Revolution in Automobiles: Self-Driving Car Technology
Self-Driving Car Technology
Imagine getting into your car, typing or speaking a location into your car’s interface, then let it drive you to your desired destination while you read a book, watch a movie, surf the web, or nap. Self-Driving cars are coming & are going to be the revolution in automobiles. They’re going to radically change what it’s like to get from one destination to another destination.
About Self-Driving Car
A Self-Driving Car, some people called an autonomous car, automated car, or driverless car is capable of sensing its environment & moving safely with little or no human input. A human driver is not required to take control of the vehicle or required to be present in the car at all. This car can go anywhere a traditional car goes & do everything that an experienced human driver does.
Google started the self-Driving Car project in 2009 to drive an autonomous car over ten uninterrupted 100-mile routes. In 2016, Waymo, an independent driving technology company, became a subsidiary of Alphabet, & Google’s Self-Driving project became Waymo. Waymo then introduced its first fully autonomous vehicle operated by the Waymo Driver on public roads without anyone in the driver’s seat.
Tesla started its Self-Driving Car project in 2014 & announced its first version of Autopilot. Model S cars are equipped with this system & are capable of lane control with autonomous steering, braking & adjusting speed limit based on signals image recognition.
Like Ford, General Motors, Honda & Hyundai, all other top carmakers have already started working towards Self-Driving Car Technology with billions of dollars in R&D & acquisitions. Impending transitions will impact all businesses & industries in autonomous vehicle technology.
Defining "Self-Driving" in Levels
Level 0: No Automation
Most vehicles on the road today are without automation & manually controlled. Although there may be systems in place to help the driver, the human provides driving tasks.
Level 1: Driver Assistance
At this level, the car can perform some small steering or acceleration tasks without human intervention, but everything else is entirely under human control.
Level 2: Partial Automation
There is advanced control or original autopilot system on some vehicles like Tesla. The car can take safety measures on its own, but the driving force must stay alert at the wheel.
Level 3: Conditional Automation
At this stage of automation, the human must still drive the vehicle. Under such traffic or environmental conditions, the person can still assign certain “safety-critical functions” to the car. As humans move the critical tasks of driving to or from the vehicle, this presents some possible risks, so some car companies are interested in moving to level 4.
Level 4: High Automation
At this level, automation may be a car that will drive itself most of the time with no human input but could be programmed to not drive in unmapped areas or during severe weather. This type of car is often a car you’ll sleep.
Level 5: Full Automation
At this 5th level, automation means full automation where human attention is not required. These cars won’t even have steering wheels, acceleration pedals, or braking pedals. They can go anywhere and do everything a human driver would. These fully autonomous cars are undergoing testing in different parts of the world but not available for the general public.
How do Self-Driving Car works?
These Self-Driving Cars rely on Sensors, Actuators, Software Algorithms & powerful processors to execute software. These Cars create & maintain a map of their surrounding area based on sensors situated in different vehicle parts.
Radar Sensors
These sensors monitor the position of surrounding vehicles.
Video Cameras
These cameras detect traffic lights, read road signs & track other vehicles & pedestrians on the road.
Light Detection & Ranging Sensors
These sensors bounce pulses of light off the cars surrounding to measure distances, detect road edges & identify lane markings.
Ultrasonic Sensors
These sensors detect curbs & other vehicles when parking.
The software then processes all the sensory inputs, plots a path & sends an instruction to the car’s actuators to control acceleration, braking & steering. Available database & statistics, connecting database, obstacle avoidance algorithms & object recognition help the software to follow traffic rules & navigate obstacles.
Advantages & Disadvantages of
Self-Driving Car
Advantages
Less Number of Accidents
As there is no opportunity for distraction, Self-Driving cars prevent human errors & as a result, accidents will reduce as the system controls the vehicle. Its complicated algorithm determines the correct stopping distance from one vehicle to another. This system will reduce the chances of accidents dramatically.
Less Traffic Jam
When a group of self-driving cars travels together on highways, the device helps them to brake or accelerate at the same time. This device has the potential to alleviate traffic congestion and increase traffic flow significantly. The traffic jam may reduce as a result of this.
