The road test of the L3 automatic driving function has just been completed in Chengdu. Recently, the Chinese EV startup WM(WELTMEISTER) Motor has carried out the road test of L4 unmanned driving technology in the Shanghai Lingang driverless demonstration area. The company said that the road test will help it to verify and optimize the autopilot technology algorithm, making the product more suitable for China’s road traffic environment and Chinese users’ habits.
According to reports, the WM EX5 self-driving test vehicle passed the test of pedestrians crossing the road, following car, cutting out and cutting in front of the vehicle in the unmanned driving demonstration area of Shanghai Lingang. In addition, the sensitivity of its driverless sensing equipment has withstood the test of light rain, moderate rain, and even heavy rain mode. It is worth mentioning that the WM EX5 self-driving test vehicle successfully passes through a tunnel of up to 500 meters and no GPS signal coverage by means of its own sensing system and inertial navigation.
Previously, WM Motor had already taken action in the L4 automatic driving. At CES Asia held in June this year, WM Motor demonstrated the L4 Valet Parking software and hardware integration solution jointly developed with Baidu. The self-driving car equipped with Valet Parking can realize the remote pick-up, autonomous parking and automatic charging at the permanent location through mobile terminals such as mobile phones, which effectively improves the travel experience of shared car users and private car owners.
According to the regulations of the American Society of Automotive Engineers, automatic driving is divided into six levels of L0-L5. The L0 level means there is no automatic driving function, L1 and L2 are advanced driving assistance driving levels, L3 means conditional automatic driving, that is, the driver can leave the steering wheel with both hands under certain conditions, and L4 and L5 refer to the highly automatic driving and fully automatic driving. L5-class automatic driving is the highest state of development of smart cars.
As a startup car maker, smart driving is almost a battleground in China, WM Motor is no exception. As early as March of this year, WM Motor has released its auto-driving function called “Living Pilot”, which has been mass-produced and equipped on the WM EX5. It is reported that Living Pilot can realize ACCA with stop-and-go function adaptive cruise, ICA (high-speed cruise + lane keeping assistance), AEB (automatic emergency braking) and other functions, which can realize true L2 automatic driving assistance function. In the future, the L3 driving assistance technology developed for the Chinese driving scene will be directly used on models of WM Motor, and it is planned to start mass production as early as 2020.
