[Driverless cars] 6 levels of autonomous driving | Detailed explanation of development history and technology applications | Are there autonomous driving cars available in Hong Kong?

The research and development of autonomous driving has a history of nearly 100 years. In 1925, American inventor Francis Houdina used radio control to remotely control vehicles to start engines, turn gears and make noises. This is considered to be the prototype of "autonomous driving".

In the early 1990s, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University Dean Pomerleau proposed to combine neural networks with autonomous driving to obtain raw images from the road in real time, thereby controlling the driving direction. In 1995, he and his colleagues developed a self-driving minivan that traveled a total of nearly 2,850 miles (about 4,586 kilometers), but speed and brakes still required manual control.

Entering the 21st century, autonomous driving has become a must for all major car manufacturers. Even Google launched its autonomous driving car program in 2009. Waymo program, and first launched a limited service in Phoenix in 2017. After years of development, Waymo officially announced in June this year that it would provide comprehensive autonomous driving services in San Francisco, with a total of 300 autonomous driving cars available for passengers.

Autonomous driving technology has always relied mainly on LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) radar ranging,

However, Solid-State LiDARSolid-State LiDAR has been developed in recent years by using the optical phase matrix changes the angle of laser light emission, which is different from the traditional mechanical rotating structure and can be used in 1 Changing the emission angle within microseconds can significantly reduce the size and weight, and has been adopted by many car manufacturers.

and Tesla FSD (Full Self-Driving) technology, in addition to the use of lenses and sensors as detection hardware, the most important thing is to use the neural network architecture as the judgment core, in a similar way to training ChatGPT, to establish the most humane and most human-like driving mode, which is very different from the traditional concept of autonomous driving.

According to the definition of Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International), autonomous driving is divided into 6 levels.

Speaking of autonomous driving in Hong Kong, the Transport Department currently only approves drivers to use driving assistance functions such as following, parking, side collision avoidance and lane changing, which are Level 1. Remote control parking or simple operation, which are popular in the Mainland, are still not available in Hong Kong. However, as early as 2017, the Hong Kong government’s “Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong” Smart Mobility" has stated that it will promote the testing of autonomous driving vehicles.

Despite years of development, autonomous driving in Hong Kong is still in the testing stage. Interested parties must apply to the Transport Department, as well as vehicle inspection and testing by the Transport Department, as well as insurance, repair and maintenance matters. In the past, self-driving vehicles were mainly introduced in large institutions such as the Science Park, West Kowloon Cultural District and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. For ordinary Hong Kong people, owning a self-driving vehicle is still a long way off.

In April this year, West Kowloon Cultural Districtannounced that it would trial self-driving buses in the district, M+ to Hong Kong Palace Museum, but no relevant information has been found on the West Kowloon Cultural District website. In fact, as early as 2017, self-driving vehicles were available for citizens to ride in the West Kowloon Cultural District, and the new self-driving buses expected to be launched this year will use the latest 5G technology and vehicle networking technology C-V2X.