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| The EN-V electric self-driving pod car from GM |
I'm not
exactly a fan of utopian visions, and when leading engineers in the field of
autonomous driving say it's feasible to create an environment where vehicles
would spot each other and their surrounding objects accurately enough to drive
around them, my first reaction, oddly, is to cringe. Giving up control of my car? To "Hal"? Iiiiii dunno.
But
proponents of autonomous driving promise that the technology will not only give
us less to worry about in our daily lives, but will save lives as well. Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor
for Design News, recently covered the latest
advancements in the effort to achieve such a reality. He quotes developers who claim it is possible
to save the 30 to 40,000 fatalities recorded each year due to vehicle accidents
by achieving a zero-fatality expectation as we do for airliners.
Specifically,
sensor manufacturers will play a key role in this. Existing GPS technology
works well to plan out routes, but for vehicle systems to know more, the
information is received too slow (y'know, cuz its coming from orbiting
satellites?) to be able to update multiple changes to the environment going on
all around it (traffic, pedestrians, etc).
This is where two kinds of sensors come into play: accelerometers and
gyroscopes. Changes in direction and
speed are recorded by the sensors and paired with the GPS to give a wealth of
information about driving conditions for the vehicle to navigate.
But on
top of that, the data has to be sifted through and put together properly. In addition to sensor tech, processors have
to be fitted to compare the inertial data with the GPS and paint the picture
for the vehicle to figure out how to self-navigate. Gyroscopes, sensors, data processors; the
automobile has all of a sudden become a playground for 21st century software
companies, not to mention an opportunity to carve out a sector that can produce
stable, longstanding jobs in the future.
Manufacturers,
auto brands, government, everyone is going at a snail's pace to make sure these
changes are gradually phased into existing infrastructure. Nevertheless, the ball is already rolling. General Motors recently introduced Chevy's En-V 2.0
prototype
at Beijing's Auto Show this year, an electric self-driving vehicle clearly
designed for urban settings. Alex
Padilla-D from Los Angeles introduced a bill that would encourage
Google, who already have multiple autonomous vehicles driving on their company
property, as well as other companies to further develop the technology with the
intent of introducing it to low-traffic urban settings in the near future.
Donal Thoms-Cappello is a freelance writer for Rotor Clip
Company.
