Autonomous Cars: The Ultimate Technology

An autonomous car, even referred to as a self-driving car or a driverless car is a vehicle that makes use of a combination of sensors, cameras, radars, and artificial intelligence to travel to the destination without any human operator. 

To qualify as a fully autonomous vehicle, it must be able to navigate without any human intervention to a predetermined destination over the roads that have not been adapted for its use.

How do driverless cars work?

Artificial intelligence technologies power driverless car systems. The developers of these vehicles use a vast amount of data from image recognition systems, along with machine learning as well as neural networks, in order to build systems that can drive autonomously. The neural networks help to identify the patterns in the data. These patterns are fed to the machine learning algorithms. This includes various images from cameras on driverless cars from which the neural network learns to identify traffic lights, street signs, trees, and other parts of any given environment.

Features of Autonomous Cars

Most of the cars we see today have a lower level of autonomy. However, there are still some of them having self-driving features. 

Hands-Free Steering

The hands-free steering feature centers the car without any human’s hand on the steering wheel. However, the driver is still required to pay attention.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)

The adaptive cruise control down to a stop automatically maintains a selectable distance between the driver’s car and the vehicle in front of the car.

Lane-Centered Steering

Whenever the driver crosses a lane marking by automatically taking the vehicle towards the opposite lane marking, the lane-centered steering features enables the steering to intervene.

Levels of Autonomy in Driverless Cars

There are six levels of automation. Out of those, the basic level of autonomy is Level 0. At this level, humans do the driving. Let us go through the next five levels that follow Level 0 automation.

Level 1

At level 1, an ADAS, that is, Advanced Driver Assistance System aids the human driver with steering, braking, accelerating, but not simultaneously. It also includes a rearview camera and other features like a vibrating seat warning the drivers when they cross the travelling lane.

Level 2

At level 2, the ADAS is used which can steer and brake/ accelerate simultaneously keeping the driver fully aware. It continues to act as a driver.

Level 3

At level 3, an ADS, that is, Automated Driving System is used. It can perform almost all the driving tasks under certain circumstances. At this level, the human driver must be ready to retake the control of the vehicle and is still required to be the main driver of the vehicle.

Level 4

At level 4, the ADS can perform all the driving tasks as well as monitor the driving environment in some circumstances. At this level, the ADS is reliable enough that it is fine if the drive does not need to pay attention.

Level 5

At level 5, the ADS acts as a virtual chauffeur. The ADS does all the driving in any circumstances. The humans present in this level of vehicle are passengers. They are not expected to drive the vehicle.

Pros and Cons of Autonomous Cars

• The foremost benefit achieved by autonomous vehicles is safety. The autonomous cars eliminate the risk factors. However, the driverless cars can still prove vulnerable to other factors like mechanical problems.
• Autonomous cars can significantly reduce the number of accidents. Consequently, these economic benefits could be enormous. Driverless trucks may prevent crashes and improve the economy.
• Considering the theory, if the roads were occupied by autonomous vehicles, the traffic would flow smoothly as well as there would be less traffic congestion.
• In fully automated cars, the passengers could do productive activities. Those people who are not able to drive due to physical limitations could find a new independence through autonomous vehicles. They would get the opportunity to work in the fields which require driving.
• The downsides of autonomous technology can be that occupying a vehicle without a driver behind the steering wheel may be uncomfortable and unnerving, atleast at the beginning. But, as the technology becomes handy, human drivers may become over reliant on this technology and leave their safety in the hands of automation. This is not a good practice. They should act as backup drivers in case of mechanical problems or software failures.

Safety Measures and Challenges

• The autonomous cars must be able to identify any number of objects in the vehicle’s path, whether it is branches or litter up to animals and human beings. Other challenges on the road can be the tunnels that interfere with the Global Positioning System (GPS), the construction projects which result in lane change or any other complex decision.
• The vehicle needs to make instant decisions on when to stop, slow down, or continue with the normal acceleration. This is a huge challenge for developers.
• Along with the crashes comes the question of liability. The lawmakers have yet to define who is responsible when an autonomous car is involved in an accident.
• There are other serious problems such as the software used to operate the vehicle can be hacked. The automotive companies are working to address the cybersecurity risks.

Image Source: Google Images