Silvia Rodriguez

Will Autonomous Cars appear in the market in a near future?

Automatic cars, self-driven cars, robotic cars all of these terms refer to cars which can drive from
one place to another without any human interaction at all. What appeared to be science fiction a
few years ago, has now been seen in roads at testing processes and have been approved by several
states in USA. Will they eventually be approved by every single country in the world and finally
substitute what we know as manual cars nowadays? The main purposes of this evolutionary project
and how they could make the world better are: reaching the potential case of having no traffic
accidents in the roads (saving the lives of many people), reducing car congestion, achieving higher
speed limits, reducing fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions Endless benefits;
nevertheless, there are numerous companies such as Google, Apple, Ford, Mercedez-Benz, Tesla
and others who have been years developing the technology required to make these vehicles safe
enough to be sold to the public.
Firstly, the key element to automated cars is to detect objects around them and always sustain a
certain distance. Additionally, in the case of interaction between automated and manual cars, if a
human error occurs, automated cars would ideally have no reacting-time delays. They work through
a combination of technological advances, mainly sensors. First of all, they have radars to detect
entities by transmitting radio and micro waves which get reflected on the nearby objects. These
reflected waves are what determine where that object is in physical space. Furthermore, automated
cars make use of video cameras to identify traffic lights and road signs as well as watching out for
pedestrians or others. Moreover, LIDAR sensors (Light Detection And Raging) are very important
to detect obstacles on the road by sending pulses of light into the surroundings near the car. Also,
having a very clear orientation system is essential; automated cars have very high-resolution GPS
(Global Positioning System) to know very precisely the location of the car. Finally, there is a
central computer installed which receives the data from these sensors and makes the car act
accordingly.

(1)

Image of what an automated car would see while making a left turn according to Bill Gross on a Tweet

Silvia Rodriguez

However, as we can see, there are very high demands to make these cars work 100% effectively
and so there are numerous specific designs and technical problems yet to overcome before making
them purchasable to any user. The first flaw is the need of more precise maps and to make sure that
these maps are up-to-date all the time. TomTom along with Bosch, are working together to provide
this mappings good enough for the cars to be safe. As claimed by TomTom (2), by the end of the
year 2020 they want to cover all freeways and freeway-like roads in Germany before eventually
expanding to Europe and North America with a precision down to a decimetre. A second
improvement is their ability to drive in difficult weather conditions such as rain, snow or heavy
fog. According to an article in The Telegraph (3), Little testing has been done outside the
temperate Californian climate and hence is not ready to circulate outside similar environments. In
addition, there is yet further progress required in the sensing field; automated cars cannot
distinguish between a dangerous and a harmless condition. On one hand, the car cannot sense an
object the size of a sharp nail- and running over it can be very dangerous. On the other side, the car
can detect objects the size of big leaves or a plastic bag and will believe it to be a potential threat
and apply the brakes suddenly where there is no need. This distinction is natural for human instinct
but has yet not been solved for self-driven cars. Finally, there are other flaws such as not being able
to interpret noise indications such as emergency sirens, cost increasing up to 7000 higher than the
price of a manual car though this would eventually decrease to 2000 by the year 2035 (4) or the
fact that they cannot understand traffic policemens indications.
Apart from all these yet-to-overcome flaws, there is the sufficient technology to make these cars a
potential solution as a means to maximise safety and efficiency in the roads. So what will the next
advances be? As soon as 2016, Mercedes (5) and Mobileye (6) are expected to release hands-free
driving technology for highways". By 2018, Tesla Motors will have developed a version of fully
automatic cars up to a point where the person inside the car can even fall asleep (7). Two years
after that, by 2020, Googles self-driven car project should be ready (8) - they have already started
the testing in Californian streets. One after the other, the most famous car companies will be
releasing their own models of automated cars where, according to expert members of the IEEE
(Electrical and Electronics Engineers), by 2040, 75% of all cars will be autonomous. This means
that we already have these robotic cars driving in particular streets and that we are only one year
away to see some of them on the highways. Possibly, in less than 25 years, most of us will no longer
own a manual car but will form part of the artificial-intelligent cars world.
To conclude, the world suffers from excessively high carbon dioxide emission and fuel
consumption. The mechanics of these cars along with the accuracy and precision while driving will
reduce such immoderations. However, the main purpose of automatic cars is for safety- to decrease
the death rate caused by traffic accidents as close as zero. We suffer millions of deaths globally
every year. Our status quo and the competing solution of these cars are the use of manual cars, who
will eventually decrease more and more as these cars evolution in the same way other advances
have done with technology. Eventually, it is highly likely that the autonomous vehicles will appear
in the market in a near future.

Bibliography

Silvia Rodriguez

(1) Bill Gross. Google's Self-Driving Car gathers almost 1 GB per SECOND. Here's what it "sees" making
a left turn. [Twitter]. 29 April 2013. [Accessed 06 December 2015]. Available from:
https://twitter.com/Bill_Gross/status/329069954911580160/photo/1
(2) Jacob Kastrenakes. TomTom is now making maps for autonomous vehicles [Internet]. 27th August 2015.
Available
from:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/27/9048027/tomtom-bosch-autonomous-vehiclemapping
(3) Josie Ensor. The 7 kinks that need to be worked out before driverless cars go global [Internet]. 1 st
February 2015. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/11381433/The-7-kinks-thatneed-to-be-worked-out-before-driverless-cars-go-global.html
(4) Chuck Tannert. Will you ever be able to afford a self-driving car? [Internet]. 31st January 2014. Available
from: http://www.fastcompany.com/3025722/will-you-ever-be-able-to-afford-a-self-driving-car
(5) "Mercedes-Benz to Introduce Autobahn Pilot Assistant in Two Years". Autoevolution. 11 November
2013. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
(6) "Mobileye Automated Driving". YouTube. Mobileye. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
(7) Wikipedia. Automated Cars. [Online]. 4th December 2015. [Accessed 6th December 2015]. Available
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car#Potential_obstacles
(8) "Google Talking to Auto Makers About Self-Driving Car". Wall Street Journal. 13 May 2014.
Retrieved 20 February 2015.

If this report were published on The Briefing - I would want this article to be attributed to me.