Autonomous vehicles

What does it do?

According to synopsys (n.d.), an autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that can operate automatically by sensing its surroundings and without human involvement. An autonomous vehicle does not require a human passenger to be in control of the vehicle at every moment and does not even require someone to be in the car. It can drive anywhere and can do everything that an experienced driver can do. These vehicles operate on two systems: Automated Driving Assist Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving Systems (ADS). Autonomous vehicles are currently divided into six levels by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) which have been accepted by the U.S. Department of Transportation:

Level 0: no automation
Level 1: driver assistance
Level 2: partial automation
Level 3: conditional automation
Level 4: high automation
Level 5: full automation

Vehicles in level 2 and below can only provide assistance functions for the driver, and it is only from Level 3 onwards that autonomous driving features become available. Vehicles in level 5 is a truly fully autonomous vehicle that can be driven anywhere in a completely unmanned environment. Level 2 autonomous vehicles are already more technically mature, but the uncertainty of the fact that level 3 autonomous vehicles have been involved in crashes has led some experts to believe that the industry would be more likely to focus its efforts on developing level 4 autonomous vehicles, or even level 5, thus avoiding the liability that comes with certain risks (Garder & Appt 2020). And the autonomous vehicle has now been developed to level 4. At this level, the autonomous driving system (ADS) on the vehicle can perform all driving tasks without the driver's attention, but the driver can also take back control (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration n.d.). However, due to a lack of legislation and infrastructure development, level 4 driverless cars can usually only be driven on urban roads with a speed limit of 30 mph (synopsys n.d.).

For the current stage of self-driving technology, many vehicles have safety features that help drivers in certain situations, such as preventing us from drifting out of our lane or helping us to stop in time to avoid a crash or mitigate the severity of a crash(NHTSA n.d.).

Although Level 4 autonomous vehicles have been developed, they are still in the testing phase and still need several years of improvement before they can be truly used by the general public. It still faces challenges on many fronts:

Technology - Inadequate infrastructure. LIDAR is very expensive and when there are many autonomous cars on the road, their radar signals may interfere with each other
Law - Are autonomous cars allowed by law in every country and who is responsible if something goes wrong?
Weather - Can autonomous cars be driven safely in bad weather? For example, in snowy weather, when lane dividers are buried in snow, will the autonomous car's cameras and sensors be able to recognise this.

To improve infrastructure, we need a lot of research in key technology areas. These include IoT support for roads, lanes, signals, road signs, parking spaces and electronic charging stations; robust 5G networks for sharing large amounts of data in real time (V2V, V2I); cloud-based mobile-as-a-service platforms that capture, collate and share data with the wider transport ecosystem, and automated traffic management and decision support powered by AI to help predict traffic congestion, detect the presence of hazards as well as helping with diversion.(Gupta 2021).

On the legal side, there are already countries that have introduced laws relating to autonomous cars, such as Japan, but there are still no clear rules on liability, so there is still a need for continuous improvement.

What is the likely impact?

Autonomous driving will have many good effects:

Autonomous driving will lead to a significant increase in safety and a reduction in the number of car accidents
Reduce traffic congestion
Autonomous vehicle can bring additional economic and social benefits, reduce transport costs
Reducing CO2 emissions
Reducing the creation of car parks to make place for other public facilities, such as schools
Providing new travel options and employment opportunities for people with disabilities

But the current autonomous car is not perfect and it still has many shortcomings that need to be improved, such as its recognition system which sometimes makes mistakes. If autonomous vehicels developed well in the future, will have a significant impact on people with disabilities. People with disabilities do not have a driving licence because of their disabilities, which in many cases inconveniences them. They cannot drive themselves to hospitals, supermarkets and other public places, and it is difficult for them to find work. But if they have a fully automated car, they can drive themselves to where they want to go and can even find work using an automated car. However, at the same time, autonomous vehicles may have some negative impacts on workers in certain professions, such as taxi drivers. Today's taxis require drivers, and many people choose taxis when they don't want to drive out of the house, and this can bring in a significant income for taxi drivers. If cars are fully automated in the future, the taxis of the future may no longer need to have a driver in the driver's seat and people will simply tell the vehicle where they want to go. This would result in taxi drivers losing their jobs. Hacking may also occur in the use of autonomous cars. The software on autonomous cars could be hacked and controlled by hackers so that they can steal the vehicle or even make it a weapon to crash into someone.

How will this affect you?

Fully automated cars will become more and more common in the future, and perhaps in the future we and everyone around us will have at least one fully automated car. For my parents, when they are older and may no longer be able to drive alone, then autonomous cars will suit them perfectly. Children can't be around their parents every minute of the day to take them where they want to go. Autonomous cars solve this dilemma by taking their parents anywhere they want to go with just one command. For myself, without an autonomous car, I would have to concentrate on driving on my way to work. But if I have an autonomous car, I would be able to distract myself with other things, such as organising my work schedule or even taking a nap in the car. In addition to this, I am not very good at parking, especially reversing into a parking space. The autonomous car will be the perfect solution to this problem, helping me to park my car in the designated space when I am having trouble parking. For my friends, I have a friend who doesn't like to drive, she only likes to take the car, so once she has to go out in the car, she has to find someone to take her to her destination or take a taxi. But if fully autonomous cars are successfully developed, she will no longer need someone to drive for her and her car can take her directly by itself to where she wants to go. For me and my friend, because of the autonomous car, when we go out for fun, we can chat and relax without having to drive all the time and keep an eye on the road. All in all, the successful development of autonomous vehicles will bring great convenience to our lives.