More and more semi-autonomous cars cruise on the road every day, and yet I still don’t believe that full autonomy may ever happen in the next 5 years. An autonomous vehicle, also known as a self-driving car, robotic car, drive-less car, is a vehicle that has the ability to sensing its environment and navigate without any human input. Car companies have been talking about self-driving vehicles for years, the first experimentation started in the 1920’s! An autonomous vehicle takes over, driver’s tasks to perform transportation capabilities of a traditional car. The autonomous vehicles sense their surroundings with such techniques as radar, LIDAR, camera, GPS, processors, wheel speed, sensor, infrared camera, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation path. These innovative robotic vehicles are capable of updating their maps based on sensory input.
The continuing advancement of technology has made autonomous vehicles a reality. Experiments have been conducted on autonomous vehicles since the 1920’s; promising trials took place in the 1950’s and work has proceeded since then. The first truly self-sufficient vehicle appeared in the 1980’s at Carnegie Mellon University’s Navlab and ALV project in 1984. Since then, numerous major companies and research organizations have developed working prototype self-driving vehicles including General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Continental Automotive Systems, Volkswagen, Nissan, Toyota, Google, Universities and many others just to name a few. Also. In 2005, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) Grand Challenge, fueled the development and research. In July of 2013, Visalab demonstrated BRAiVe, a vehicle that moved autonomously on a mixed traffic route open to public traffic. As of 2013, four US states have passed laws permitting autonomous vehicles: Nevada, California, Michigan and Florida. In 2015 those four states together with Washington, D.C. will be joined by Virginia in allowing the testing of fully autonomous cars on public roads.
Google is a great example of a company that has done notable work in this field for the past few years. Google modified a Toyota Prius, which uses an array of sensors to navigate public roads without a human driver. Including a GPS receiver and an internal motion sensor. The car functions as well with a Lidar which is a rotating sensor on the roof that scans more than 200 feet in all directions to generate a precise three-dimensional map of the vehicle’s surroundings. With a video camera mounted near the rear-view mirror detects traffic lights and helps the car’s onboard computers recognize moving obstacles like pedestrians and bicyclists. Optic cameras are mounted near the rearview mirror which build real-time 3D images of the road ahead, spotting hazards like pedestrians and animals. It’s also used to identify road markings and traffic signals. These autonomous vehicles use processors, some 7 dual 2.13 GHz processors and 2Gb of RAM are needed to make sense of the data collected by the vehicle’s instruments. Wheel Speed Sensors measure the road wheel speed and direction of rotation. A sensor mounted on the left rear wheel measures small movements made by the car and helps to accurately locate its position on the map. Four standard automotive radar sensors, three in front and one in the rear, help determine the positions of distant objects. Many of these autonomous vehicles use radar technology sensors to detect dangerous objects in the vehicle’s path that are more than 100 meters away. The signal from the sensors are used by the Electronic Control Unit for decision making using a software code. Based on the information from the sensors, the Electronic Control Unit gives signal to the actuators, which in turn control the vehicle.
Disruptive innovation, a term coined by Clayton M. Christensen, “describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.” Autonomous vehicles are already revolutionizing the way we get people (and things) from A to B. Automation will provide an option to reduce or remove burden of driving tasks that very few people enjoy, such as navigating crowded freeways and city streets during rush hour. So, it’s clear that driverless vehicles are a disruptive innovation. Cars are a huge generator of revenue for organizations from governments to commercial businesses. Entire road infrastructures have been constructed to suit cars as we know them, as well as the layout of urban environments. Even many houses have a room, entirely dedicated to car storage. All of this, and more, will be unnecessary once traditional vehicles become antiquated. The reason why drive less cars will be so disruptive is because it will affect already dwindling car sales. And what about taxis? Uber has one in Pittsburg, which will gradually remove the need for car hire and taxis, as well as affecting methods of public transport. Couple this with electric vehicles (which, incidentally, is exactly what Tesla Motors is doing) and suddenly there’s increased efficiency and less pollution due to lower fuel consumption. A decline in sales of petrol and diesel will obviously have a huge effect on companies in the gas and oil industries. It’s not just falling sales of fuel which will cause problems – in the U.S., car sales account for 40% of state and local sales tax. Of course, governments will find a way to profit from the so-called third transportation revolution and the changes that come with it. When it comes to businesses, autonomous vehicles have inspired new business models in which established automotive companies partner up with relevant startups – such as GM and ride-sharing app Lyft. In short, then, driverless cars have immeasurable disruptive potential because so much of our lives are built to accommodate standard vehicles. Once they begin to be replaced, all of that will have to change.
