Introduction- the world of autonomous vehicles





An autonomous car is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. It uses a variety of techniques to detect their surroundings, such as radar and GPS. SAE International has a formal classification system for autonomous vehicles, which is based on the amount of driver intervention and attentiveness required. The levels are ranging from level 0 to level 5.



For level 0-2, the vehicle still needs driver’s attention to operate. Level 0 means that the vehicle is not automated, and level 1 means that the driver and automated system shares control over the vehicle. For level 2, the automated system takes full control of the vehicle, but the driver must monitor the driving and be prepared to take actions once the system fails. For level 3-5, the vehicle can operate by itself. For level 3, the driver can safely turn their attention away from the driving tasks, and the vehicle will handle emergency situations. Level 4 requires no driver’s attention for safety, and the vehicle would be able to safely abort the trip. Level 5 describes the circumstance that the vehicle is fully automated, and no human intervention is required.



An example of the automated car is Self-Driving Car developed by Waymo. It can drive by itself, as it has sensors and software that are designed to detect pedestrians. The model has been tested in several locations on the road, including Mountain View in CA and Austin in TX. Another example is the model S developed by Tesla, which is a full self-driving vehicle. Tesla had four test cars on California roads, and there were no accidents or collisions happen, except for few disengagement occurred on wet roads. Waymo is a level 4 vehicle, as drivers can leave their seats, but self-driving is supported only in limited areas. Tesla S, however, is a vehicle in level 3, as the vehicle will handle general situations, but the driver must still be prepared to intervene within some limited time.



In the future, automated vehicles can be applied to public transit, personal vehicles, and automated flights may be developed. These applications would be beneficial to society, as roads would be safer, traffic and fuel efficiency will greatly improve, and people will have more free time.

Comments

  1. CDIO Academy 2017June 13, 2017 at 2:24 PM

    Thank you for your thoughts. You could go into a bit more depth when considering applications of autonomous vehicles (i.e., specific industries).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social

number of people driving vehicles number of people not driving vehicles number of people interested of having autonomous vehicles number of people interested of not having autonomous vehicles 10 5 13 2 To have a better understanding of public’s views according to autonomous vehicles, I interviewed 15 people to understand their view on autonomous vehicles. Half of people I interviewed drive a vehicle, mostly because their houses were far and it made it convenient to drive a vehicle. Another half of people did not drive, not because they did not want to, but the reasons were “lack of money to own a car”, or “do not have a valid driving licence yet”. Only two people out of 15 was not interested for owning an autonomous vehicle, one thought that the technology was not mature enough and it would not be safe, and another person thought driving by himself was more enjoyable. Most of the people would like to have an autonomous vehicle, becaus...
Read more

Ethical

Alice buys an autonomous vehicle from Bob, who sells them. The autonomous vehicle has different settings, some more aggressive (where the autonomous vehicle drives faster and brakes harder), and some less. Alice sets the autonomous vehicle to its most aggressive setting. One night on a dark and wet road, Alice hits a pedestrian, Carlos, who was jaywalking. Carlos is badly hurt. Bob: the person that sales the car Alice: car owner, set the car to its most aggressive setting Carlos: jaywalked on the road, badly hurt by Alice’s car When an autonomous vehicle crashes or has an accident of some sort – who is responsible, and to what degree? Because the legal framework for autonomous vehicles does not yet exist, designers can only write programs to ensure the ethical conduct of autonomous vehicles. However, all the ethical issues could not be prevented by writing the code, as programs are simply instructions, and vehicles cannot think as humans do. Based on the...
Read more