Get to know Self-Driving Cars
By: Zoe Petroianu
Tags: Self Driving Cars, Artificial Intelligence, Technology

How automated is your car?

There are different levels of classifying autonomous vehicles which was created by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 2014. Since then, it has been updated twice and adopted by the US Department of Transportation and the United Nations to become the worldwide standard.

Now, there has been confusion between the term “automated” and “autonomous”. The difference is the level of human intervention required; autonomous refers to being able to decide on routes and destinations while automated only follows orders. Whatever the case, the words are thrown around so loosely that it doesn’t exactly matter.

Level 0 — This is your everyday car, nothing special. The driver has full control of the car and is in charge of reacting to hazards.

Level 1 — This is when the driver and the car share control. The vehicle must include at least one driver-assistance feature such as adaptive cruise control and parking assist. Overall, level 1 autonomy offers safety functions that ease certain tasks and increase driving convenience.

Level 2 — Level 2 autonomy allows the car to have full control over steering, speed, and breaking. The vehicle must include two or more advanced driver assistance systems which work together in a coordinated fashion. However, the driver must always be alert with their hands on the wheel, ready to intervene if something were to happen. Some examples are Tesla’s Autopilot and Nissan’s ProPilot.

Level 3 — Close your eyes and go on your phone. Level 3 autonomy is truly a self-driving vehicle. This allows you to take your eyes off of the road and remove your hands from the wheel. However, the driver must be alert to take control in any given situation and it only works when certain conditions are met.

Level 4— Nap time! That’s right, level 4 autonomy exempts the driver from having to intervene at all. You don’t need to pay attention or stay alert, meaning you could go to sleep if you wanted to. The difference between level 3 and level 4 autonomy is that the vehicle can intervene in danger or system failures. Unfortunately, these cars are confined to certain geofenced locations and may only go up to a certain speed.

Level 5 —You might need the car, but it surely doesn’t need you. These vehicles are able to drive anywhere and go at any given speed, being able to do anything a human driver can do. While levels below are considered “self-driving”, level 5 is simply driverless.

Let’s look back…

The journey towards self-driving cars started in 1939. General Motors hosted an exhibit at the World Fair, where Norman Bell Geddes created the first self-driving car using magnets embedded in the road. This concept was improved upon in 1958, when General Motors upgraded to sensors called pick-up coils which could be controlled to move left or right using currents. In 1977, the Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Lab created a driverless car using machine vision and white markers on the road. By the 1980s, Ernst Dickmanns got a Mercedes to drive hundreds of miles on its own which was very impressive for the time. Advancements were incremental, but essential to the world of technology.

Designed by pch.vector / Freepik

Inspired by the advancements that were being made at the time in the idea of self-driving cars, the US DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) hosted a race in 2004, which challenged various teams to compete using automated cars. With the prize of $1 million, it was a fierce competition which was aimed at creating automated vehicles for the US military. During the competition, no team was successful, having all cars crash after only a couple miles. However, they hosted the event again the following year which resulted in more promising outcomes. With more advanced software, sensors, and control, the teams had the resources needed for a chance at winning. The Stanford AI Lab’s team emerged victorious with their Volkswagen Touareg.

What about now?

Designed by pch.vector / Freepik

Currently, companies such as Google, General Motors, Ford, BMW, and Tesla are competing for leadership in the world of self-driving cars. Even Uber has paired up with Volvo to create a self-driving taxi. Although in 2020, there aren’t any autonomous vehicles available to the general public, everyone believes they will be the one to do it first. Tesla does sell a Full Self-Driving car package, but it isn’t autonomous and the German government even asked them to stop using this term.

There are a lot of things a self-driving car needs to have. People want safety, speed, and smooth transportation. So far, nobody has created a fully efficient level 5 self-driving car, but the future looks promising.

Why do we want them?

Here are a couple of the many benefits to creating autonomous cars: