By Zhang Yan, Victoria Waldersee and Nick Carey
July 4 (Reuters)
China has made it to the headlines, once again, but this time around for something different. It is something to do with technology, but leaning towards safety as well. For its self-driving assistance systems, the Asian country has issued safety measures, and this has been pushed after a recent accident in which the self-driving vehicle lost control. China is just putting together a strategy that balances out innovation, technology, advancement, driver experience, and safety. That is the whole goal, but in this case, safety is the main conversation more than anything.
China is hungry for fast innovation, but safety comes first
China’s automakers are outpacing foreign rivals in their push for assisted-driving technology, eager to woo motorists hungry for rapid innovation. Yet, Beijing has a nuanced message for its rising stars: move fast – but be careful. Regulators this week have been finalising new safety rules for driver-assistance systems as Beijing sharpens scrutiny of the technology following an accident.
This accident involved a Xiaomi 1810. THE HK SU7 sedan in March. That incident killed three occupants when their car crashed seconds after the driver took control from the assisted-driving system. While Chinese officials want to prevent carmakers from overselling the capabilities of such systems, they are also threading the needle between innovation and safety to ensure their automakers don’t lose out to U.S. and European rivals.
China just has to make sure it puts strong regulations out there
We understand that innovation is the thing right now, particularly the self-driving assistance vehicles. However, how best does it serve if technology is growing and people are dying or getting injured? Therefore, the Chinese automakers and brands should put out there serious and firm regulations and guidelines to avoid the same accident from happening again.
The good part is that these automakers have full support from the government. I mean, the same government has been pushing for China to deploy more of these assisted‑driving systems. Therefore, the goal here is to ensure safety measures are put in place for a safer road drive. Setting clear regulations for assisted-driving tech without slowing its advancement could give China’s industry an edge over global competitors.
The global rush to remain relevant
This approach is in stark contrast to the U.S. market, where companies pursuing autonomous cars have expressed frustration that the government has not implemented a regulatory system to validate and test the technology. Markus Muessig, auto industry lead at Accenture Greater China, said China’s regulators and industries have long followed former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s,
“Feel the stones to cross the river” philosophy. The expression means to steadily explore new, uncertain technologies, which “has proven very successful for this market.”
Current Chinese regulations allow systems that automatically steer, brake, and accelerate under certain conditions while requiring the driver to stay engaged. For that reason, marketing terms such as “smart” and “autonomous” are banned. The new rules will focus on hardware and software designs that monitor a driver’s state of awareness and their capacity to take control in time.
Meanwhile, other car brands are also pushing for the assisted‑driving systems, but we all know who is inspiring them. China, of course. Right now, we can already see and perceive the issues that surround this system, and there seems to be a solution as well to prevent accidents from happening. Just keep this in mind: “Move fast – but be careful.” Always be careful. Obey the road rules and adhere to the speed limits for each road. States in the U.S. already have interesting speed limit devices; therefore, we do not want this to be part of China’s safety initiative because of reckless speed.
GCN.com/Reuters.
