Introduction to Self-Driving or Autonomous Cars for Dummies

A car that has no human control, self-operated and will be the new vehicle within next few years. The world has seen a major development since the invention of the wheel. It all started since then, followed by human carts, animal carts and then the cars. A human being is the smartest living being on Earth and this invention is just not limited to become the smartest piece of art but will be the most remembered contribution to the world of technology.

Present day world is dynamic and the possibility of achieving this goal is one step away. The efforts have been initiated in the past 10 years to make it a running project to be successful. The companies of developed countries are working towards the achievement of this common goal. Big brand companies like Google (Waymo), Apple, Ford etc. are keeping an eye over their development of autonomous vehicles. Big budgets have been made and a lot of money is involved in making this a reality.

Levels of Automation in cars/vehicles

There are majorly four levels of automation:

Source: NHTSA (Page – 16)

1. Full Self-Driving Automation – System of the car would control steering and the acceleration or deceleration. The monitoring of the driving environment would also be done by the system. The response time will also be done by the system only.
2. Limited Self-Driving Automation – System of the car will be controlling the steering and acceleration, driving environment and the response time will also be completed by the system.
3. Combined Function Automation – It has partial human intervention while handling response time. A system controls the acceleration or deceleration and driving environment.

The bifurcation is just because of the controlling division of the vehicle among the system and the human driver. The controlling power of the vehicle is majorly with the system. The technology is created to have intelligence to support the various actions that are required by a driver on road. The automatic cars would be following a 3D map which would provide them the route to be followed by them while carrying out any journey. The sensors will enable the car to detect the environment and the objects that are being seen on road while driving. The technology will help the car to detect any animal or human which comes in front of it while performing a drive. The response would be taken as per the intelligence through which the car is driven.

All about Driver-less Car/Vehicle

Back in 1961, an invention of William Bertelsen triggered the possibility of having a successful self-driven vehicle. Air cushion vehicle that can have the maximum power of 1500MPH was his contribution to the world of cars. But the experiments started way back in the 1920’s. During 1991, US made its first contribution by establishing a highway that projected the automated ability to work over the new subject Automated vehicle. In 1997, the US demonstrated a successful implementation of the same. But there is a difference between automated and autonomous.

Automated is an option to make a car behave automatically or act like a self-driven car but it is done manually by applying the option. The autonomous car does not require any such commands or even any other type of manual intervention. Each innovation has some benefits and some drawbacks. The technology requires to be maintained and the upgradation at regular interval is using Over the Air updates. The companies are in a race to launch the first successful traffic which is automated, it includes the cars, the truck, the roads as well. Japan has also created a networked highway. Traffic rules and lights would also be improved accordingly. It is a step by step process and is expected to be expensive enough to be able to reach within the ambit of every layman.

Google has been testing its autonomous vehicles for a long time in Arizona and Nevada. China and Israel are also leading in the autonomous vehicle race. The number of test drives is increasing day by day and now more companies are joining this race to create their own version of the autonomous vehicle.

The first country to have it on Road

China has been the first one to do the things that others just dream about. They have not made an autonomous car but a mini-bus with a capacity of fourteen passengers. The mini-bus has no seat for drivers and will be on road this year. Baidu and King Long have produced 100 such mini-buses. It will set an example for other nations to dare to establish such a technique at such a vast level. The uniqueness of this step is that it would be for use of multiple users at a single point in time.

Benefits of Autonomous Cars

1. Safety – Accidents related to cars have been the major reason for loss of human life. Human errors that mostly result in accidents are:
2. Delayed response time – In this case, the driver is unable to apply proper response that is required by the situation.
3. Distracted driving – In this case, the drive is unable to concentrate on the driving and is half-hearted towards his drive. Using cellphone or engaging in an agreement with co-passengers is a common example of distracted driving.
4. Rash driving – When the driver is excessively speeding the car or is not applying brakes at the required stops results in rash driving.
5. Immature driving – When the driver is underage or lacks the experience of driving on roads, highway or heavy traffic areas results in immature driving.
6. Aggressive Driving – In this case, the driver is on a mission to hurt somebody or to escape someone. The driver skips the various hindrances and is not driving safely or is not following the traffic rules properly.

These above-mentioned errors can be easily avoided by the usage of autonomous cars. The Internet is full of stories related to the failure of safety resulting in an accident and finally death. These can be stopped, and this is the major issue that almost every economy is facing, they need to cut down the death rate caused by accident.

