Autonomous driving technology is undergoing a leapfrog development from assisted driving to highly automated driving. From the initial L2 level adaptive cruise control to the commercial operation of L4 level autonomous taxis in multiple cities today, AI technology is the core engine driving this transformation.
The perception system is the foundation of autonomous driving. The current mainstream solution adopts a multi-sensor fusion architecture of "camera+LiDAR+millimeter wave radar". A deep learning based visual recognition system can detect and classify pedestrians, vehicles, and traffic signs in milliseconds. Tesla's pure visual solution and Waymo's LiDAR solution represent two different technological paths, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Decision planning is the brain of autonomous driving. Traditional rule-based methods are inadequate in dealing with complex urban road conditions, while end-to-end methods based on reinforcement learning and imitation learning are gradually becoming mainstream. The introduction of big language models has brought the ability of "common sense reasoning" to autonomous driving, enabling vehicles to understand complex traffic scenarios and social interaction rules.
Computing chips are the physical foundation of autonomous driving. The NVIDIA Orin and Thor chips provide up to 2000 TOPS of computing power, supporting simultaneous processing of multiple sensor data. In terms of domestic chips, the Horizon Journey series and Black Sesame Intelligent chips are also catching up quickly. Since 2025, many car companies have adopted domestic intelligent driving chip solutions.
The commercial vehicle field is also an important application scenario for autonomous driving. Unmanned driving in closed scenarios such as ports, mining areas, and logistics parks has achieved large-scale operation. The autonomous driving of mainline logistics has also opened test sections in multiple provinces.
However, the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving still faces challenges such as improved regulations, defined responsibilities, and adaptability to extreme weather conditions. Since 2026, multiple countries and regions have introduced regulations related to autonomous driving, providing institutional guarantees for the implementation of technology. It is expected that L4 level autonomous driving will be commercially available on a large scale within limited areas by 2030.
The content of this article is comprehensively compiled from SAE International, publicly available technical white papers from various automotive companies, and industry research reports. <｜end▁of▁thinking｜>
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