On June 9th, according to CNET reports, the Japanese car giant Honda was particularly cautious when talking about driverless cars and other future plans in the past. Now, it finally let go! Honda expects to launch driverless cars in 2025. These cars will support Level 4 driverless functions, that is, human intervention is required only in certain driving modes, and the cars will drive autonomously the rest of the time, and they can monitor the environment.

 

 

 

Figure: Honda’s hardware strategy is not much different from other competitors, mainly relying on cameras, radars and lidars

 

But before that, Honda will not do nothing. Honda plans to launch a semi-autonomous driverless system in 2020 to help cars achieve driverless driving on highways. Honda conducted an early demonstration of this system in Japan this week, which left a deep impression. At the same time, Honda is also trying to control R&D costs by increasing coordination and cooperation between R&D and manufacturing departments. The company is also developing advanced safety systems and electric systems.

 

It is still unclear which Honda cars will eventually become electrified, but by 2030, electric vehicles (including hybrid vehicles, battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) will account for 2/3 of all Honda car products. Currently, this figure accounts for about 5%.

 

Honda plans to put Level 4 driverless cars on the road in 2025, five years later than other automakers estimated. But in this emerging market, being the first to go public does not mean that it is the wisest move. Look at the Tesla Electric Vehicle Company, all eyes are on it, and any accident will cause a hustle and bustle on the entire Internet. Tesla may be able to tide over the difficulties, but traditional automakers will face more difficult challenges.

 

Take Apollo 13 as an example. When something goes wrong, all public opinion takes on a negative form, causing human civilization to revolve around the blue earth for decades. Only now have we seriously considered sending humans to Mars. Similar setbacks can easily occur in the field of driverless cars, and it is likely that "some pioneer" in this field will suffer the most. In this case, "being late" may be the wisest choice. (Little)