The first self-driving car, Futurama, was an electric vehicle that was guided by radio-controlled electromagnetic fields produced by magnetized metal spikes embedded in the road.
Futurama was created by General Motors to represent cars as they would be in the future at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Although a society governed entirely by robots is still decades away, ongoing research is creating fully autonomous or driverless automobiles to make roads safer and transportation more comfortable.
Check out the companies who are currently working on this innovation.
We currently have some exposure to autonomous driving because of features like autopilot and automated modes in many new cars. With the help of this technology, automobiles can park themselves, navigate a motorway, change lanes, and adjust their speed to approaching traffic.
Mahindra & Mahindra displayed an autonomous tractor in 2018. We will discuss the causes and difficulties that driving a driverless automobile presents in order to understand why these won’t be on the road anytime soon.
An autonomous car is controlled by a variety of components working together. Radar sensors are strategically positioned all around the car to track the movement of the surrounding cars; Lidar sensors, which detect edges of roads, pavements, and footpaths and identify lane markings by continuously bouncing pulses of light off the car’s surroundings, assist video cameras in detecting traffic lights, reading road signs, and keeping an eye out for pedestrians and other roadside obstructions. The sensor has the ability to render a three-dimensional image of the area around the car.
Who is working on autonomous vehicles .
- Under the Waymo Self-Driving Vehicle Project, Google is developing autonomous vehicles.
- Tesla, which is directed by Elon Musk, is developing a system called “The Tesla Autopilot” that may be used in Tesla cars.
- Uber claims to have driven more than 32 lakh miles in autonomous mode and is currently testing its own driverless technology.
- BMW, a German automaker, is also using the Series 5 vehicles to test its driverless vehicle technologies.
- In order to launch autonomous taxis as part of the “Easy ride” taxi service concept, Japanese automaker Nissan is developing the Leaf model.
What are the major challenges for an Autonomous automobile / driverless car in India and other countries .
- Data is an important consideration for driverless cars. This would include all knowledge and understanding of the road layout, traffic, human behaviour, and the ability to predict events as well as information on the weather. This information will then be merged with AI and ML algorithms and systems to give the driverless car intelligence.
- Better connectivity will be required for the connected car system, therefore uniform 5G deployment in India is required; otherwise, connectivity would be a problem. Without complete connectivity, it won’t be possible to analyse and make judgements at the speed necessary for precision.
- Each country has its own set of data that these cars use to operate. Hence, even if the nations can exchange technology, the information used will be specific to each nation. Additionally, the algorithms have been tested and operated in regions other than India.
- Many million kilometres of real-world data are needed in India before an algorithm can be developed that is appropriate for Indian driving conditions. No Indian carmaker has yet to reveal plans to use AI technology anytime near.
- The next concern or challenge would be whether autonomous automobiles would be inexpensive even if we were successful in integrating AI and ML and establishing a 5G link, among other things. This is a subject that needs to be addressed because for these autonomous cars to be successful, more people need to be willing to use the systems and connectivity that they demand.
Conclusion
In order to transition from the current state of prototype autonomous vehicles to deployable safe, self-driving solutions, the automobile industry is actively examining the technological innovation required. The main obstacles stopping us from developing and manufacturing safe Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles must be overcome by this technology.
The transition to driverless or autonomous vehicles won’t happen immediately; rather, there will be a series of intermediate steps over the next few years.
Laws governing autonomous vehicles are still dispersed among a jumble of rules and regulations, like those governing many other novel and disruptive technologies.
Although they confront many obstacles, autonomous vehicles are on the way. Simply said, the market is too big to ignore. But the shift to a self-driving civilization will take some time.