Autonomous Vehicles

[Sparky]

Would you be happy for your car to drive you to work tomorrow morning?

While the idea of a truly Autonomous Car (AC) might sound attractive, the technology required just to get you safely to the end of the street would be huge.

Design studios and tech institutes around the world (including a large staff at Mercedes) are striving to be the first to offer a vehicle that truly has a ‘self-drive’ capability. It is the dream of many to have a completely independent, autonomous car, one that can greet you as you climb aboard, allow you to work or conduct a conversation on a video-phone, while it delivers you to you destination and then bids you farewell as you leave. The reasons given are primarily those of safety, but fuel economy and reduced travel times are also cited as achievable goals.

We don’t think twice about jumping on an aeroplane and allowing the pilot to switch on ‘Auto-Pilot’ once we’re underway. Some systems even have landing capability. The systems within the aircraft can handle side-winds, fog and a multitude of hazards that the pilot would have difficulty dealing with alone. But with aircraft, there are tower staff, traffic controllers and highly trained pilots in charge. Driver-less trams in Europe rely on rails and overhead cables for central control. What when Joe Public jumps behind the wheel of an AC, and the system has a glitch? Who will hold the safety net?

The plan is that you would never have to lift a finger to deal with a road situation. But the requirements are many. Traffic, positioning, obstruction, congestion, road signs, jay-walkers – all would be dealt with by a small super computer. Image recognition systems would deal with road signs, radar with traffic proximity, sensors and transponders with position. Global positioning Satellites would map yours, and every other vehicles position, 24 hours a day. This includes non-AC vehicles, surely?

But what if a road sign has been knocked over by a non-AC? What if a child steps out into the road? What if the brake lights on the car in front, the very ones the sensors in your car rely on to maintain a distance, fail? I can’t see how a computer can begin to estimate which way a hesitant driver is going to jump. What about impatient businessmen that override the controls, in order to exceed the programmed speed limit? Can a computer deal with EVERY variable. Constantly?

Another difficulty I see with the system is one of stalemate. Imagine two AC’s that approach a junction at the same time. Which vehicle would have right of way? Who/what would decide? What if the car ‘drivers’ were reading and hadn’t noticed? The cars would need to have a developed sense of protocol, to be able to recognise a precedent, a series of events that suggest a course of action, and make a decision.
I think a whole new way of computer management needs to be developed before any AC system on this scale could begin to work.

Can you see this way of thinking ever becoming more than just a dodgy Knight Rider script?