Chinese car brands hit accelerator on road tests for level three autonomous driving tech

China has given the go-ahead to nine local car brands to start testing level three autonomous vehicles on public roads. Applications for the trials opened in November last year. Among the nine brands accepted are BYD and Nio, as well as government-run firms including Changan Automobile and SAIC, per a statement from the …

[sedregj]

Self driving, my arse

Hopefully this URL should get you to the place I intended! Near Diptford in Devon:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.3941664,-3.7421364,3a,75y,248.35h,76.07t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAccd-VdNJ5yPdvjOSf7Ckg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DAccd-VdNJ5yPdvjOSf7Ckg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D248.34753609621654%26pitch%3D13.934699941293545%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu

"Drive" towards the farm on the right in the distance and try and imagine parking (the slope down is about 33%). Easy for a human in summer, quite tricky for a tractor in winter. Now try getting to Diptford or Harbertonford and thence to the mighty metropolis of Totnes.

How do you tell a car to ignore the fact that both wing mirrors are brushing through hedges and that avoiding that pot hole will involve a heavy session with the T cut later on but that's better than a broken tyre/axle/death? What does it do at a ford?

That was easy, now try driving around Napoli or as I call it: "bumper cars".

Also, it will need to be able to play "I spy" and be able to find a safe place to stop and extricate little Johnny for a wee or a dump ...

I suggest we add a few more levels after 5.

[DS999]

Re: Self driving, my arse

There will always be a need for some sort of manual control - there aren't roads everywhere so if you want to drive a truck into your backyard to have a shorter trip to offload a hottub (something I helped some friends with last Friday) you're going to have to "take the wheel". Even if it is done via the touchscreen or an app on your phone there will always be a need for a human to force a vehicle to go where the car doesn't have maps and will refuse to go.

[CowHorseFrog]

We all know chinese companies never lie, this will turn china into a bigger shithole than it already is.

[Winkypop]

Self driving cars in China

Well, if Chinese dash cam videos are to be believed, it should be a marked improvement.

[Bebu]

Dismal calculus?

1,425,213,791 + FSD L3 -> 1,425,213,79¹0

Even a particularly exceptional homicidal marque of vehicle is unlikely to make much of dent in 1.4_billion but, unless their OAPs are bit fleeter of foot when crossing the road than ours, these vehicles might reduce the median age of the PRC's graying demographics.

[MachDiamond]

Bad Baidu

It was pointed out that the data Tesla signed up for with the Chinese firm was specifically NOT for any sort of self driving, only for the more traditional SatNav.