Stress-Free Parking
When you are traveling in a Self-Driving Car, you don’t need to worry about parking space at your destination. Your car will detect vacant parking spots at your destination to park. This technology will reduce your time to find out parking space.
Time-Saving
As the system takes over control of the car during traveling, you can spare time to continue to do your essential office work, watching your favorite movie, reading a book, or taking a nap.
Accessibility to Transportation
The senior citizen & disabled person will have easy access to transportation as they don’t need to rely on others. Self-Driving vehicles assist them towards safe & accessible transit.
Operating Safety
Human Drivers often take risks, bend the rules & breaking laws, but Self-Driving cars follow every rule & posted speed limit & hence making the road safer for everyone.
Shortening Journey Time
In Self-Driving Cars, speed limits could be safely increased & adjust according to need. It will shorten the journey time.
Disadvantages
Expensive
High technology vehicles are expensive because a large amount of money is needed for research & development and choosing the material such as software, modified vehicle parts & sensors. Due to this, the cost of having a Self-Driving vehicle is initially higher.
Safety & Security Concerns
Technologies are continuously updating &, if not updated correctly & successfully, and there are chances of a sudden unexpected defect in the vehicle.
Prone to hacking
These Self-Driving vehicles could be the principal target of hackers as the car continuously tracks & monitors the owner’s details. Hackers may get access to personal data.
Fewer Job Opportunities
In these Self-Driving vehicles, the roles & responsibilities of humans will replace by Artificial Intelligence. Transport companies will no longer need a workforce to drive their taxies & trucks. This AI may significantly impact the employment rate & economic growth of the country.
Operations during worst weather condition
There may be chances of sensor failure during extreme weather conditions such as a severe snowstorm or heavy snowfall. In this situation, the system of the vehicle will not operate properly.
Responsibility during accident
If the car crashes without a driver, who is responsible? Software Engineer or owner of the vehicle? There will be debates about legal, ethical & financial responsibility.
Self-Driving Cars:
The biggest challenges
Safety Standards and Regulations
One of the most critical concerns is public safety, prohibiting Self-driving cars from being released into our roads. There are numbers of motor vehicle safety standards that directly or indirectly freeze some innovative features of Self-Driving Car. Some rules have already implemented to reduce the number of deaths and injuries, blocking these vehicles from hitting the road.
Data Privacy and Data Ownership
Data is the backbone of self-driving vehicles to drive themselves & these vehicles will generate a large amount of data each day. As the information may exchange in real-time, the question may arise who has the rights to use & profit from that data. Manufacturers, Customers & regulatory agencies need to consider releasing information to advance technology & protecting an individual’s data.
Product Liability
If a self-driving car causes an accident that leads to loss of life or property damage, who will be kept accountable & what will be the role of product responsibility?
In most cases, the liability is on the shoulders of the driver & not on the manufacturers.
Public Sector Infrastructure
The self-driving car will be operating with infrastructure created for human drivers & our road infrastructure is often built & maintained by Government. Since these cars rely on different sensors than human drivers, we will need to consider adapting current infrastructure, which will be helpful to both types of operations.
Close collaborations between automobile companies & government agencies could overcome these technical obstacles.
There is a need to change a system for both type of operations
State Regulations
There are different sets of regulations for transportation in other countries. Individual governments are responsible for the majority of the regulatory challenges that face the production of self-driving cars.
When are our Self-Driving Cars coming?
Almost all the business magazines & automobile experts had predicted the launch of Self-Driving cars on the road by 2020 after the announcement from Googles Waymo, General Motors, Toyota & Honda that they’d be making Self-Driving cars by 2020. But now we are in 2021 but still waiting.
Although extraordinary efforts from all these names in automobile technology, fully self-driving cars are still out of reach except in trial programs.
We have been close to these self-driving cars for years now. Waymo is doing test runs since 2017. Tesla’s periodic software updates make its Autopilot highway self-driving work better but remain short of fully self-driving.
It isn’t easy to get an idea of a fully self-driving car on the road. Companies hesitate to put their cars on the street as they are not ready. It’s not hard to imagine the arrival of these cars later this year. It’s also not hard to imagine that it will push deadlines by another 3 or 4 years.
Self-Driving cars are on the way. They are closer than they were a year ago. We can only wait & watch When they get here.
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