Driverless cars have been featured in futuristic, science
fiction movies such as Demolition Man, I Robot, Minority Report, Total Recall
and a host of others. However, roadways occupied by cars piloting themselves
may not be as far off as many people think. Autonomous cars ply public streets
and highways in the USA, the UK and France already.
Four U.S. states, plus Washington, D.C. have passed
legislation allowing driverless cars,
known officially as autonomous cars, to take to the roads. The UK government
has already permitted the testing of autonomous cars on public roads, and the
government of France is now allowing the testing of autonomous cars on public
roads as well. Of course all of the current autonomous cars on the road are
experimental, electric power prototypes, but the fact is they're no longer
futuristic, sci-fi fabrications.
As is the case with any new technology,
there are bugs and glitches to be worked out before driverless cars will be
making it into auto dealers' showrooms. Autonomous car prototypes are not yet
able to operate in heavy rain or navigate snow covered roads. Google's LIDAR
software technology cannot identify potholes or determine if debris in the road
is a piece of litter or a rock. Nor can the computer differentiate between
someone standing or walking along the road from a police officer commanding the
car to stop or pull over. Unmarked intersections also pose a problem in that
the on board computer will initiate precautions that result in slower than
normal progress through the intersection. However, these are all teething
problems that are being addressed and will be resolved in time.
An example of a solution to the challenges facing driverless
cars is smart intersections. Computer scientists at the University of Texas in
Austin are developing smart intersections for autonomous cars. Smart
intersections won't have traffic lights or stop signs. Instead, computers will
communicate with onboard computers in each car and control traffic flow through
the intersection.
Google has been at the forefront of research and development
in driverless car technology for quite some time, and actively lobbies
municipal, state and federal governments to have autonomous cars recognized and
approved for use on public roads. It was on May 28, 2014 that Google unveiled a
prototype of its driverless car that had no steering wheel or pedals. Shortly
thereafter, on December 22, 2014, Google presented a fully functioning
prototype of their driverless car that the company is already testing on San
Francisco Bay Area roads. "Google Chauffeur" is the name of the
software powering Google's driverless cars, and each vehicle has around
$150,000 in equipment on board that includes a $70,000 LIDAR system.
So are driverless cars ready to take to the road and replace
human driven vehicles? Not just yet... but soon!
Google is likely to
be the first company to field a commercially viable model, but the race is
close. Audi's next generation of the A8 is promised to be capable of fully
autonomous driving and will be available in 2017. Ford
expects to offer a fully autonomous car by 2020. Also in 2020, Nissan expects
to have fully autonomous cars on showroom floors. Nissan promises that unlike
Google’s driverless cars, theirs will be able to drive in urban traffic without
the need of detailed 3D maps for local navigation.
Daimler is looking at 2025 for fully autonomous cars to be
taking to the road, while Jaguar and Land-Rover also believes it will happen
within the next 10 years. Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, is a bit more optimistic. He
expects autonomous driving by 2023, but anticipates another 2 to 3 years for
regulatory approval.
Who will be first to develop a production model driverless
car may be a question mark, but autonomous cars seem close to ready for the
streets and highways. The infrastructure needed to support autonomous cars is
under development, and laws under consideration. The U.S. National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is obviously confident that one day soon
driverless cars will be on the road because the agency has established an
official classification system that includes them...
Level 0: The driver completely controls the vehicle at all
times.
Level 1: Individual vehicle controls are automated, such as
electronic stability control or automatic braking.
Level 2: At least two controls can be automated in unison,
such as adaptive cruise control in combination with lane keeping.
Level 3: The driver can fully cede control of all safety-critical
functions in certain conditions. The car senses when conditions require the
driver to retake control and provides a "sufficiently comfortable
transition time" for the driver to do so.
Level 4: The vehicle performs all safety-critical functions
for the entire trip, with the driver not expected to control the vehicle at any
time. As this vehicle would control all functions from start to stop, including
all parking functions, it could include unoccupied cars.
Considering Google's team developing the company's
autonomous car recently announced nearly 700,000 miles were logged in vehicles
with no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal, the future of driverless
cars appears to be upon us. Google has even made a patent application for an
advertising funded transportation service using autonomous cars as the method
of transport. Now the question seems to be what is going to become of all the
manually driven cars on the road, not to mention all of the old school, hands
on driving enthusiasts?
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