You surely have heard about Autonomous Driving or Self-Driving unless you live under a rock.Recently trucks in USA were tested for that and it went well. Tesla’s self-driving is very promising due to its self-learning ability and it will get only better with time and I expect when Tesla starts manufacturing the Model 3(2017 probably) it is near perfect on most roads.Almost every automaker has autonomous driving in their list and I almost forgot the company that excites me the most, Google.Elon Musk almost sold Tesla to Google in 2013 when shares went down and was low on cash but he dropped the idea after that everyone knows what happened.
What I am trying to say is:
Autonomous Driving is no fancy looking far future thing,it’s serious and it is very near
How do autonomous-driving cars work and what are it’s challenges?
Self-driving cars need:
- GPS
- Object Detecting Sensors
- An inbuilt computer that runs the software required which can control the car as it wants
The need of GPS is very clear.Object Detecting Sensors can sense objects within a range be it stationary or moving.If a car is moving towards you, it will detect that and also calculate its speed and so on.
The software is the real deal it takes input from sensors and GPS and works accordingly and drives the car.Pretty simple, right? Well, not so simple. The road is not a predictable place,a cyclist could come out of nowhere and hit you or a drunk pedestrian could cross the road at a green signal. Brakes have limitations and one cannot simply stop a car running at 80 miles/hr. So the software has to decide whether it is safe to stop suddenly or it should just try to turn away. And that is one example of many challenges:different possibilities, different roads and situations.
But the amount of work and attention this thing is getting it is poised to happen and happen quite soon.
Okayyyy, But why will driving be illegal??
Imagine a world(which is not too difficult to imagine) where all automakers manufacture cars with self-driving.There will be a lot more self-driving cars and they are cheap.Now,if all cars are autonomous (i.e. every car on the road is driven through a computer) they will become efficient and things like accidents and traffic will become a thing of the past.
So imagine a human driving a car around all driverless cars on a road.He will become an obstruction as his driving and destination is unknown and hence, decrease the efficiency.So it is very certain that driving on most roads will become illegal.
So Vintage car collectors or simply car lovers might have to drive on a racing track if they want in a very near future.
You might be telling stories about your driving test to your children and they might get surprised that you used to drive a car,change the gears manually and actually had to stop on your own in case of emergency.
Virtual drivers driving real cars.Real drivers driving virtual cars.What a time in the world to live in.
