Get to know Self-Driving Cars
Imagine napping in the driver’s seat of your car, at 60 miles per hour. Believe it or not, this is not a set up for a horrible car crash story. Self-driving cars are shaping the future of transportation. This is just the tip of the iceberg, new innovations are making technology evolve at a rapid pace. In the past self-driving vehicles were seen as an impossible feat; something out of a science fiction novel. However, today they have become a reality through the use of artificial intelligence.
How automated is your car?
There are different levels of classifying autonomous vehicles which was created by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 2014. Since then, it has been updated twice and adopted by the US Department of Transportation and the United Nations to become the worldwide standard.
Now, there has been confusion between the term “automated” and “autonomous”. The difference is the level of human intervention required; autonomous refers to being able to decide on routes and destinations while automated only follows orders. Whatever the case, the words are thrown around so loosely that it doesn’t exactly matter.
Level 0 — This is your everyday car, nothing special. The driver has full control of the car and is in charge of reacting to hazards.
Level 1 — This is when the driver and the car share control. The vehicle must include at least one driver-assistance feature such as adaptive cruise control and parking assist. Overall, level 1 autonomy offers safety functions that ease certain tasks and increase driving convenience.
Level 2 — Level 2 autonomy allows the car to have full control over steering, speed, and breaking. The vehicle must include two or more advanced driver assistance systems which work together in a coordinated fashion. However, the driver must always be alert with their hands on the wheel, ready to intervene if something were to happen. Some examples are Tesla’s Autopilot and Nissan’s ProPilot.
Level 3 — Close your eyes and go on your phone. Level 3 autonomy is truly a self-driving vehicle. This allows you to take your eyes off of the road and remove your hands from the wheel. However, the driver must be alert to take control in any given situation and it only works when certain conditions are met.
Level 4— Nap time! That’s right, level 4 autonomy exempts the driver from having to intervene at all. You don’t need to pay attention or stay alert, meaning you could go to sleep if you wanted to. The difference between level 3 and level 4 autonomy is that the vehicle can intervene in danger or system failures. Unfortunately, these cars are confined to certain geofenced locations and may only go up to a certain speed.
Level 5 —You might need the car, but it surely doesn’t need you. These vehicles are able to drive anywhere and go at any given speed, being able to do anything a human driver can do. While levels below are considered “self-driving”, level 5 is simply driverless.
Let’s look back…
The journey towards self-driving cars started in 1939. General Motors hosted an exhibit at the World Fair, where Norman Bell Geddes created the first self-driving car using magnets embedded in the road. This concept was improved upon in 1958, when General Motors upgraded to sensors called pick-up coils which could be controlled to move left or right using currents. In 1977, the Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Lab created a driverless car using machine vision and white markers on the road. By the 1980s, Ernst Dickmanns got a Mercedes to drive hundreds of miles on its own which was very impressive for the time. Advancements were incremental, but essential to the world of technology.
Inspired by the advancements that were being made at the time in the idea of self-driving cars, the US DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) hosted a race in 2004, which challenged various teams to compete using automated cars. With the prize of $1 million, it was a fierce competition which was aimed at creating automated vehicles for the US military. During the competition, no team was successful, having all cars crash after only a couple miles. However, they hosted the event again the following year which resulted in more promising outcomes. With more advanced software, sensors, and control, the teams had the resources needed for a chance at winning. The Stanford AI Lab’s team emerged victorious with their Volkswagen Touareg.
What about now?
Currently, companies such as Google, General Motors, Ford, BMW, and Tesla are competing for leadership in the world of self-driving cars. Even Uber has paired up with Volvo to create a self-driving taxi. Although in 2020, there aren’t any autonomous vehicles available to the general public, everyone believes they will be the one to do it first. Tesla does sell a Full Self-Driving car package, but it isn’t autonomous and the German government even asked them to stop using this term.
There are a lot of things a self-driving car needs to have. People want safety, speed, and smooth transportation. So far, nobody has created a fully efficient level 5 self-driving car, but the future looks promising.
Why do we want them?
Here are a couple of the many benefits to creating autonomous cars:
- The elderly and disabled could be fully independent. Having to normally rely on others, they would be able to function without assistance while also saving time for their would-be driver.
- It would reduce traffic congestion because there would be an estimated 30% less vehicles on the road. It is also aimed to have vehicles communicate with each other in order to coordinate driving.
- There would be fewer collisions because these vehicles would be programmed to avoid accidents, with sensors which can detect at all angles. Cars also can’t be affected by fatigue, hunger, or distraction therefore lowering the chance of collision.
- Humans would be more productive since they wouldn’t be spending time with their hands on the wheel. They could be working in the same time they would normally drive, making transportation-time more efficient and valuable.
Overall, self-driving cars have a long way to go, but in less than a century we have gone from magnets to computers. Thanks to the help of years of innovation, we are closer than ever to achieving the futuristic sci-fi movie fantasy. While we may not have them yet, technology has been advancing at an exponential rate and we are in the final stretch to a fully autonomous car.
Zoe Petroianu is a Student Ambassador in the Inspirit AI Student Ambassadors Program. Inspirit AI is a pre-collegiate enrichment program that exposes curious high school students globally to AI through live online classes. Learn more at https://www.inspiritai.com/.
Sources:
The 6 Levels of Vehicle Autonomy Explained. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.synopsys.com/automotive/autonomous-driving-levels.html
Hyatt, K. (2018, March 29). Self-driving cars: A level-by-level explainer of autonomous vehicles. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/self-driving-car-guide-autonomous-explanation/
Pocket-lint. (2020, August 19). Self-driving cars: Autonomous driving levels explained. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.pocket-lint.com/cars/news/143955-sae-autonomous-driving-levels-explained
What is an Autonomous Car? — How Self-Driving Cars Work. (n.d.). Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.synopsys.com/automotive/what-is-autonomous-car.html
Where to? A History of Autonomous Vehicles. (2020, April 08). Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://computerhistory.org/blog/where-to-a-history-of-autonomous-vehicles/?key=where-to-a-history-of-autonomous-vehicles