Associated Incidents
Recently, according to multiple media reports, on the afternoon of July 7, a Wuhan netizen posted a video on a short video platform, saying that Baidu's autonomous driving travel service platform "LuoBoKuaiPao" driverless taxi collided with pedestrians on the streets of Wuhan. In the video, a pedestrian can be seen lying in front of the taxi, and the traffic police are at the scene. The accident caused some traffic congestion.
On July 8, a relevant person in charge of Baidu responded, "The accident occurred at the intersection of Yingwu Avenue and Guobo Avenue in Hanyang District, Wuhan City. The vehicle had a slight contact with a pedestrian who ran a red light when the green light was on. After the accident, our company immediately cooperated with the police to deal with it and accompanied the driver to the hospital for examination. He is currently in the hospital for further observation and rest."
Ji Xuehong, director of the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, told reporters: "As far as accidents caused by autonomous driving are concerned, there is no relatively clear and unified demarcation at the current policy level, and the responsibility for autonomous driving (accidents) at different levels of L2 to L4 is also different. Referring to the recent "Beijing Autonomous Driving Vehicle Regulations (Draft for Comments)", if there is no one in the car (in the event of an L4 autonomous driving accident), the responsibility of the vehicle owner and manager will be traced."
Responsibility determination needs to be improved
Baidu's official information shows that Carrot Run is an autonomous driving travel service platform launched by Baidu Apollo. It has currently opened manned test operation services in 11 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chongqing.
Public data shows that in 2022, a netizen exposed a photo of a car accident involving Baidu's Radish Run unmanned test car. The left rear of the vehicle was severely damaged and the taillight was damaged. At that time, Baidu officially responded that the accident was caused by the test vehicle being rear-ended by a truck behind it in normal driving, and it was reported to the relevant regulatory authorities for filing as soon as possible.
Regarding the determination of responsibility after an autonomous driving accident, Ji Xuehong said: "In the case of L2 and L3 level autonomous driving, the vehicle will give a prompt before the accident occurs. If the people in the car fail to respond in time, the responsibility shall be borne by the driver."
"For L4 and even higher level L5 autonomous driving, according to the Beijing Autonomous Driving Vehicle Regulations (Draft for Comments), if there is no one in the car, the vehicle operator and manager shall bear the responsibility, and may further hold the vehicle manufacturer or seller accountable." Ji Xuehong said.
In addition, on the Changjiang.com Wuhan Citizens Message Board, there are 324 messages about "Radish Run" so far. Multiple messages on the message board show that during the operation of Robotaxi on the road, the vehicle stagnated at green lights, rushed into the middle of the intersection at red lights, and got stuck when turning, causing traffic congestion, which had a certain impact on citizens' travel. In response to this phenomenon, the Wuhan Economic Development Zone Management Committee responded: "It is confirmed that the vehicle involved in the lawsuit is an autonomous driving test vehicle and is being debugged. The Development Zone Traffic Brigade will communicate and reflect problems with the company's person in charge on a regular basis to ensure road safety."
In response, Ji Xuehong said: "During peak hours and complex road conditions, Robotaxi will be slow to respond, resulting in traffic congestion. It is expected that unmanned driving may be realized around 2030, and before that, we hope to give more tolerance."
Autonomous driving frequently welcomes policy support
Although autonomous driving technology faces many controversies, this does not affect its rapid development trend. According to Pacific Securities' forecast, in 2025 and 2030, the market size of China's Robotaxi is expected to exceed 1.18 trillion yuan and 2.93 trillion yuan respectively, and will become one of the autonomous driving scenarios with the largest market space.
It is worth mentioning that autonomous driving technology has also received policy support. In November last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments jointly issued the "Notice on the Pilot Work of Access and Road Traffic of Intelligent Connected Vehicles"; in January this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five departments issued the "Notice on the Pilot Work of Intelligent Connected Vehicle "Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integration" Application", accelerating the promotion of unmanned, commercialized and large-scale applications of high-level autonomous driving from the urban end.
In addition, according to incomplete statistics from reporters, more than 50 cities have issued autonomous driving pilot demonstration policies, including Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other cities.
According to People's Daily on July 8, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economics and Information Technology recently solicited opinions on the "Beijing Autonomous Driving Vehicle Regulations (Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the Draft Opinion). Beijing intends to support autonomous driving vehicles for urban public electric bus passenger transport, online car-hailing, car rental and other urban travel services.
The reporter found that compared with the current regulations, the Draft Opinion put forward more detailed guidance, including the application of autonomous driving vehicles in various urban service scenarios, the establishment of a declaration and confirmation system for road testing and operation, and the encouragement of intelligent roadside infrastructure construction. More importantly, the draft opinion also provides clear provisions for the remote monitoring of autonomous driving safety officers and the determination of responsibility for unmanned driving accidents.
The draft opinion proposes that traffic violations during driving on the road shall be handled and determined by the public security traffic management department in accordance with the current laws and regulations. If there is a driver in the car, the driver shall be dealt with in accordance with the law; if there is no driver in the car, the vehicle owner and manager shall be dealt with.
"This draft opinion clarifies the various application scenarios of autonomous driving vehicles, as well as the relevant traffic violations and accident responsibility determination rules, clarifies the convenient management measures and prudent and inclusive supervision principles, and provides clearer and more effective regulations for the implementation of autonomous driving vehicles." Pony.ai said that the draft for comments is the first time that autonomous driving has moved towards "provincial legislation."
Comprehensive Daily Economic News