The autonomous car promises to revolutionize the urban mobility system worldwide, and drivers sense it. In fact, although many models are still in the testing phase , only 33% of Spaniards still consider that autonomous cars are not safe, according to Deloitte’s Global Automotive Consumer Study . However; Do you know how they ‘drive’?
The autonomous car is moving fast
With still a lukewarm entry on the scene, there are manufacturers like Tesla that have managed to turn level 2 autonomy into an investment for the future that attracts many followers. However, the progress of Autopilot is overshadowed by unfinished and strict legislation in Europe around the semi-autonomous car.
In this scenario, in which technology advances faster than the legal framework, what will it be like to drive an autonomous car? Will they have full control or will we have to do something on our own? Everything indicates that in the first lines we will have to be attentive to some mechanisms, but it will not be for long.
But let’s go by parts; An autonomous car is one that, with a series of sensors and computer logic, is capable of interpreting the world around it and driving through it as a human being would without its intervention or with its partial assistance.
Sensors will be key
These sensors allow information to be obtained on the location of other vehicles, their position, the distance and the lane in which they are traveling. This, together with GPS information and sufficiently precise maps, indicate to the car at all times its situation and the elements around it. In some cases it also allows adaptation to weather conditions.
However, what is observed is that different technologies are being used for the development of autonomous cars. One of them is navigation through cameras located around the vehicle, such as the one used by Tesla. This autonomous driving system is based on a combination of 8 cameras, 12 supporting ultrasonic sensors and a front radar. Overall, the car is capable of ‘seeing’ the environment and interpreting it as a person would , but with superior reflexes.
As to whether our lives will be in their hands at critical moments, there are manufacturers such as Audi that mention that the autonomous car will not make any decision by itself, since “an autonomous driving car would not make its own decision in a dangerous situation, but that it would only reflect the software options with which its creators endowed it ». It can and will only assume the decisions and ethical values of the people who have designed it, and apply them without their own interpretation”. In other words, it will limit itself to doing what it has already programmed in advance.
What driving levels are there?
As such, it is assumed that these driverless vehicles will also be increasingly ‘connected’, so that they can help improve the flow of traffic , as well as reduce the level of polluting gas emissions into the atmosphere. Not to mention that, of course, full automation or level 5 would open the doors to the free transport of people with mobility problems.
That said, what are the levels of autonomous driving?
- Level 0 . It is the type of driving that has persisted for the last decades and the one that, until relatively recently, was conceived as unique. We are talking about the one in which the human being is responsible for everything that happens during circulation; that is, there is a driver who has absolute control.
- Level 1 . The warning system for involuntary lane changes belongs, as well as the cruise control, among others. These are functions that allow a certain comfort in driving, but that still require the absolute responsibility of the driver, as far as control of the car is concerned.
- Level 2 . Referred to as partial automation , those systems that are capable of replicating various tasks ordered by the driver come into play. These are the adaptive cruise control or the automatic parking system.
- Level 3. Will be able to carry out automated functions while analyzing the environment in order to act or make decisions that the driver does not have time to make.
- Level 4 . With high automation , the autonomous car will be able to make the driver almost entirely expendable, although the structure and components of the passenger compartment will continue to be similar to those of conventional vehicles. The driver will only have to indicate the place to which he wants to move, being able to take control of the car at the time he wants.
- Level 5. Full automation , in which vehicles without a steering wheel or pedals come into play; that is, the role of driver disappears for the first time in all the levels we have seen. It will be at that moment that the function of driving is replaced by any other that can be carried out inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle.
