Driverless car
Photo by RODNAE Productions
Cruise control was undoubtedly one of the most influential additions to the motor vehicle, allowing for the driver to put slightly less effort into their journey, with the car controlling their speed. The handy addition was actually developed more than seventy years ago, in 1948.
Since then, we have seen the development of lane departure warning systems, and auto-braking. However, major brands have proposed that fully autonomous vehicles are likely to be seen in the next few years, with Audi suggesting they will appear in Audi Dealerships in the near future.
Despite major inroads being made, there are still a number of issues that require engineers attention.
Human behaviours
When you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle, focus is everything. For one thing, drivers who are trying to navigate safely through a busy area such as a city centre will constantly be keeping an eye out for pedestrians and trying to predict their behaviour. It is those subtle glances which can ensure accidents are avoided on our roads, as motorists will hopefully be able to quickly react if someone suddenly decides to step off a pavement for whatever reason.
After considering the eye contact made with exterior objects, then it is worth examining the fact you actually make eye contact with other drivers. For example, a driver will be able to realise if another person behind the wheel is in an emotional state or distracted by seeing them while they are driving alongside one another. When an issue is noticed, most drivers will aim to either keep their distance from the car with the problematic motorist or be better placed to anticipate sporadic movements.
When driving, analysis of eye contact and body language is crucial, particularly when turning at junctions, when changing lanes, and anticipating immediate changes to traffic speed.
With all the aforementioned considered, you must then ask the question, how much emotional intelligence will an autonomous vehicle be able to employ? Human drivers often act subconsciously behind the wheel, but expecting the same from technology may be asking a little too much — even with sensors and algorithms coming into play.
Wintery conditions
There are very few of us who would rejoice in taking the car out in the snow. Surfaces become more slippy, massively increasing your risk of crashing. Moreover, heavy snowfall massively reduces visibility, particularly in regard to road markings.
For autonomous cars, a reduction in visibility could prove to be incredibly dangerous. This is because self-driving vehicles rely on the use of cameras to be able to track the lines on a pavement and read road signs that it passes. What happens if a layer of snow causes lane dividers to temporarily disappear though? And how about when a drifting snowstorm results in signs being covered entirely?
Many critics have pointed to the fact autonomous cars may not even be able to embark on their journey when wintry conditions begin — during periods of heavy fog or sleet detecting the vehicle in front will become particularly challenging.
Getting it right
Paul Newman, the founder of Oxbotica — a firm tasked with building driverless cars, and professor of robotics at the University of Oxford, has highlighted another issue being faced by autonomous vehicle manufacturers by setting out a situation that we may all have encountered as drivers.
Newman’s argument points to a scenario in which two cars are driving towards each other on a gently curving road. As humans, we will be confident that each car in this situation will stick to their own lanes and eventually pass safely a few feet to the side of one another.
The professor, however, pointed out: “But for the longest time, it does look like you’re going to hit each other.”
Considering this, how are we able to program an autonomous vehicle to understand the cars will not collide? On the one hand, you will want to avoid the vehicle veering off the road as it attempts to avoid a collision that is never going to occur. On the flipside though, no-one will be wanting driverless vehicles to become too complacent and then fail to react should it find itself actually heading towards a head-on incident.
Mr Newman has noted that, ‘establishing an autonomous vehicle which can successfully make the right decision on every occasion, will be an incredibly difficult task.’
If the completely driverless car is going to be a successful piece of innovation of the future, then the issues which have been underlined here need to be addressed and ruled out.
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