The Automation Issue

Where we are at with Driverless Vehicles

B. N. Dent

In 2016, the meteorically rising electric vehicle company Tesla announced that its software and hardware were nearing a point of evolution that would allow the capability of a “full-self driving” feature within their cars. This announcement ultimately culminated in a large amount of public discussion within the automotive industry and mainstream media. The realistic vision of completely autonomous cars spurred many questions mainly regarding when this technology would be publicly available, the accuracy/safety of these cars and the question of whether there would be a high demand for such a vehicle. Given the rapidly advancing nature of technology at this time, including consumer-available augmented reality and the development of reusable rockets, many people speculated that the introduction of driverless cars would be reasonably swift and available in no more than a few years. However, despite this, the information regarding the progress of this technology has been fairly opaque, and there is yet to be a defined timeline for the establishment of driverless cars being frequently used on the roads. So, what are the current developments in the autonomous vehicle sector and when can we expect to see driverless cars regularly cruising the streets?

Before diving into the current advancements surrounding this industry, let’s fundamentally break down how autonomous cars operate. Via sensors, actuators, cameras, complex algorithms, machine learning systems, and powerful processors to execute software, driverless cars have the ability to create virtual maps of their surroundings that encompasses traffic lights, other vehicles, pedestrians, obstacles, etc. Once advanced software has processed this virtual map, it is able to send instructions to the vehicle’s actuators who are responsible for the actual movement of the vehicle (i.e., acceleration, and direction).

A major recent accomplishment seen in the autonomous vehicle sector was completed by a company founded in California called TuSimple which specialises in self-driving technology catered specifically for heavy-duty trucks. Their accomplishment was a 951-mile (1530Km) journey from Arizona to Oklahoma City carrying a variety of fresh produce on board a truck that operated with complete autonomy. Although the journey was carried out flawlessly, it was still required that an engineer and safety driver remain onboard for the trip. This sheds light on one of the major issues facing this industry at the moment which is government safety rules and regulations that are preventing these vehicles from freely embarking on missions. In contrast, a positive of this journey was its efficiency. The entirety of the journey took 14 hours which is 10 hours faster than the normal route time. This is attributed to how driverless vehicles do not need sleep like regular humans. General Motors’s acquired start-up “cruise” has also made an impact with its driverless taxi service, similar to Uber but without a driver. Since June, this start-up has been offering self-driving taxi services within San Francisco, soaring towards $1 billion in revenue by 2025.

In defiance of these recent accomplishments, there is still yet to be a purchasable fully self-driving car. The closest thing offered right now is Tesla’s autopilot system which still requires human supervision. The two predominant issues impeding driverless cars currently are the inability of the software to deal with variable road conditions (e.g., rain) and the restrictions of government regulation. A report provided by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) lists that by 2025 driverless cars will have fully automated safety features ready for the road. Given this timeline, another thing to consider is the demand that these vehicles will have among the public. At the end of the day, for many, driving is an extremely pleasurable activity. Additionally, despite what statistics may show, there will always be a dispute over the reliability of driverless cars on the road.

“If you recognize that self-driving cars are going to prevent car accidents, AI will be responsible for reducing one of the leading causes of death in the world.” – Mark Zuckerberg.