As we know, self-driving cars have many innovation attributes, it’s a sophisticated computer on wheels. An increase in the use of autonomous vehicles would make possible many benefits. Starting with fewer traffic accidents, because it will be able to steer itself while looking out for obstacles. It will increase roadway capacity, reduced traffic congestion due to reduced need for safety gaps in between cars, and the ability to better manage traffic flow. It can do this by accelerating itself to correct speed limits, and it can stop and go itself based on traffic conditions. Those are just a few benefits to a self-driving machine, we could probably see a higher speed limit lane for autonomous cars. Possibly even save the environment, with reducing carbon foot print with the total number of cars by increasing car sharing. Since an autonomous vehicle can drop off a passenger at one location and go to a different location to pick up another. How much will our insurance be on a self-driving car? Hopefully reduction in the need for traffic police and premium on vehicle insurance. And reduction in car theft, due to car’s increased awareness!
In spite of the various benefits, vehicle automation also has its cons! As we well know with the launch of the new iPhone X, new technology costs big bucks! It won’t be cheap to own an autonomous vehicle, and hopefully they don’t look like the test self-driving Google cars. Some other foreseeable cons are loss of driving related jobs, loss of privacy, gestures or nonverbal cues are not adapted to autonomous driving. Current road infrastructures may need changes for these self-driving vehicles to function optimally. Such as, traffic and street light upgrades that communicate with autonomous vehicles.
Self-driving vehicles have a relative advantage over existing technology, such as self-parking cars on the road today. We would all love see the next Mercedes Benz holiday commercial with a self-driving car that could tool around the parking lot looking a space itself. There would probably be a waiting list for that vehicle if it existed! Engineers in South Korea have figured out a way to bring data from sensors, cameras and that old-school movement-meter, the odometer, together to help a self-driving car become a self-parking car. Though it only works during the day when lines can be visible and the driver chooses if they want the spot or to look for a better one.
The current crop of self-driving cars, rely on cameras and sensors to see the world around it, which includes lane dividers and the white line marking the edge of the road. What happens, when snow and slush covers up those lines? Will these autonomous vehicles wander around in the street like drunken robots? If you asked this question 10 years ago, the answer would be yes! But now automotive night vision increases the vehicles perception and seeing distance in darkness and poor weather conditions. Even those distances which are beyond reach of the vehicles headlight.
There are many advantages of an Autonomous car. The lack of human error while driving, will result in a much safer drive. Sensors will allow cars to pack closer together, allowing more cars on the road and shorter traffic times. Disabilities would no longer be a factor in driving, because anyone would be able to drive. A self-driving vehicle would allow the “passenger” to spend more time on other things. There would be no need to pass a driving test or gain a driving license, because everyone would be able to ‘drive’. However, there are disadvantages as mentioned before. Driving professionals, including taxis, truckers, bus drivers, etc… can become unemployed which could be bad for the economy. There is also always a worry of the malfunctioning or computer crashing, resulting in a major collision. And as mentioned prior, new technology is expensive and when first released they are likely not going to be affordable for most people. Google’s robotic cars have about $150,000 in equipment including a $70,000 LIDAR system.
In conclusion, the autonomous vehicle improves stability and helps to minimize the loss of control. Imagine getting in the car and being able to go wherever you want to go, even if you don’t have a driver’s license! Being able to sleep or look out the window without having to worry about a collision. Which the main aim is making roads safer, a world where no road accidents take place.