Accessed on 9th April, 2014 (4:18pm)
- Image Credit: Dana A. Shams/Gulf News
Cars that drive themselves? A few years ago, this would have been science fiction. Not so far-fetched now.
Aircrafts have had a autopilot for a long time now. In fact, a lot of
the technology such as cameras, sensors, radars and imaging systems
required to build truly autonomous vehicles are already available.
Multiple experimental vehicles are being tested for varying levels of
operational autonomy. Google’s technology has driven a Toyota Prius over
300,000 kilometres around the US without a single technology caused
accident. General Motors, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW and Volvo are
all testing their own full or partial autonomous systems.
Volvo has launched the ‘autonomous valet parking cars’ in Europe.
Nissan recently committed to launch an ‘Autonomous Drive’ system by
2020. The transition is inevitable. We do expect it to happen in a
building block form like advanced driver assistance systems, park assist
systems, or integrated vehicle health monitoring and autonomous systems
Moving from Point A to Point B involves planning and decision-making
about mode of transport, routes, times, safety, comfort, weather, luxury
and convenience. However, it is a fact that a significant percentage of
road accidents stem from human errors. Making vehicles autonomous
globally could be around $300-400 billion of economic impact if you take
into account loss of human life, their economic impact to the society
and the allied claims.
There is a lot to be gained by removing humans from driving. There is
no reason that technology cannot make roads driver-free as seen in cases
of trains/locomotives and aircrafts in autopilot mode.
The question is can we make it affordable, safer and easy to use and
bound by regulations which itself is evolving? Nevertheless, the sheer
number of people around the globe who will be affected by autonomous
vehicles is staggering.
Apart from the primary technology required to actually build a
road-safe autonomous vehicle, we can safely foresee huge regulatory and
infrastructure challenges. Autonomous vehicles make more sense only if
the infrastructure also enables it. Just like electric vehicles required
an ecosystem of charging points that could quickly charge a vehicle
without bringing down the grid, new infrastructure requirements such as
intelligent traffic lights, smart lanes with sensors and automated
parking infrastructure will accelerate the adoption of autonomous
vehicles.
Countries conform to their own traffic rules and implement their own
safety regulation. Any autonomous vehicle system must be ready to be
tested and certified on any safety regulation around the globe. This is a
massive challenge. Companies must be ready to programme and tailor
their intelligent drive systems for different geographies which suit
different cultures.
Also, such vehicles bring in a certain amount of threat to personal
privacy. Autonomous vehicles are built with advanced sensing and
tracking capabilities and are constantly monitored. While this feature
is intended to complement vehicle performance, we cannot overlook the
fact that this may create new security concerns and lend itself to
commercial misuse.
Finally, there is the challenge of customer adoption. Will consumers
adopt something that will change a fundamental way of life? Can someone
give up driving as a passion? This final hurdle could well be the
biggest one, but at the same time, everyone can enjoy the pleasure of
being seated in the driver’s seat calmly without getting ruffled by the
chaos of traffic.
Fuel efficiency has always been a USP for the automotive industry.
Autonomous vehicles can provide better fuel efficiency because they are
equipped with intelligent technologies that enable this.
Safety is one segment where autonomous vehicle can make their biggest
impact. By eliminating human intervention altogether, autonomous cars
with the proper intelligent infrastructure can reduce road accidents
significantly.
Additionally, autonomous vehicles are believed to have the potential to
shorten travel time and improve traffic flow. They can free up valuable
driving time and enable car owners to complete other tasks while on the
move or merely enjoy the ride.
How will the industry change? Technologically speaking, would a
driverless car look like the cars of today? For instance, in a
completely driverless car, do we need a steering wheel? Companies also
need to think about how other innovations like fuel cells and
nanotechnology can complement such autonomous vehicle even while
reducing the cost.
Whatever the changes the industry can expect, we can safely assume that
the role of ‘intelligence’ within such cars will be significantly
greater than what they are today. Automotive companies must partner with
companies that can help develop, test and implement this intelligence
into the vehicles. Or could this create a new industry by itself?
The automotive industry has already been adapting to this change. It
started with the inclusion and integration of electronics and Artificial
Intelligence into cars.
Next-generation cars include electronics in everything from braking
systems, engine system, power train, body controls to infotainment,
enabled with advanced driver assist systems integrating with multiple
types of sensor inputs, radar and image fusion and analytics. System
architecture, aystem integration and system testing would be more
challenging than ever before.
For autonomous vehicles to become a reality, these requirements will
only increase. What is needed is a more agile automotive ecosystem that
must create and adopt technology faster than before.
— The writer is the head for integrated engineering solutions at Tech Mahindra.
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