high enough, and occasionally the recognition fails and the vehicle needs to be taken over manually.

Analyze the cause of the problem. When there are few cars coming from the rear, there will be occasional piecemeal direction adjustment, which should be because the speed of lane change is large, especially when there are more cars coming from the right rear, the control strategy of the system can not reach the strain level of real-life driving. When merging into the main road, it is because there are too many kinds of ramp exits and the lanes are merged, so there are traces of inaccurate identification.

To sum up, the excellent feature of this NOP system of Weilai is that it is extremely convenient to use, and the fluency and safety of conventional lane changes are excellent. The shortcomings are: the ability to identify and respond to on-ramp is still lacking, and a lot of data and experience are needed to make it more perfect.

In addition, high-precision maps are not open within the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, so the use of this function in Beijing is actually limited. It should also be noted that NOP is our common L2 autopilot without high-precision map coverage, that is to say, whether there is a high-precision map or not, whether NOP is turned on or not, the prerequisites we must abide by include: holding the steering wheel with both hands. Because pilot assistance is not really automatic driving.

Of course, there are also omissions in my conclusion. For example, on the day of our test drive, there was no traffic jam on this section, and the test environment such as road conditions and traffic volume was ideal, so the overall experience result should be excellent. However, we are also planning an iron fist show to test Weilai NOP, and we will prepare a comprehensive test plan to see how it performs in various situations.

To tell the truth, as a person who is used to driving and likes to drive, I usually don't rely on or even resist this automatic driving assistance function, because the experience is much more tiring than driving by myself. Because I don't trust the system, I forcibly suppressed the impulse to take over the vehicle and watched the fear in my heart when it solved itself. It's really exaggerated, but the joy after every success is also very high and real, so I hope Weilai has a future and a future.

The author of this article is the Kicking Car Gang? Liu Jianxing

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.