1. Reduction in level of crime – Car robbery or hijacking during a drive is not a safe activity but is performed by criminals. The reduction in the level of such an event can be achieved by the autonomous cars with automated safety measures, reporting location and calling emergency services automatically. This can be reduced by such technological development.
2. Cost Efficiency – There will be reduction in cost which is involved in hiring a driver or maintaining a driver as well as maintenance of vehicles. The loss or damage caused by human error will be reduced and would result in cost saving. No frequent replacement of motor parts would be required. The development of such technology and execution of the same is a big budget thing and for achieving the same big efforts are required. It is cost effective only in terms of saving the labor cost and the maintenance cost but has also increased certain other expenses.
3. Traffic Situation – An intelligent driving driving vehicle and a connected system would properly systemize the traffic and unlikely human behavior of overriding traffic rules, it will be a contributor to control such a problem. Controlling traffic is one of the basic requirements for every country.
4. Air Pollution – The pollution that is caused due to excessive heavy traffic leads to a situation that increases air pollution. The imbalance which is caused due to disturbance in the gases that are available in the atmosphere could lead to a situation that would be unbearable for the human beings. These causes dangerous diseases among the human race and the cure of many among these is yet to be invented. The avoidance of such a harsh situation can be done merely by introduction of such a traffic.

The benefits are many and they will keep on increasing once these autonomous vehicles come into production and in hands of end user. Such self-driving cars require intelligence that can contribute towards the establishment of this automatic traffic sense. The cost saving, enhancement of security and the new safety features which would suppress the negative aspects related to human driving and errors that are committed by humans. The technology will be a contributor towards the new world, it will reshape the traffic ethics and will also help human to decrease the death rate. Travelling to remote places will become easy but the incorporation of remote places in 3D map will be the biggest challenge.

Expected shortfalls of this Innovation

1. The ECU and processing units on which car would be running could be easily compromised over the communication system.
2. A well-designed HD map is required for the car to operate fully in a particular area. This will be requiring a major investment and a minor mistake can lead to a major loss.
3. Sensors of an autonomous car and suspecting the surrounding could be a very big challenge. The reaction of the car in snow, mud, heavy rain or in any type of weather would be a big challenge.
4. Complete dependency on the sensors to detect and react to a particular driving situation. Failure of the same would result in a havoc and would lead into a situation which would be uncontrollable.
5. High-cost affair for the economy to maintain such technology and to provide such vehicles that require constant upgradation.
6. A system failure can result in an uncontrollable situation which could not be under the control of the human being.

The limitations are not that much as are the uses, but actual results can only be obtained by the on-road performance of such cars. The practical problems could be easily solved by the developers by enhancing the technology and by making necessary inclusions like machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms.

Overall Expectations

The technology is developing and so are the advances that are made as per the results obtained by the test carried out on such cars. Such as the problem to navigate un-mapped locations have been solved by enhancing the capacity of the navigation features of the autonomous cars. MapLite is the new system that would allow the users to use self-driven cars on the roads which are not available on 3 D maps.

The makers and leaders in Self-Driving / Autonomous vehicles include Waymo, BMW, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, Aptiv, Tesla, Bosch, Mercedes Benz.

Wired magazine has mapped around 236 companies racing towards autonomous cars in this article in 2017.

The countries like USA, Israel, New Zealand, UK, Germany, Netherland, Spain, and China are working towards the establishment of a fully operational highway that can be suitable for self-driven / autonomous cars. Cruise control in newly launched cars like Tesla and BMW has provided a hint about what it would be the scene while using an autonomous car. But this is not enough, it’s just an introductory feature. Autopilot mode is another name for cruise control. The overall view is that every development is made on the basis of the present requirements and technology. Customer satisfaction would be the major goal and it can be only analyzed once the cars on the roads and the roads are developed as per the compatibility that such cars require.

The invention has been done, execution is being carried out and results will be out soon. The efforts of the inventor have got the correct aspirants who are now an expert in the field of implementation of their vision. The recent surveys are being carried out just to know about the response and the expectation of the society from such cars. Expectations are high and it is a popular topic these days among automobiles and technologists circle. The curiosity of futuristic mechanism and machine has been done by certain announcements made by big brands which are working religiously towards the achievement of this particular goal. Everyone around is concerned about the price as the latest cruise control can be seen in the vehicles that are considered as a luxurious one. The reach of the same will increase as soon as this technology gains popularity. The next decade will reflect the future of self-driving / autonomous cars and the passion for using a self-driven car.